Since my last post about a Danish artist claiming that the legal streaming service Spotify is harmful to artists I have been thinking about the artists education. When does artists learn how to transform their art into business? Almost never is the answer. In Copenhagen the School of art has one course on the bachelor level about business including copyright. Looking at other schools – New York and London – there are no courses in intellectual property or business in general…only art.
Of course the main focus of an artist must be art. But just as a lawyer has to know economy and other aspects of the world that surrounds him, the artist has to know other aspects of his art. An upgrade of the arts education is required, but not enough. The artists outside the education system have no chance of picking something up.
The solution is not pamphlets or websites with information.
The solution is probably embedding business persons in social- or artists networks. The goal would not be to make the artists into production factories, but thru conversation and their own cases give them an impression of how business works.
Gather 5 – 10 artists (maybe even from different arts!) and make them talk about how they live off their arts and what the barriers are. Inevitably subjects about strategy, business and law will come up and along with other artists experiences they are able to get a business/legal perspective.
The challenge for the lawyer is of course not to shout “sue them to hell†as the solution of all problems, but balance law, art and business.
That would be an interesting job – anyone want to try?