Recently, we were chatting on the Creative Outpost, our online community for artists, about pitching oneself to potential employers. Together, we talked about what makes for a compelling cold email where you are introducing yourself to someone who you hope gives you some kind of opportunity.

For artists and creatives, your email list is an important tool to connect with your audience and build long-lasting connections.

Documentary filmmakers are often, by the nature of their work, in complicated legal territory. There are releases to sign with subjects and sources, questions of trespassing and hidden recording equipment, and the concern that editing can over-determine a narrative. And, depending on how sensitive the topic is, there can be a risk of legal action if the subject doesn’t like the final produced piece.

The concept of a personal brand has a bit of a bad reputation. And honestly, it’s kind of deserved.

When you’re fundraising, you’re trying to accomplish something. You might be trying to pay your theater’s rent for the upcoming year, cover pre-production costs on your documentary, or get enough money coming in regularly that you can count on paying your bills through recurring donations. These are all different kinds of goals that you can make for your fundraising campaigns.

Nobody becomes an artist because they secretly want to become their own accountant. However, once you’re in your creative practice it’s inevitable that you’ll have to deal with your own finances. As a creative, you need to manage your budget, create and sign contracts with studio spaces or freelancers, sock away funds into your savings, and then make it all legible to the IRS come tax season.

We’re closing out the year looking back at the information and advice we’ve given our community of artists and sharing our favorites. We know that artists need financial resources to make your work and getting those resources often means fundraising.

Looking back at the past year, we’re rounding up our favorite articles on a number of topics. Here are the best pieces of advice we’ve shared about marketing for artists; from getting into the mindset to market yourself to figuring out what kind of content you should be sharing on social media.

On this blog, we share a variety of tips and tools to help support artists in your creative practices, from managing the nuts and bolts of a creative life (what’s a contract, after all?) to building better economies for artists (we’re big fans of cooperatives). Here are some of our favorite tips and tool articles from 2021.

To create art, you need materials and tools. For the most DIY of us, we can find some of those materials and tools around our homes. But the rest of us will need to source tools, equipment, and materials to make our work.