Boiling Point - Episode 059

The Business of Art

Introducing Kate Wallace

Artists and entrepreneurs have more in common than what would be perceived from the outside. Both have to be creative, industrious, and freethinkers. However, often times there is a separation from the arts community and the business community. There is often even separation within specific artists within a community. Kate Wallace is the type of person that likes to break down these walls and connect artists to artists, artists to the business community, and artists to society in general.

Kate is the executive director of Artslink NB, an organization that was founded to bridge connections for artists in New Brunswick. There is a lot that artists can learn from entrepreneurs and vice versa. Sometimes solutions to business problems need a creative angle and artists need the money from commissioned pieces from the business world.

One thing Artslink NB is doing to help artist become financially independent with their work is by offering a pilot program called the Catapult Arts Accelerator. Taking a hint from the tech world, the accelerator offers advice and business skills to artists that can help them reach new markets and further their practice. Artists don’t often use the word “customers” and, in fact, the thought of commercializing their work makes many artists feel like they are selling out. This is just not the case. All through history artists have been commissioned by the wealthy to make pieces in homage them, their families, or their businesses. However, when the business side of an artist’s operation is nailed down, the truth is creativity can flourish and the moniker of the “starving artist” need not apply.

In this episode

Kate tells us when, why and how Artslink NB got started and the important things they do to connect artists to others in the community.
Kate explains why arts are so important to greater society.
She explains the accelerator and what it means to the artists that take it.
She also dispels the theory that arts in New Brunswick (or anywhere else for that matter) can live up to the arts in any other major metropolitan area and that the biggest thing for an artist to have is confidence in their work.
Kate wants the general population to know that artists are professionals and should be treated as such.
She also wants the general population to not be intimidated by art and instead embrace it has an expression of their culture.
Dave brings up the book A Whole New Mind by Dan Pink and the importance of using right brain thinking.
Dave also appreciates that he had such a rich exposure to the arts at a young age.
Greg tells business people and artists to meet for coffee and see what they can learn from one another.