The PR For Artist Seminar Series

We started giving PR for Artist seminars about fifteen years ago. Back then the term “artist” was a much bigger umbrella, including painters, sculptors, writers, filmmakers, musicians and others. The first thing I noticed was that filmmakers and musicians were much more apt to understand that PR and marketing were not a luxury or an afterthought, but a necessity. They were generally ready to dive into the nuts-and-bolts of how to launch a campaign. The fine artists generally came from a different perspective. They were often focused on the whys instead of the hows of marketing.

Fine artists wanted to know not only why an artist would launch a marketing campaign, but more specifically why they should launch one for themselves. Their initial issues were more complex. To many, marketing felt like anathema. Something to be avoided. A final, desperate measure.

And understandably so, for some reason our culture delights in the myth of artists who basically live the lives of monks, separated from the debased, practical world, locked in their ivory towers. They do their work and then sit in those towers growing older as they wait for a white knight to swoop down and take care of the practical part of the business of art That myth is not only dangerous, it’s absurd.

At our PR for Artists seminars, I can see first-hand the havoc this “myth of the artist” scenario has caused.

These were the issues and concerns that convinced us to develop seminars specifically tailored for fine artists. Art can be both mystical and practical. Artists are not dealing with an either/or situation, they’re dealing with an and. Each artist has a unique creative process and that process needs to be protected and perfected. Time then needs to be set aside to create a successful business process. Not that artists need to do it all, but they do need to address the business of art. They can then look at bringing in others to do the tasks they are not comfortable doing.

Artists have always had to market their works. Michelangelo was great a selling Popes and Picasso was no slouch on the marketing front. This is a truism for all art forms, from Shakespeare and Dickens to Liszt and Warhol, artists have attended to the marketing aspects of their work. As mentioned earlier marketing one’s art is not a luxury, but a necessity.

As a working artist, the starting point is to give yourself permission to market and promote your work. That is step one and in many ways the most difficult and most important step. There is no moving forward without that first step. Once that bridge has been crossed, you can move from why to the worlds of what and how.

Few artists know how to implement a successful PR or marketing campaign. There is no shame there, artists might know how to make compelling works, but seldom have they been taught the secrets to successfully marketing their art

Creating art is one thing, but building bridges between your art and the media, the public and collectors, is something else entirely. How do you build that bridge? The answer is an effective campaign melding media relations, social media and marketing.

Having worked as journalist, magazine editor, producer and now public relations consultant, there are a number of basic questions I’m regularly asked by artists. It was those questions that convinced us to develop our PR for Artists seminars.

They are designed to answer the basic nuts-and-bolts questions and to offer a blueprint for an effective marketing campaign. Since developing them, we’ve offered the seminars on both coasts.

PR for Artists was designed to offer artists and those involved in the art world the insider secrets to creating and establishing a successful media campaign. The seminars take artists through a step-by-step process focusing on how to utilize proven PR tools that can lead to both artistic fulfillment and financial success.

PR for Artists seminars cover a wide range of topics, including:

Why PR and marketing are essential.
Discovering the Art of Marketing & PR
Developing media-savvy dynamic pitches that work.
How to contact and pitch the media.
Working with a PR firm verses launching your own campaign.
Avoiding the “I can’t promote my own art” career trap.
The secrets of an effective press release.
Why Effective PR is Effective Storytelling
Media training tips that work.
How to effectively utilize your media coverage.
Implementing an effective social media campaign.
Melding your media relations campaign with your social media campaign.
Guerrilla and Alternative Marketing

If you are a working artist, you know that marketing and PR are essential to successfully getting your art into the marketplace, establishing you as an artist and launching and sustaining your career as an artist.

PR for Artists seminars are designed to give you a practical blueprint to take you, your art, your brand and your career to the next level.

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