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When the pandemic closed the Chazen Museum of Art in 2020, curator Amy Gilman began repeating a message to her team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“From that moment on, I’ve been saying, ‘If we come back exactly the way the shutdown is, I should be fired,'” Gilman said midway through his keynote address at the 2023 Danish Art Buying Local conference. She looked out to a room filled with local artists, musicians, entrepreneurs and arts administrators.
“If any of you have been through a life-changing accident or health crisis, you know that everyone is talking about getting you back to normal,” says Gilman. “But getting back to normal isn’t a problem. Once you go through this, you’re forever changed. In fact, we should be forever changed.”
Dane Arts Buy Local (DABL), organized annually by Dane Arts, was a three-day event last week at the Arts + Literature Laboratory aimed at connecting, supporting and inspiring people in Madison’s most creative departments.
DABL started in 2015 as a marketplace for artists to set up booths in downtown office buildings and sell to high-priced buyers. But customers browse more than they buy, and over the years, Dane Arts Director Mark Fraire and his team have shifted the focus of their activities toward supporting artists more directly through hands-on classes and business contacts.
The underlying theme of DABL 2023 that Gilman touches on is that both artists and institutions find themselves in a time of transformation and growth.
“We’re very lucky right now,” Madison muralist Odifax said during a session titled “How to Be Your Biggest Ally in Your Business.”
“We have this thing, ‘Support Local’.” That’s been fantastic for us. That’s beautiful. People are starting to think it’s cool to buy local. I like the variety. “
Specific Advice for Artists
Despite being at the bottom of the U.S. For state funding for the arts—just $0.14 per capita, now tied to the state of Georgia—Wisconsin’s broadly defined “arts and culture sector” contributed $9.6 billion to the economy in 2020, or 2.8 percent of the state’s GDP. A American Arts Council 2017 Report Focusing on Dane County alone points to $250 million in nonprofit arts events and spending related to nonprofit arts events.
“Tell the next person who says your job is a hobby (or) ‘not worth it.’ We’re economic enablers,” said Dane Arts Director Mark Fraire. this language. We’re talking business. “
Fraire worked with UW to schedule a spring DABL event when graduate students in the Bolz Center for the Arts Administration could attend. Courses include “Course Development for Teaching Artists,” “Effective Studio Lessons,” and “How to Use Social Media to Boost Your Brand and Build Community.”
Jamie Perez, a former broadcast journalist who now runs a camera and storytelling company called Beyond Words, challenges his audience to find their “why.” Why do they create the art they do? Why should the audience care?
“There are many ways to incorporate your ‘why’ into your story,” Perez said at her session. “Even if you’re just posting a photo of your finished product, share the story in the caption and put more meaning behind it—rather than just saying, ‘How much is this photo selling for on my site,’ or ‘Please Support.’ Everyone says that. Why should they go with you? You have to make people care.”
Audifax dives into the details, describing her contract, her website, the kind of grant she no longer bothers applying for and why artists should “outsource what you’re not good at.”
“We all thought we were good at everything,” she said. “No. I know my weaknesses. I pay other artists and other people to do work that I can’t do.
“Look at other people’s websites, Instagram pages, Facebook pages and you’ll see their photos look professional. They probably are! They’re hiring a photographer. You can do that too. Go support some other artist.”
Bookkeeping and Copyright Law
DABL 2023 attendees got a crash course on how to navigate the bureaucracy of a public art project (courtesy of the team at Actual Size Artworks, who do a lot). They could learn some simple bookkeeping, improve their studio ergonomics, or ask a lawyer how to parse AI-created art and copyright.
As an example of how AI-generated content and copyright work, Jeffrey Glazer of the University of Washington Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic uses the following example: A graphic novel with words written by humans and images created by artificial intelligence(Midjourney, like the DALL·E 2, is an image generator where users can enter keywords and the AI will create a “new” image.)
“Our copyrights only protect material created by humans,” Glazer said. “Everything the AI creates is sculpted. … I can use these panels for anything I want.
“Right now, I can’t use it for a graphic novel that’s laid out in a similar way to hers, using text that tells her story. But I want to take one of the panels, make a poster and sell it. I can do it. It doesn’t belong to anyone.”
DABL’s focus is on that kind of practical advice and real stories, and Gilman focused on that in her midday keynote. She outlines the creation of a Chazen project called “re:mancipation,” a two-year process that involves installing (Currently running until June 25), a website, a podcast by Gianofer Fields (another DABL presenter), and soon a documentary and a book.
“‘Re:mancipation’ is an important project, but it only matters if it affects us moving forward,” Gilman said. “This is what I say to all of you practitioners. What are you going to allow to actually affect you? Knowing what you want to affect, how can you move forward without fear?”
As for Dane Arts, Fraire is already looking to the future. He invites artists to sign up for “608 Days” at Madison Mallards on June 8, and to participate in the upcoming art market at the Verona Falli Center on September 9-10, with outdoor art installations there. combined.
“Bringing artists together and honoring all of you is critical,” Freire said. “Without us, there would be no Madison. We are so strong as the economic driver of this community.”
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