Starving artists no more | Current Edition

Not even talent can guarantee success in creative fields, Thornburg said, noting that the primary reason artists fail is a lack of business acumen.

“They’re just not educated to meet market demand,” he said. “Too many people are failing, and their failures aren’t related to their skills or their craft.”

Instead, they just don’t have the tools to navigate today’s markets, Thornburg said. That’s where his new online academy is designed to intervene.

Rachel Clifton, assistant director of the Wyoming Arts Council, said the project resonated with the council’s members on its way to acceptance. For this particular funding, she said the council sought out bigger projects that would address a community need.

Thornburg’s vision of professional development for artists and creative pros scratched that itch.

“It was definitely not a ‘sit in your studio and make art’ kind of project,” Clifton said. “It’s a good option we’re interested in pushing people toward.”

Clifton added that because of the funding this year – which was at “unheard of” levels due to higher federal funding pouring in – the Arts Council was able to set Thornburg up in a way that allowed him to offer his first class free of charge, something Clifton said was important to Thornburg to keep it affordable for struggling creators.

In a 2017 survey of international artists, the myth of the starving artist was heavily reinforced through findings that 75.2% of artists make less than $10,000 per year. Even worse, close to half (48.7%) made $5,000 or less from their art, and 5.1% make nothing at all.

While it’s unlikely that most of these are full-time artists – the group was a self-selected sample of “working artists” from the U.S. and U.K. – the data remains stark. According to MIT, a living wage in the U.S. was just over $100,000 in 2021 for a family of four. And that was before inflation kicked in on overdrive in 2022.

A lot of this, according to the transcript from one of the lessons of Thornburg’s first course offering, is perpetuated by an arts education system that teaches artists to remain elevated above capitalism.

“Many arts graduates emerge after graduation railing against capitalism and its perceived evils, reluctant to engage with the market in ways that would allow them to pursue a long-term career in the arts,” he said.

The implications of this mentality result in reluctance and fear to engage in the market to avoid commercializing their heartfelt art at all costs. This is “capitalist anxiety” that Thornburg said society artists need to put in the rearview mirror.

“Not just because it puts creative people at an extreme disadvantage and in danger of exploitation, but because it’s wrong,” he said. “It’s misplaced.”

Artists, in other words, often feel guilty charging what they’re worth. Or anything at all, in many cases. Hence the 5% of artists that make $0 a year on their art.

On the other end of the spectrum are artists and creators who don’t feel right about being paid to do something they’re passionate about doing and will be doing whether someone pays them for it or not.

“Here’s the thing,” he said. “The work you do as a creative professional is work. It is labor. You deserve to be rewarded for that labor, and the best way to get rewarded in a way that truly reflects the value you bring to your community and society at large is through the marketplace.”

The Creative Professional Academy is designed to dispel the disparaging thoughts about money many artists feel, as well as educate them on the points of business that will help them build an audience and help them create a career, rather than just feeding into a passion.

The first course, titled “Creative Career Development and the Business of Creativity,” was released on the platform for free as a starter. So far, it shows that 44 people have signed up for the course, which boasts five hours of instruction across 64 mini lectures that top out at 18 minutes with some as short as two minutes. The introductory course provides an overview of the creative industry before diving into creative, critical and strategical thinking.

After that foundation, it jumps into communication and marketing with marketing channels and strategy considerations. Then it finishes with the business of creativity, addressing scalability, risk, incentivization, business models, accounting and taxes, and more.

Thornburg designed the Creative Professional Academy to preach to his own personal choir. After graduating college with a solid portfolio, he felt clueless about building a career.

“It was like I had learned nothing,” he said. “I felt lost. I felt overwhelmed.”

As many who are lost do, Thornburg wandered. People mocked him, looked down on his efforts and even took advantage of him. And after years of struggle, he could still barely make rent. Since birds of a feather flock together, he was hearing similar frustrations from others in the creative field struggling to make ends meet. One such story motivated him to action, and he dove into the business side of the arts.

He enrolled in night classes to learn entrepreneurship and business skills. He read books. Listened to lectures. Worked with startups and small businesses to get his “hands dirty working in the trenches.” He has done work for Tesla, DreamWorks, Warner Bros and others through 15 years of hard-fought experience.

All the education – completely different from his formal education – began to pay off quickly. In 2017, shortly after he began to self-represent, his art sold out from a group exhibition. In 2018, he won the Spirit of Wyoming art competition in Jackson.

His first solo show broke attendance and sales records. His work is now part of the respected Nicolaysen Art Museum’s permanent collection. On and on, the results have flooded in.

“I’ll be honest, it wasn’t because I’m an amazing artist,” he said. “So … why am I selling out shows, gaining recognition, winning awards, and getting support from regional and national organizations? It’s because I have business acumen.”

The strategic thinking, decisive action and systems behind his goals have pushed his art to be successful, and he now wants to share that journey as much as possible through the Creative Professional Academy.

“I’m just trying to help get them to a position where they can make a living doing what they’re meant to – what they’re skilled at,” Thornburg said.

So far, he said, the response has been positive, with a lot of people engaging with the project showing a lot of excitement.

Beyond that, he said that the venture has begun to attract relationships that could build it up much faster.

“One thing we’re doing is looking to partner with local and regional arts organizations and forming relationships with universities and colleges and their students and art programs,” Thornburg said.

While he can’t speak of many of the upcoming steps, he said he is excited about the possibilities and the foundation that he’s been able to lay.

For now, he said he’s operating on a flexible timeline that will release a variety of new courses in the coming year. Upcoming course topics include utilizing social media as a creative, storytelling for creative professionals, email marketing basics and building a high-impact creative career.

“The object is to provide low or no-cost training to people interested in creative training,” Thornburg said.

From Clifton’s perspective at the Wyoming Arts Council, Thornburg’s online academy is opening up a new path for artists and creators disinterested in the grad school path and other traditional methods of career development.

“How do you gain that knowledge outside a formal classroom setting?” Clifton said. “Nick figured out what worked best for him and is passing that on.”