Everyone requires a place to belong. It’s satisfying to find a place to connect with others, whether your group is large or small, or you work in a niche industry. That is why ArtSHINE always advises artists and creatives to find their place in the art community.
What can a community offer you?
An art community can provide motivation and inspiration. Seeing the work of other creatives will always inspire you to pick up your own.
If someone else can make such lovely art, so can you. All you have to do is take action and follow your inspiration. Participating in an artistic community can help you learn and grow too.
Some groups provide guidance on art business, pricing, customer service, and other practical matters. Others allow you to post your work and receive constructive feedback, as well as participate in weekly and monthly challenges. You can ask questions and get answers from people who know just as much about art as you do or more.
In your art community, you can also make lifelong friends. It’s amazing how quickly you can connect with someone who shares your interests. Remember to have fun and relax while practising your art. Immersion in an art community can help you shift your mindset too.
Mindset is important for artists.
If you see successful artists all day in your social media feeds, you may begin to think, “Well, a lot of people are doing this, so it can be for me as well.
Here are the things, If you only follow friends or non-creative groups, you might think, “Well, no one I know is doing it, and most artists are poor anyway so what’s the point to try?
I love this quote:
“What you think, you become.
What you feel, you attract.
What you imagine, you create.”
~Buddha
Believe in your abilities and be competent and confident in your artistic practice. Surround yourself with people who, both in person and online, support your dreams as well as their own!
Where and how can I get involved?
We recommend that you attend art exhibitions, creative workshops, and networking events. There are hundreds of events available both online and in person. This is the most straightforward way for you to become deeply involved, find real opportunities, form real relationships, and do really great things together. It is critical to show up and keep an open mind in order to learn, connect, , participate and have some fun too.
Trade Shows and Conferences
Travelling to creative events or trade shows can help you connect with an art community that does not have a presence in your local area. Designer shows, art licensing expos, surface design trade shows, and educational conferences, but the people you meet there are passionate about their work. These are the places where you can meet and connect with people who know about you and your art practice.
If you’re willing to travel interstate or overseas, you can find your perfect niche art community and keep in touch with your new friends online and build long-term relationships. This is why ArtSHINE exhibits at art and design trade shows around the world. It is the most effective way for us to showcase our artists’ works and present them directly to our potential licensees and manufacturers, showcasing our artists’ works gives us opportunities to generate leads, and build connections and relationships with existing clients and new ones.
Find your art community on the internet.
Join online groups if you can’t get out of your studio, with the current pandemic more community groups are active online. We encourage our artists to participate in groups or forums for artists, and creatives. It’s inspiring to see what other people are creating. We can now access information through our cell phones; when you pick up your phone to scroll, you immediately see creative people at work doing what they love. It can both motivate and inspire you to create art. It also feels good to both cheer on and be cheered on by your fellow creatives.
Instagram is a fantastic platform for connecting with individual artists, and you can make new internet friends there too. Commenting on their posts, following their journey, answering questions, and offering advice can quickly develop into an online friendship. we also learned that artists who work in a similar style tend to connect more easily because they genuinely enjoy each other’s work.
Join groups on other art community platforms.
There are plenty of online communities!
Participate in classes and workshops. Taking a one-time workshop or a series of classes, whether online or in person, will introduce you to an art community. If you take acrylic classes, you’ll meet a lot of other people who want to improve their skills in the same medium as you. Make friends with whom you like to be with.
Join the art mailing lists
Many workshops maintain mailing lists, social media presences, and/or groups after the workshop has ended, that way, you’ll know when the next class is and can carry the motivation from the experience forwards. Find classes at your local community centre, local art groups and businesses, or online event platforms or art programmes.
On social media, follow artists
Most people spend a significant amount of time on social media. So why don’t we fill our news feeds with art and artists you like and follow their art journeys?
We seem to follow people who are similar to us and have similar interests. The people we follow are mostly people we never met in person; they’re just creatives who inspire us. When you open your Instagram account, you want to be thrown into the larger art community that inspires and challenges you. Also, you want to keep up with what’s going on in the art world and see what other artists are up to in their art practice. You definitely can learn a thing or two and these inspire and motivate you to build your own art practice.
We also encourage our artists to follow business leaders and thinkers. They can assist you in elevating your mind and focusing on what is truly important to you. Surround yourself with artists and creatives, both digitally and physically. You’ll quickly feel like you’re a part of the art movement too.
What to seek in a community group?
Join a community that welcomes you and you want to feel like you are in a family. If an art group makes you feel excluded for any reason, or it is not right for you, then leave and find a community that genuinely supports you and your art. Once you’ve found a community that supports you, make sure you’re also contributing to making others feel included in the group.
Artists come from all over the planet, from all walks of life and their work is vastly different. When it comes to the art community, don’t limit yourself to one kind. Don’t rule out anyone! Follow artists who use different mediums. It allows you to see how similar ideas are expressed in different mediums. Follow people from various backgrounds and life experiences. Every artist is unique and will bring different perspectives to your community.
It is okay to join different art community groups too. We would suggest you at the beginning join several groups so that you can appreciate them and work out which groups you would like to build further relationships with. You can then let go and just stick to a few groups that really add value to you and your art practice.
Narrow your groups.
Many artists are aware of their preferred style, theme or medium. So look for groups that are specifically about these topics. Getting specific about your preferred learning styles is essential for narrowing your focus and delving deeper into your practices. If you are interested in surface design, you can join communities with many artists who use Photoshop or InDesign to create their surface designs. They post a lot of Photoshop art advice and tutorials that you will find useful in art practice.
It’s difficult to delve deeply into one topic when there are 10 million people producing 10 million different types of art. So, while seeing things that are unique is inspiring, seeing things that are tailored to you is educational. Find groups that are tailored to your specific situation for better advice, faster learning, and more tailored critiques.
Not sure where to start?
ArtSHINE inspires and empowers commercially minded Creatives to build sustainable enterprises and generate viable incomes through our flexible, practical, and real-world approach to creative practice, commercialisation, art licensing, and entrepreneurial education. Unapologetically commercial, ArtSHINE facilitates a valuable exchange of opportunity and encourages new ways of generating additional revenues and social capital by working extensively with commercially minded artists, designers, and creative industry professionals around the globe.
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We’re here to help you to take action just like we’ve helped thousands of other entrepreneurs, business owners and creative professionals all around the globe.
Now is the time to let your passion SHINE.
Now is the time to Make Tomorrow Today!
To your success,
Vinh Van Lam & Stuart Horrex
Your Coaches ArtSHINE industries