Reference
Bérubé, Julie. I’m not an Entrepreneur, I’m an Artist!. Annual Conference of the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada, Montréal, Québec, Canada. (2024).
Summary
This study summarizes prior research about entrepreneurial support offered to artist-entrepreneurs into three categories: monetary, education and expertise, and exhibition opportunities. Our research links these forms of entrepreneurial support to the entrepreneurial strategies employed by artists. We conducted 50 interviews with visual artists in 2017 and 20 follow-up interviews in 2021. Our findings reveal three entrepreneurial strategies in use. The first involves exhibiting and selling one’s work for a profit in galleries. Gallery owners offer entrepreneurial support to artists. Second strategy is to exhibit at institutional galleries where the work is not offered for sale, but the artist is supported by payment of an exhibition fee. A lack of support in terms of networking is noted. Obtaining government grants constitutes the third entrepreneurial strategy, a process which artists tell us also lacks support. Associating these entrepreneurial strategies with the entrepreneurial support offered reveals flaws in the existing support for artists.