How can I help new fine art graduates navigate and construct their own career map of a successful career?
Now, my model iterate to this:
After talking to Cai in her bookable tutorial, she suggested I change this word to committed curiosity since appreciate ability is not that correct in English.
I checked the meaning of it and try to redefine this ability with more aspects.
After I did intervention 6, I admitted that there are some problems in my intervention, and I will redesign it and conduct my next intervention. But this intervention is not totally useless. The feedbacks showed art students lack organizational ability. The problem is it’s not powerful enough to persuade them. In addition, I also think the organizational ability is related to the ability to have multiple identities, so I put it under the ability to have multiple identities as a sub-ability.
And I add one more ability which is accountability. I found it from the reflection of myself. This ability contains 1) the ability to think independently 2) self-motivation. I noticed that I like to acquire the permission of my tutor before I make an action. And I also like to believe what the tutor said because I believe they have more experience and knowledge that is much beyond myself. This is a challenge for me. But now I realized it through my reflection. I believe there are some people like me who need to develop accountability as well, so I add it.
At first, I am trying to design a board game that combines and connect all of these abilities, and then invite art student and art practitioners to play it together. Then I can observe the difference between the two groups and let the art student group realize the gap between themselves and the other group. I tried to find some board games, but I didn’t find a suitable one, and it’s hard to design a board game that meets my requirements and expectations. So I think maybe testing each ability one by one is also a good choice. and I would like to start with ‘organization ability’.
I am thinking about in what situation, people could realize that they lack some ability. I think there are two ways. One is comparing with others, and the other is being pointed out by others.
So, for me, I have two ways to design my intervention.
1) inviting mature art practitioners and art students to do/play sth together.
2)using a quiz/test to test art students and point out their shortcomings.
Since I didn’t find a suitable art practitioner now, and I can not make sure the art practitioner has the ability that the art student has not. So I wanna start my next intervention from the second way.
Then I design a quiz which is about organization ability, after they finished, I will show them the right answer and tell them that the more similar to the right answer the more organized people they are. My goal is to test 1) whether fine art students lack organization ability 2) whether I can make them realize it and change their minds about becoming more organized people.
https://www.wjx.cn/wjx/design/previewmobile.aspx?activity=135690783&s=1
The right answer should be 2-5-4-1-3, and the more similar to the right answer the more organised they are.
Reasons:
1) Two cats next to you are engaged in a fierce fight that is hard to stop. It is very dangerous for your artworks when you are painting, and the cat next to you is fighting because they might destroy your paintings. So the first thing is to divide them.
2) Your paint has tipped over. Usually, the paint is right next to you, so simply bending down to pick it up can prevent worse things from happening in a second. It also prevents fighting cats from stepping paint elsewhere.
3）The bathtub is about to overflow. Here I said ‘about‘, which means you still have time to turn it off. So it’s not too late to pick up a cat, pick up a paint can, and run to turn it off.
4) The doorbell is ringing. You can tell the person at the door to wait for two minutes when you deal with the previous things. And you don’t know what the guy at the door wants from you. If he takes a long time, by the time you get back, the cat may have destroyed your work, trampled paint all over the place, and the bathroom is also flooded.
5)The mobile phone is ringing. You can call back later, so the priority is the lowest.
Uncomfortable zone: I didn’t find people I was already familiar with this time, and I sent it to 6 fine art students. I also try to contact some Fine art students in UAL that I don’t know through the WeChat group of the university student Union. There are only six people so far, but at least compared to previous ones, This time I tried to find a target audience I didn’t know.
Their answers of question one:
A: 2-5-4-3-1
B: 1-5-4-2-3
C: 2-5-1-3-4
D: 3-5-4-2-1
E: 3-5-2-1-4
F: 2-5-1-3-4
Their answers to question two:
The more similar it is to ‘5-2-4-1-3’, the more organized you are. If your answer is far from this one, you need to work on your organizational skills! Do you think you are an organized person? What do you think of this statement?
A: I don’t think I am an organized person, but I will try my best to keep things under control.
B: I don’t think the order can explain the ability of organization.
C: I am more organized. Everyone’s understanding of organization is different. I sorted things according to their urgency. Everyone has different views on these things.
D: Maybe
E:/
F: It depends on the situation. Sometimes when doing travel strategy, I will be more organized, but in daily life, it seems that it is not good.
Analyze and reflection:
Conclusion: after I talk to this expert and did some research, I decided to combine her opinions and my original opinions to iterate my career model. Both of our opinions are right in their own way. But it also shows that each of us has our own positionality. So I think combining these two is a better way since this model is neither perfect nor the end, but a reference for my audiences, like giving the light in the dark, and an inspiration for them to think about their own personalized models.
Apart from that, she mentioned the ability to appreciate others, and be interested in others work and be kind. I think that is a great point, especially for art students, most of them are too confident and need to be humble. So I’ll iterate my career model by adding it.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-KD7QLYD29/
I sent this email to ten UAL Fine Art staff and I received three replies. Although the quantity is not very large, I think the quality is good. Because two of the responses are the Fine Art course leaders. And I also had a deeper conversation with Patricia.
The result of the average rating is:
Organized ability: 5 stars
Communication ability: 5 stars
Cooperative ability: 4.3 stars
Business ability: 3 stars
After I got the questionnaire results and did research about those three artists, I am thinking about my definition of business ability.
Before art students graduate, they can freely pursue their own painting styles and favourite theme in universities studio. But when they need to face the problem of supporting themselves after graduation, maybe their personality style can’t make money quickly. So I think they need to have the ability to produce profitable commercial work which they may not like. But at the same time, art graduates can continue to pursue what they are really interested in.
It might work for some art graduates. But they need to be careful to balance the critical practice and commercial practices.
Like what Patricia said, 1. Artists should always focus on making their work in a way that is most interesting for them. If you’re trying to appeal to the market for the sake of making money your practice likely won’t get very far (and you’ll lose interest). 2. The market is hard to predict and trying to please someone else is no way to live.
I don’t mean to throw out my original definition, I think it’s worth being. At least it could give some art graduates new thought when they face problematic employment. But Patricia’s opinion also makes sense. I will combine it together and evaluate my model.
In addition, I also noticed her positionality.
Those who can pursue their art regardless of financial considerations, and those who are extremely talented enough to wear several hats and combine their artistic pursuits with other work, are a minority.
But her opinion also makes sense. When the path of art is narrow, art graduates need to be able to deal with multiple identities. And, how to balance those different identities really depends on different individuals.
UCLA Library (2021). “Positionality & Research: How our Identities Shape Inquiry.” [online] www.youtube.com. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTHFud7fr8c [Accessed 19 Oct. 2021].
meganleanne44 (2015). Positionality Statements. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpcIVzGYhVs [Accessed 19 Oct. 2021].
I am surprised that Patricia replied to my email again and recommended me three artists:
‘Dan Kelly is an artist who is also a hairdresser. He runs DKUK hair salon and art gallery in Peckham. ‘ https://dkuk.biz/
‘Katrine Bohm started a beverage company called Company Drinks — which is also an artwork.’Patricia said.
‘Tom Ellis is a painter. When he was starting out he used to support himself by making furniture. And then he started to show his furniture with his paintings. His furniture is now considered as sculpture and is an important part of his practice.’Patricia said.
Tom’s combination of painting and furniture activates a striking duality. ‘The fact that they are object types of such a different order allows me to move freely between ostensibly art and non-art activities,’ he says. ‘The furniture serves in part to “depressurise” the painting practice by creating a more culturally blurred setting for its display – a painting above a sofa is a very different proposition to a painting isolated on a pristine gallery wall.’ Tom says he feels that The Wallace Collection brings art closer to the ‘unruly multiplicity of real life, and here we have life in all of its wild and wonderful facets. (Nast, 2016)
In order to improve my career model, I contacted the Fine art teachers of UAL. The following are the two teachers who have replied so far. One is the course leader of Chelsea Fine Arts, and the other is the course leader of CSM Fine Arts.
The survey link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-KD7QLYD29/
1) I’ve rated Business ability as 1 — because the definition is a bit confusing: Artists should always focus on making their work in a way that is most interesting for them. If you’re trying to appeal to the market for the sake of making money your practice likely won’t get very far (and you’ll lose interest). This is because it shows more about your understanding of the market (which might not be an expert) than your commitment to your practice. And trying to please someone else is no way to live — in art or for anything else… And also if the market was possible to predict we would all be very rich! There isn’t one market — there are many and they are in constant motion. Instead, it’s about making connections and finding like-minded people who connect with your ideas and work. Collectors + institutions invest in work that is critically important — so it should be every artist’s priority, to make work that is genuinely critically interesting. It’s important to be aware of current trends in art — but also culture at large and how your work contributes to progressing these. Artists do however need ‘business sense’ — but not really in relation to the market. By the time your career gets to the stage where you are making reasonable money, you will likely have gained enough personal experience to effectively deal with your situation, and have assistance from people who are more expert. When you’re starting out, you will likely be earning small amounts of money periodically — and will likely make some small money mistakes! But these usually don’t have serious consequences, and you learn from your mistakes so you are able to confidently deal with larger money situations when they eventually happen. It is far more important to be good with money — ie. know how to make savings, when to invest in your practice for important opportunities, and how to manage the budgets for the projects you are working on. 2) YES!!! Communication is super-important! 3) Cooperative ability, I didn’t understand the definition so rated it as 3 for the part I agreed with: YES — to cooperating with institutions etc. (5) NO — “The ability to create works that fit the theme of exhibitions even if you’re not interested.” (0) You should only ever do things that you find interesting. And work with like-minded people who you find interesting. This is where Cooperation is extremely important: you need to make connections with people who have similar interests and ambitions and help each other to accomplish your goals. Cooperation is super important so should be 5+ — but perhaps consider the definition? 4) Organisation — I’ve rated this 5, but perhaps should be more than 5! Being organised is extremely important. But not just in doing one thing — most artists have many different projects or activities running simultaneously. So you need to be organised to balance and accomplish many things at the same time! It is extremely important to finish projects as this is what develops your portfolio, and to always meet your commitments to prove you are reliable — your reputation is your “track record”. Attention to detail is also extremely important. Also, there are a few other things that are perhaps as or even more important than the categories listed: Self-Confidence Commitment Self-Motivation Self-Reliance Agility— Life as an artist can be very unpredictable — you need to be very flexible and agile to manage your continuous practice — to recognise opportunities when they happen and make opportunities for yourself if they don’t. Being Helpful + Friendly — Help other people as much as possible and people, in turn, will help you. Also if you are a nice and kind person, people will enjoy working with you! This sounds really basic, but a lot of artists don’t think about this. And most important: BE INTERESTED IN OTHER PEOPLE!!! Take a genuine interest in what other people are doing, and they will likely take interest in you. You have to be interested to be interesting!
Then she replied to me again and share her opinions and experiences. She also recommends me some artists to me.
Another expert’s reply
I would like to say that this is not quite positive feedback. But I realized that it could be a misunderstanding since I didn’t mention clearly each ability’s definition. It is also because this is a very early stage of the model. Again, reflect it to my model, I need to improve my communication ability, especially when I reach out to experts and predecessors. In addition, I also realized that I need to point out the differences between my model and the existing model. Both my model and the existing model should not be the only ones, it all needs to be iterated.
Conclusion: I decided to add the organisation ability to my career model. So far I got: business ability, communication ability, cooperative ability and organization ability.
Now I am thinking logical ability can be added to my career model.
Some people think that when you draw a beautiful painting, it is your natural talent, but there is some logical ability and organization ability behind it.
I got this idea from my own experience. When I was an undergraduate in China, I often watch my teacher painting. (I can say that they are mature and well-rounded practitioners of the arts because they not only teach in universities but also work in the commercial field and so on.) And I found that they have strong logic and organization ability.
The way they painted, the order in which they painted, the arrangement of the objects on the table as they painted, they were all organized. You can also see in the painting that they know exactly what to do next to control the picture.
On the contrary, comparing students, sometimes draw an excellent picture, there is a bit of luck. Without a certain degree of organization and logic, I will suddenly lose control of the picture.
Based on this point, I wanna test whether art students lack logical ability and organization ability.
I find a psychological test about logical ability and sent it to 5 art students: https://www.123test.com/logical-reasoning-test/
There were 10 questions, and two of them got 8 correctly, while the rest got 7, 6 and 9 correctly. From this small test I can see, their correct rate is quite high. It also made me think that maybe logical ability is not the missing link.
Then I found another psychological test which is about organization ability;
Question: What is the first thing you see in the picture?
Answer 1: Tree
Meaning: You are full of energy and love new things, and you can’t accept being stuck in a rut.
Answer 2: Human face
Meaning: You are very organized and methodical, and it is reassuring to have things planned in advance.
I sent it to those 5 students as well. 4 of them said they noticed Tree at first sight, while only one found a human face. Indeed, the friend who found the face likes to have a plan before she does it.
How to explore other abilities?
From last tutorial, Jasminka gave me a good suggestion. My project now is related to two group, newly graduates group and mature artists group. And I need to match them.
So my plan is :
After unit 2, I realized that actually, I am trying to find a rope that is a career model for newly graduates and myself.
I have summarized some of the abilities that new graduates need to have from Intervention in Unit 2.
1. Business ability
Meaning: The ability to pick the direction of market trends
Artworks: The ability to produce commercial work, not just be obsessed with own personal style.
2. communication ability
Meaning: The ability to communicate with customers and audience.
Artworks: The ability to consider the audience when creating artworks, rather than just being a loneliness teller.
3. cooperative ability
Meaning: The ability to cooperate with enterprises and institutions.
Artworks: The ability to create works that fit the theme of exhibitions.