DeVonna PrinziConnie May Fowler, UT alumna and internationally acclaimed author, has four easy steps for artists to help them survive in the business world: “marry well, divorce well, win the lottery, rob a bank.”
Yet for aspiring artists hoping for advice a bit more practical, the University of Tampa hosted the Southern Regional Conference on Self-Employment in the Arts (SEA) last Saturday, April 21.
“The conference was a huge success; nearly 200 people attended, which greatly exceeded our expectations,” noted Dr. Chastain-Elliott, Associate Professor of Art History at UT.
Running all day from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., the conference offered a motley of educational workshops from literary arts to performing arts to visual arts.
Speakers included local journalists Sara Kennedy and David Warner; UT Professors Jeff Whipple and Susan Taylor Lennon; and business leaders such as Malcolm Teasdale and Pat Fenda.
Though subjects ranged from freelancing to agents, business acumen to legal issues, everyone came together at lunch time for the keynote address from Connie May Fowler.
UT Professor Dr. Rebecca Ingalls, who chaired the literary arts track and was responsible for bringing Fowler to the conference, described her presence as “so important in terms of establishing an ethos for this conference.”
Fowler immediately established this ethos to the inspiration of those who attended: “the most common sense thing we can do as artists is to become savvy business people.”
Though her “GRE scores were so low in math that the doctor told me I qualified for a handicap sticker.” Fowler’s early professional career taught her that “I had to take control of the business side of my creative life.”
Otherwise, she would face prison time for money owed to the IRS, where she would admittedly “get a lot of writing done.”
In a society where the arts aren’t given their due respect, Fowler said that it is necessary to develop a three-pronged approach: educate, legislate and “googleate.”
“We have to be ambassadors for the arts,” said Fowler, urging education that teaches that “art and reading changes and saves lives,” in addition to support for any intellectually friendly legislature that appears.
She also endorsed using myspace, youtube, websites and blogs to take advantage of the digital revolution.
The bottom line for Fowler is that artists should confidently assert that “we are in control.”
Alluding to the famous Renaissance patron family, she warned that “Medicis, even modern day ones, don’t give their money without strings attached.”
While no one should expect to survive on art alone, becoming savvy business people will help ensure that creative talent isn’t sacrificed to the whims of sponsorship and patronship.
Fowler’s ethos aims to achieve business acumen so that all artists can “be unafraid to shout: we are here, we are fabulous, we are necessary; our art is necessary.”
Fowler’s message got through.
Dr. Ingalls heard positive comments about the conference all day and “lots of talk of feeling inspired.”
Susan Steiner, the co-chair of the conference, relates that “participants described the conference as ‘inspiring, ‘eye-opening’ and ‘life changing.'”
Ultimately, Dr. Ingalls correctly summarizes the conference as a meeting ground for “a diverse group of people, not just writers but artists as well, looking for ways to straddle the various arts.”
Co-chair Pat Fenda hopes to expand the information next year with more performing artists and the large group assembled from the visual arts community.
As for this year, all parties involved were thrilled with the turnout and excited for the possibilities of spreading the word.
As Pat Fenda commented, “it is a special day in Tampa when you can gather so many artists together to network and expand their horizons.”