Social media helps artists connect with your audience and to expand it. You can use social media to keep in touch with people who have already engaged with your work by attending a show or purchasing a piece. You can use it to let your family, friends, and professional network know about your creative practice. You can share your work, upcoming events, fundraising efforts, and more. Artists often connect with one another on social media, staying inspired by each other’s work and sharing tips for navigating the art world together.

Social media is in many ways ubiquitous. It’s how people stay in touch with far away friends, family, and colleagues. It’s how many of us find out about art events, political happenings, and show ourselves off on the days when we are really, as they say, feeling ourselves.

As an artist, you are always working with other people. You might be working collaboratively to put on a performance or create an interactive installation. You might hire a freelancer or work as a freelancer. But even if your work doesn’t appear to be collaborative, you are probably still working with other people. You might rent a studio or performance space or work with a retail location or gallery. For example, my work as a ceramicist is very independent in terms of the creative process, but I still am a member of a shared studio space and sell my work at a neighborhood shop.

For many artists, fundraising is the way that you get your work financially supported. Through strategies like crowdfunding campaigns, grant applications, membership drives, and end-of-year appeals, fundraising can help you secure the financial resources to realize your creative vision. While fundraising isn’t the only way for artists to bring in funding, it can be an important part of your life as a working creative.

In the face of economic uncertainty, the ravages of the gig economy, layoffs and closures related to the pandemic, and to overall austerity related to the arts and culture sector, artists need better economies. We need ways to build sustainable creative practices, to really own the value of our labor, and to build collective power. We need better ways to make a living as an artist beyond the uncertainty of freelancing and the constant need to fundraise and write grants.

For artists, email lists are one of the top ways to stay in touch with your audience and to keep your community engaged with your work. You can use the email addresses you’ve collected to let your community know about upcoming performances, sales, fundraising campaigns, and more.

At Fractured Atlas and on this blog, we talk about money a lot. We cover why it’s hard to talk about money, how artists can raise money, and argue that pay transparency is anti-racist. We cover crowdfunding, grants, and how to improve your chances at succeeding in both of these ventures.

We know most artists don’t dream of managing multiple administrative tasks, juggling deadlines, and delegating work to your team. But, it’s also true that artists need to be able to do that administrative work to realize your visions, especially if they are ambitious, complex, and involve multiple different team members.

Most artists tend to dream of working diligently and purposefully on your art. For many, it’s an unpleasant surprise to realize just how much non-art work has to happen to support your art.

It’s no surprise that people who have been working remotely this past year (or for longer) are sick of Zoom. I’ve been a remote worker for years but it is only this past year that the video face boxes fill me with a deep sense of exhaustion and boredom. For years, Zoom was what I used for work, but now it has to also be what I use to talk to my family and mentor, and to watch movies with my friends.