This is for you, the artist (to be), who wants to strengthen your entrepreneurial side. It’s also for the art teachers out there who want to help prepare their students for the world outside school.

We believe that many of the key skills and attitudes needed as an entrepreneur are the same ones you already possess as an artist, like creativity, drive and commitment. We also believe that ‘networking’ and ‘promotion’ don’t have to be dirty words, but can become a natural part of the artistic process. Likewise, ‘money’ and ‘security’ are nothing to sneer at, but form the foundation to your practice.

With this material, consisting of a field guide and a deck of cards, we aim to lay out for you the key skills, attitudes and knowledge that you will need as an a self-employed artist, AKA a ‘creative entrepreneur’. We realise that being a creative entrepreneur means using your creativity and talent to find your own way, so what you won’t find here are supposed solutions or an well-worn path to follow. Rather, this material is meant to inspire and empower you to use your creative talents to channel your inner entrepreneur.

There are several ways to interact with this material, including doing so on this website or by downloading and printing all the material. You can sit down and read the field guide from start to finish (online or in print), or you can start off by playing with the cards. We recommend you jump to the instruction page to find out exactly what your options are.

Good luck on your journey!

The Guide

Here you can get familiar with the the Creativity as a Career online by browsing through the eight chapters. To play the games go to downloads and print the cards.

Prologue

YOU

Character
Character
Attitude
Attitude
Commitment
Commitment
Reach Out
Reach Out

THE WORLD

Stakeholders
Stakeholders
Promotion
Promotion
Money
Security
Security

Afterword

ABOUT

El-Art (Entrepreneurial Learning for Artists) is set up to help integrate entrepreneurship in European art schools through the development and distribution of teaching material and training programs for teachers and students. The aim of the programme is to help art schools give their students the entrepreneurial skills necessary to thrive before they enter the working arena. The material Creativity as a Career produced by El-Art is also suitable for starting creatives who are looking to strengthen their entrepreneurial skills. 

CONTACT

If you are inspired by this material don’t hesitate to get in touch. We can provide you with workshops for students or training of trainers based on the Creativity as a Career material we created. We are also open to other forms of collaborations to support entrepreneurial learning for artists.

Drop us a line with any constructive feedback, questions or suggestions:

You can also contact Rebecca Simons directly at
info@rebeccasimons.com or +31629215669

CREDITS

Initiator and Project Manager

Rebecca Simons

Project Coordinators

Yrkesakademin i Österbotten: Linda Wester & Susanna Vestling

Project Economist

Yrkesakademin i Österbotten: Lis-Helen Ekman

Advising Partner & Project Trainers

Minerva Academie voor Popcultuur (The Netherlands): Roger Muskee & Rutger Middendorp  

Project Participants

Escuela de Arte de Sevilla (Spain): Ainhoa Martín Emparan, Isabel Gutiérrez, Juan Jose Garcia-Navas , Mariano Velamazán Martínez;

Malmö latinskola (Sweden): Emma Denward, Lena Ansner, Malin Brandqvist;

Noorderpoort school voor de kunsten KTM (The Netherlands): Albert Westerhoff, Colien Langerwerf, Marieke De Vries-Voorzee;

St Gabriel (Spain); Alberto B. Alonso, Eva L. Roncero;

Yrkesakademin i Österbotten (Finland): Bo Forsander, Kaj Ahlsved, Maria Westerlund.

Author

Rutger Middendorp

Text Editor

Katherine Oktober Matthews

Illustrations

Colien Langerwerf

Content Contribution and Interviews

Ainhoa Martín Emparan, Albert Westerhoff, Bo Forsander, Colien Langerwerf, Emma Denward, Isabel Gutiérrez, Kaj Ahlsved, Katherine Oktober Matthews, Lena Ansner, Malin Brandqvist, Maria Westerlund, Mariano Velamazán Martínez, Marieke De Vries-Voorzee, Rebecca Simons, Roger Muskee.  

Expert Input and Interviewees

Adriana Santos (Spain); Albert Sunyer (Spain); Anna-Maria Helsing (Finland); Anya Janssen (The Netherlands); Caroline Leander (Sweden); CT Heida (The Netherlands); Donald Weber (Canada); Francisco Alcantara (Spain); Harma Heikens (The Netherlands); Highway Design (Finland); Iris Sikking  (The Netherlands); Javier Medina (Spain); Jesús Prudencio (Spain); Jonas Liveröd (Sweden); Jose Chamorro (Spain); Karin Noeken (The Netherlands); Kathrine Windfeld (Denmark); Lars Embäck (Sweden); Leyp (The Netherlands); Maggi Olin (Sweden); Mara León (Spain); Marlies Dekkers (The Netherlands); Martin Brandqvist  (Sweden);Maud van der Leeuw (The Netherlands); Melissa Henderson (Sweden); Memento Photography (Finland); Mercedes Eirín (Spain); Milla Edén (Finland), Nighon (Finland); Reinout Douma (The Netherlands); Roland Jonker (The Netherlands); Sebastian Fagerlund (Finland); Pelle Öhlund (Sweden); Peter Johansson (Sweden); Pilar Albarracin (Spain); Salvatore Vitale (Switzerland); Sema D’Acosta (Spain); Tobias Granbacka (Finland); UPTA (Spain); Victor Sågfors (Finland); Yukiko Kitahara (Japan/ Spain).

Visual Identity and Design

Nick Kailola

Online Development

Mariano Velamazán Martínez

Translations Spanish

Saint Gabriel International Center

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute endorsement of the contents which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

All El-Art 2.0 productions are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. CC BY-NC-SA