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ELIA nxtconf, making a living from the arts
- 1. get real stephen rockman nxt conference, making a living from the arts amsterdam 15.09.17
- 2. © stephen rockman, 09/17
- 3. © stephen rockman, 09/17
- 4. © stephen rockman, 09/17 is there a problem?
- 5. © stephen rockman, 09/17 education ambition
- 6. © stephen rockman, 09/17 challenges
- 9. © stephen rockman, 09/17 opportunities
- 10. © stephen rockman, 09/17 ‘design led innovation is a culture. not a toolkit.’
- 11. © stephen rockman, 09/17 stuff they don’t teach you
- 12. © stephen rockman, 09/17 collaboration what things cost awesomeness
- 13. © stephen rockman, 09/17 try again, fail again, fail better. samuel beckett
- 14. © stephen rockman, 09/17 what is real?
- 15. © stephen rockman, 09/17 impactful sustainable finances
- 16. © stephen rockman, 09/17 make a difference
- 17. © stephen rockman, 09/17 all art is propaganda. george orwell
- 18. © stephen rockman, 09/17
- 19. © stephen rockman, 09/17
- 20. © stephen rockman, 09/17
- 21. © stephen rockman, 09/17
- 22. © stephen rockman, 09/17
- 23. © stephen rockman, 09/17 ‘I had reservations about making art a business but I got over it.’
- 24. © stephen rockman, 09/17
- 25. © stephen rockman, 09/17 ‘most ideas that are successful are ludicrously simple.’
- 26. © stephen rockman, 09/17
- 27. © stephen rockman, 09/17
- 28. © stephen rockman, 09/17
Notes de l'éditeur
- making a living from the arts – he said you mean like ‘stealing a picasso’ well I'm not here I promise to encourage you into a life of crime . .
- some of you who were bored enough to read my bio may think I’m here to promote another ism – capitalism . . ready to convince you to debase your output with talk of profit & financing. But I’m not// so let me begin with the common perception that artists and creatives believe that commercialisation and their practices are diametrically opposed, two sides of a circle that can never meet . . .
- Modigliani is the perfect eg of this cliche – penniless during his lifetime yet this picture became the most expensive ever sold at auction $170m++ m not much good being rich when you’re dead . . . So this is about getting real, . . . about opportunities and challenges and a bit about investing I’m a passionate supporter of your sector from being a longtime collector thru to the exciting work I do now with royal college of art startups @ InnovationRCA; & two of my sons are makers so I’ve shared the pain of working out what a creative business looks like from both sides of the table & as an investor, I’m increasingly coming to the conclusion that that creative skills are THE key differentiator between innovation and great innovation.
- Is there reluctance to transfer skills into sustainable businesses? A fear of forsaking creativity in order to pay the bills . . . ? I know that’s probably a slightly old fashioned view and of course there are contemporary examples of creatives who are both exceptional talents and exceptional businesses but in general its still current These days we talk about entrepreneurship as if it’s a magic bullet; we’re all entrepreneurs now, right? . . . .its the answer to everything. Hmmm, I don’t actually believe that however its unhelpful that universities / colleges are not great at preparing students for the outside world and rarely as entrepreneurs. My definition of an entrepreneur is not someone who’s just IPO’d and bought a soccer team it’s a person willing to take risk to do something they believe in and do it as well as they possibly can in order to make a living. In the old days it was called working for yourself.
- That was of course before silicon valley, VCs and unicorns & when banks still employed people with brains. Then it was possible and highly regarded to start your own business // and feeding/ and clothing your family was good enough, and maybe you’d also create a few jobs locally and become a respected member of your community. Nothing wrong with that as an ambition even today. but our view of success has been horribly distorted – there's a whole new vocabulary for entrepreneurs to learn equity cap tables runway burn rate dilution lean startup MVP pitching Demo day pitching SEIS scaling up did I say pitching . . . & all this has become a quasi religious journey so that even raising the right kind of money is now seen as de rigeuer for success Btw I’m not here to convince you all to be entrepreneurs but I’m using it as a shorthand for creating sustainable businesses because entrepreneurship – is a mindset, an appetite for risk/ reward & success that’s mostly instinctive tho it can (&should) be taught, but the problem is that there’s a real education chasm in universities and colleges. . . they teach you craft and skills which overwhelmingly are vocational, equipping you to make a living yet few cover even IP/ or copyright and even fewer provide real support in terms of the practicalities of starting a business let alone what it takes to be an entrepreneur in the outside world In other words, A lot of time and effort is spent in helping you define your practice but there’s very little practical support . . . most courses & I’m not picking on universities here as this also applies to incubators accelerators & hubs are too formulaic and frankly too supportive, so entrepreneurship’s two most important characteristics// creativity and risk-taking are negated . . squeezed out rather than enhanced entrepreneurship is by its very nature creative . . . .and universities and colleges would in my view do a better job to just create well equipped collaborative spaces, provide some basic knowledge, use lots of grey haired people like me (obv) and just get out of the way . . . unless they want to be investors too,
- so none of this easy . . . firstly most startups fail// that applies to all sectors & depending on which stats you choose, the failure rate is 90%+. . . . so you need to be pretty tough and persistent . . . reasons for failure are many from having a crap idea, to poor execution no customers and of course running out of money is very unhelpful . . . and in addition there are real disruptions which amplify the normal problems of cashflow and marketing . . . . . .the utopia that Silicon valley promised us is also the root of what I think of a new feudalism where the cost and value of labour is controlled by platforms that are mega-monopolies think of uber the obvious one, where drivers can control only WHEN they work not how much they charge or who their customers are and they have to work 50/60 hours per week just to pay the bills// but there’s also much more direct competition for creatives and makers . . .
- startups like these use the opaqueness and convenience of the net to homogenise skills so that any kid with a 700 dollar digital camera can be the next bailey, parr, etc & companies like this
- with a global reach// enable customers to access low cost resource so the skills you spent 2 or 3 or 5 years learning and honing are being commoditised, your income is squeezed by easy access to low cost resources or lower quality. above all these platforms make it harder and harder to own your customer because they control access. very hard to build and be in control of your business in these circumstances which is great for investors but lousy for practitioners and in the long term not so great for consumers and customers
- there are so many opportunities to get beyond these challenges I don’t know whether you’ve heard this before but there’s a stat that often quoted when talking about schools and the type of education kids need . . . which is that 60% of jobs that they’ll grow up to do are not yet invented . . . . And that reflects the rapid pace of change that we all experience and why schools work hard to instil 21st century transferrable skills And here’s the good news, the skills you have and teach are 21st century and transferrable. And there's real evidence that growing numbers of creatives are being lured into new businesses . . . AI, robotics, game design and UX are all new jobs in businesses that barely existed a decade ago. design led innovation is now a key differentiator for both startups and investors because all businesses live in a brave and sometimes dystopic new world where always-on-communication, instant gratification and innovation are no longer just sales & marketing but are essential survival skills. . .and they require creative skills . . . instead of yet another dating app or social network there are areas of our lives that are crying out for sympathetic, empathetic apps from mindfulness & education to med tech & loneliness where design driven startups are rapidly outpacing nerd led ones. & don’t think that this is limited to just the obvious global clusters of startups Earlier this year precisely, because they wanted expertise that was different from the usual business school blandness . . . we, InnovationRCA, ran an innovation and entrepreneurship program for a kuwait government agency . . with ten major kuwaiti public companies from retailers to banks to investment funds who understood that even in an ultra conservative market the only route to sustainability and competitiveness was thinking differently, adding new skills in other words being more creative
- And last week I was at a NHS event where 5 major London hospitals presented the startups they’d been working with on proof of concepts from simple advice apps for patients through to integration projects that were streamlining core services and . . . .and the ceo of those hospitals said this: in other words design and creativity is becoming embedded is unexpected places leading to far stronger outcomes and benefits and new and fantastic opportunities for creatives to stretch their skills.
- there are I think three key skills needed in order to maximise all those opportunities
- Networking and collaboration . . . no one operates in isolation BREXIT JOKE, partnerships lead to opportunity&/ innovation //& collaboration gives access to consumers and clients; and of course its a tool for overcoming the conflicts that persist between art and literature, architecture and fashion and I think this is often the bit that’s often missing in education - networking, not keeping secrets and collaborating with other entrepreneurs, coaches and external expertise is essential in turning projects into businesses learn how you make money most people understand profit very simplistically you sell something for more than it cost you. How do you know what the right price is? how do you work out what it cost you? . . . the biggest problem by far I’ve seen amongst creatives is that they always undervalue their time . . . Its not difficult to work out what materials go into a finished product; slightly tougher to apply a proportion of your overheads but how do you price an hour or a day of your time? be awesome . . . entrepreneurs have great passion for what they do . . an undying self belief in what they’re doing and the ability to be flexible and agile to achieve that but you need to be awesome cos things
- don’t always work out first time, as samuel beckett said:
- I guess I should say something specific about getting real
- artists and creatives are able change lives in ways that any other type of business or skill cannot & the impact that generates should never underestimated in the value it creates Whatever you do needs to be sustainable , that is . . .long lasting and that depends on what you do – who is your customer, where is the market and whether you have a business model that will create a surplus or profit? And lastly as I said before, running out of money is not very helpful; these days there are many different sources and they can and should be blended whenever possible . . . grants, investments, sponsorships, crowdfunding etc etc; its not an easy process and will require quite a lot of awesomeness but its easier now than its ever been.
- I'm not as I’ve said, urging you all to become entrepreneurs but I do believe that in making a living, creatives are uniquely placed to make a difference in ways most of the rest of us can’t and that the agility and perseverance inherent in entrepreneruship skills are essential in achieving that
- creatives start with real advantages . . . you’re already risk takers because being safe isn’t what you do & always pushing a boundary . . . & everyone loves what you do whether its fine art, film, architecture or fashion – its the most pleasure we have with our clothes on & as I’ve said before, those skills are in demand now across many sectors the spread of what you’re able accomplish is massive, you’re able to commercialise your expertise in so many different ways creative skills and practices offer tremendous opportunities for entrepreneurship & engagement SLIDE
- from innovation
- to hirst ‘s money factory
- To wei wei’s politicising of profitable art
- To idealism , , , the choice of how you do it is entirely yours. There is no right answer.
- So let me wrap this up with a story of three people . . .. mary boone A gallerist who was queen of the New York art market of the 1980s.. representing key artists from shnabel to Jean-Michel Basquiat, & she’s pretty awsomes cos not only did she survive going broke when the market collapsed in the 90s and now once again has a couple of galleries but she also said this
- Overcame the dilemma I mentioned at the beginning . . .
- She knew sol lewitt a leading minimalist who also said this -
- which I guess pretty minimalist . . . .but also pretty optimistic and great advice for entrepreneurs to not overcomplicate things He also btw said that artist are like a fridge factory, servicing the needs of capitalism
- anyway, Sol was a mentor to Eve Hesse a young german born sculptor who arrived here in the Netherlands on the kinder transport. in the early 60’s she suffered a major creative block so sol wrote her a letter of encouragement, its actually goes on for about five or six pages but here’s just one of them
- he rambles on a bit// gives her two cool bits of advice . . .number 1 say ‘fuck you’ to critics & number 2 trust your instincts. . .and he finishes with this you have in your power the ability to do anything
- and he ends each page as you can see with just one simple word ‘do’ In other words just get on with it; and that’s the thought I’d like to leave you with don’t overanalyse or overcomplicate. .there are opportunities to enlighten peoples lives, to overcome challenges to bring communities, design homes for ordinary people, products and services that help people enrich their lives, train kids if you’re a maker, get angry and protest, start & support great causes and get your work seen read enjoyed worn used by as many people as possible. and of course . . . make a living.