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Mapping a Career in the Art World

April 6, 2018 by Michael Reid

Michael Reid is a featured speaker in a Christie’s Education course being held in Sydney
Australia at Reid’s gallery next week. The subject is Mapping a Career in the Art World. Reid is a
longtime Sydney gallerist also has an outpost in Berlin. He’s a frequent commentator on the art
market. Here are his own notes on what it takes to have a career in the art world (slightly edited
to make them globally relevant.)

Practical skills are the keys to being at the top of the arts pack.
A good education, with a major in ne arts, is simply expected. Everyone in the arts is well
educated. So what?

Learn and be willing to do what others are reluctant to do.

Be able to read a balance sheet and to prepare budgets.

Master accounting software.
Become a champ at MailChimp or any other newsletter service.
Learn to use graphic-design programs such as Photoshop, GIMP, Illustrator, etc.
Learn to use software programs to manage collections and hire help.
Become pro cient in the various methods of art shipping, both domestic and
international.
Become familiar with commercial printing for postcards, yers andcatalogues. Know your
GSM (grams per square metre) from a galley proof.
 Undertake a short, postgraduate course in Project Management. That’s essentially what a
gallery does: it manages art projects.

Remember: Tunnel vision won’t help your career in the art world, and it’s bad for business.

Consider alternative art-world career paths.

PR / marketing
Fundraising
Art shipping
Designer / framer / printer / art insurer
Interior designer or interior architect
Conservator
Archivist
Valuer
Librarian

Not everyone in the industry has to be a curator or an auction-house specialist, or work in an

art gallery. The art world is a big business. Try to gain experience within the industry and across
a wide range of possible aligned art careers. This may mean working in advertising and then the
arts; in interior design and then the arts; in architecture and then the arts; in graphic design and
then the arts. See the pattern? Do something skillful and practical, and then take the knowledge
you gain from it to the arts.

Remember: You can achieve victory by circling your intended prize. Do as Chairman Mao
Zedong did in seizing control of China: take the countryside rst, and then the encircled cities
will fall.

Choose carefully who you work with

Be as selective about who you work with, as you are about the job you want to do. Create or
seize opportunities to work with someone you can learn from.

‘A prudent man should always follow the path trodden by great men and imitate those who are
most excellent’ – Niccolo Machiavelli.

Master the various social media.

 Have a LinkedIn pro le etc etc etc.
Develop your own social-media pro le; this is your art-world asset that moves around
with you.
Always have the most up-to- date camera on your smartphone that you can afford. It’s all
about images, baby.

Do the job you’ve been asked to do, and do it well.

Always audit your behaviour. Are you actually doing what you’ve been asked or hired to do, or
are you trying to do the job you want to do?

Create your own opportunities to further your career.

Do something for yourself, by yourself, that’s outside the mainstream of your paid work. Don’t
sit around waiting for opportunities to appear. Make change happen for you.

Write a book, or a column or a blog.

Curate an exhibition.
Undertake a project – for example, set yourself the task of taking photo portraits of your
generation of artists.

Be prepared to work hard.

Long workdays and irregular hours are part and parcel of working in the art world. Accept and
get comfortable with the long hours. Devour them.

Get a foot in the door.

Do internships with a wide variety of organisations, such as an art gallery, an art shipper, an
auction house.

Employing people is expensive. Every single position that is advertised already has a particular
type of candidate in mind. No organisation or rm can risk employing someone on spec. Help a
prospective employer mitigate this risk by working with them – and showcasing your talents –
in a manner that isn’t costly or risky for them.
Build your professional pro le in the art world, but don’t let the art world consume your
personal life.

Be seen, build your personal pro le, and then be selective. To begin with, get involved in the
community you’d like to become a part of. If you want to work in a commercial gallery, you need
to identify the galleries whose artists and exhibitions resonate with you. Then go and see ALL
their exhibitions, and if possible, attend all their openings, artists’ talks, etc. Gallery owners and
their staff are immensely proud of the exhibitions they stage. Even though the digital world has
expanded audiences for galleries, there is still nothing artists appreciate more than art
enthusiasts making the effort to turn up and view an exhibition in person. Over time, you’ll
become familiar with, and eventually meet, people from the art world within the gallery
environment. The arts community isn’t huge, but it’s very committed and dedicated. Contacts
are key in breaking into the art world.

Once you have established yourself professionally, avoid the overheated social hothouse of the
art scene. Don’t go to the opening of an envelope. Your attendance should send the message
that an event is noteworthy. Absence, when noticed, can be a very strong presence. Attend only
what you need to attend to further your career. Socialise with your real friends.

Don’t suck up to your superiors.

Your polite pro ciency is what your colleagues need most from you. What will be most valuable
for your career is their respect, not their affection or friendship.

Remember: If you lose a person’s professional respect, you are professionally expunged.

With artists, in particular, and with the majority of collectors, be rm and friendly, but never
familiar. You are wanted and needed for your professional experience and expertise, not for
your sparkling personality.

Everyone is a butler to someone.

The arts is a competitive service industry. Any number of other people could perform the tasks
or supply the products you’ve been hired to perform or provide. What will set you apart is the
quality of your service. ALWAYS be available. Always put yourself in the curator or the
collector’s shoes. There is no downtime. Answer the phone from clients on Easter Sunday
morning with a smile in your voice.
Be discreet.
Why? Your business is between you and the client only. As an art dealer, for example, only you
need to know what your client has hanging on their bedroom wall.

When asked for advice, give it generously.

When a collector, artist or colleague asks you for advice, give it serious thought, then give it
generously. They’ll come back again and again. In this way, you’ll become an opinion former.

Don’t climb ladders after age 50.

It’s statistically more dangerous to climb a ladder, even a stepladder, once you’ve reached the
half-century mark. Delegate that job to younger, more agile colleagues.

Travel and accommodate yourself in some style.

You don’t meet prospective clients, or indeed your intended professional peer group, in
economy class. As Aristotle Onassis once said: ‘The greatest asset any businessman can have is
a suntan. … To be happy, make sure you are tanned, live in expensive buildings, even if you have
to stay in the cellar, go out to expensive restaurants, even if you can only afford one drink, and if
you have to borrow, borrow a lot.’

Remember: Position yourself physically within the social environment of your clients.

With success comes unhelpful criticism — ignore it.

There’s a Turkish saying: ‘The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.’ You need to be sure that
you set the ‘dogs’ barking, indicating that you’re doing something extraordinary and attracting
attention. Make it the soundtrack to your professional life.

Always be – or at least try to be – polite and diplomatic.

But if a situation calls for something more forceful, don’t hold back. Lay waste to whatever
stands between you and the outcome you believe is right.

‘Never do any enemy a small injury for they are like a snake which is half beaten, and it will
strike back the rst chance it gets’ – Niccolo Machiavelli.

And, nally.
‘In dif cult times, we must not lose sight of our achievements’ – Chairman Mao Zedong.