Alyice on November 29th, 2008

Art Calendar

This year, I decided to get serious with my art. Of course, that means that I’ll spend a lot more time perfecting techniques, learning new crafts, and creating than I will spend actually building an art business. But I didn’t want to get to a point in my art business where I was ready to sell my art on a regular basis without fully understanding how the industry works so I signed up for a one-year subscription to Art Calendar.

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While I am not sure Art Calendar would be a good fit for already successful artists, I do believe that it’s a great magazine for beginning artists or those who’ve been creating art as a hobby for a long time and are finally ready to start selling their art.

One thing Art Calendar is not is a technique magazine. If you want to learn about the techniques artists use to create certain items, you’ll need to subscribe to a different type of magazine. Art Calendar concentrates on the business side of art.

Each issue is between 40 and 50 pages with minimal advertisements to distract from the content. Each issue if sold on the newsstand at $5 per copy or a subscription can be purchased at $37 for 11 issues. (At this time, there is a special on the site: 2 years for the price of 1.) Each issue is themed and contains articles that relate to that issue’s theme. Each issue covers business essentials, gallery insights, opportunity listings, and an artist profile. There are also four regular columnists.

While you will find a few photographs of art created by artists, the magazine is low-key when it comes to imagery and very high-key when it comes to content. The articles are written to teach, not show how intellectual the writer is. In other words, it’s not a pompous magazine that talks down to its readers and I like that!

The “artist opportunity listings” are very comprehensive and are broken down into two categories: paying and non-paying. Opportunities you’ll find within each issue are: residencies, festivals, fellowships, workshops, contests, competitions, grants, juried shows, exhibitions, and publishing
opportunities.

There is only one caveat. It takes awhile to receive your first subscription—usually 2 to 3 months after payment. But once the issues start coming, they come regularly and on schedule.

Again, I’d highly recommend the magazine for artists new to the business side of art.

Order a copy of Art Calendar today!

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Comments (3)

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Tessa says:
It’s great to meet you.

Best of luck with your art business! Art Calendar is a great magazine, and it has lots of good opportunities. I think the hardest (and maybe least enjoyable) part of being an artist is the self-promotion part; I have been struggling with that a lot myself lately.
Posted at 1:03 am December 1st, 2008
Darla Dixon says:
I LOVE this magazine. It is the only art business related magazine that I have ever found. It really fills a niche. The Art Calendar website is also excellent, and there is a free site for artists to join that is like MySpace for artists. It’s ArtScuttlebutt.com

Darla Dixons last blog post..My Legal Stimulant Work Friend
Posted at 8:57 am December 1st, 2008
Alyice says:
Tessa, I think as I begin to try to market myself as an artist, I, too, will be in your shoes when it comes to the self-promotion part. As it is, I am dealing with the self-confidence part when it comes to creating the art and showing it to the world. LOL

Darla, thanks for the link on the forum, I’ll have to check it out.
Posted at 10:23 am December 1st, 2008