Where can you find a list of plein air art competitions? When it is smart to work toward a formal art education? Eric Rhoads answers in this week’s Art Marketing Minute Podcast.

In the Art Marketing Minute Podcast, you’ll learn how to sell your art, how to market your paintings, and everything else you need to know in order to have a successful art career. Each episode answers questions from artists by host Eric Rhoads, author of “Make More Money Selling Your Art,” publisher of several art magazines and newsletters, and author of ArtMarketing.com. 

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 89 >

Submit Your Art Marketing Question:

What questions do you have about selling your art? Email Eric today at [email protected] (include your name and where you’re from) to hear your question answered on an upcoming Art Marketing Minute Podcast.

FULL TRANSCRIPT of the Art Marketing Minute:
DISCLAIMER: The following is the output of a transcription from an audio recording of the Art Marketing Minute. Although the transcription is mostly correct, in some cases it is slightly inaccurate due to the recording and/or software transcription.

Announcer:
This is the Art Marketing Minute with Eric Rhoads, author of the Amazon best selling book, “Make More Money Selling Your Art.” In the marketing minute we answer your questions to help your art career brought to you by artmarketing.com, the place to go to learn more about marketing. Now, here’s your host, arts magazine publisher, Eric Rhoads.

Eric Rhoads:

In the marketing minute I try to answer your marketing questions which you can always email me [email protected]. I’m always looking for questions. Here’s one from Susan S, doesn’t say where Susan is from. She says is there a place to find all the three types of plein air competitions invitationals juried open, etc. While we do an annual issue in plein air magazine, if you’re subscribing to plein air magazine, you’re going to get this. There’s an annual issue which talks about all the shows all the events, it doesn’t so much talk about art competitions that you can enter, but all the other things that you can enter. And so that’s a good thing. The other part of her question is how does entering a competition help in marketing yourself or your art? Well, it helps in a couple of ways. First off, if you’re in a competition, like a plein air event competition, then you’re winning awards, you’re getting attention, they’re promoting the names of the artist, it’s helping your career, people are going to see you, they’re going to see how you work, how you respond, and they’re going to get to know you a little bit. If you’re talking about the kind of competitions like online competitions, like the plein air salon competition, it helps you because it gives you something to talk about something for your resume that you want in a category or you won the overall competition. This is the kind of thing that helps in your branding. Remember, branding is a lifetime commitment. You’re always looking for shows, you can talk about events, you can talk about things that you’ve done, where you’ve been successful, and that’s where these competitions will help you. And then you can of course milk it by putting it out there and talking about it to your collectors, your newsletter, and all those other things.

Here’s another question. She says how important is a degree or a formal art education in the art industry today? Well, I probably will make some people mad by saying this if you want to teach. If you want to teach in certain institutions, college, maybe even High School, a masters of fine art is very important. And a lot of colleges require a masters of fine art. But you got to get it from the right school. I had a neighbor who has an MS MFA, but she can’t draw to save her life because they didn’t have any drawing programs that she ended up doing collage. So she ended up having to study with someone after college to learn how to draw, learn how to paint. So it depends on the college, but if you want to teach you got to have an MFA, probably at least especially in college level, if it’s about you know, do you need a degree to sell art or for collectors to take you seriously? I don’t think so. I mean, it’s nice, it’s gonna make you In theory, if you get a good degree, you get a good education, it’s going to make you a better artist that’s going to help you. But from a marketing standpoint, I don’t think it’s going to make a huge amount of difference. What they care about is the quality of your art. I hope this is helpful.

Well, this has been the art marketing minute with me. Eric Rhoads. My goal in life is to eliminate the idea of the starving artist to help your dreams actually come true. So if you want to submit questions, simply email [email protected]. And to learn more about marketing ideas, you can visit Artmarketing.com. Thanks for listening.

How to Submit Your Art Marketing Questions: What questions do you have about selling your art? Email Eric today at [email protected] (include your name and where you’re from) to hear your question answered on an upcoming Art Marketing Minute Podcast.