Episode Transcript
Host: You're listening to the Levy Inspiration Grant Program podcast where we share stories of business students following their entrepreneurial passions to every corner of the world. I'm your host, Tyler Seybold. Through the program, students at the Kellogg School of Management can travel to any country of their choosing to immerse themselves in a particular topic. When they return, they sit down with me to reflect on the experience and share what they learned along the way.
Picture this. You gently wake up in the middle of a weekday, well-rested, rejuvenated, and ready to start the day. With a cup of coffee and a comfy robe tied around your waist, you stroll over to your spare bedroom, currently used as an in-home art studio, and let the creative muses take over. Hours pass in the blink of an eye and suddenly, your day is complete with just enough time to get yourself back to bed and do this all over again tomorrow.
Okay, maybe I'm sharing more about my own far-fetched fantasies here, but needless to say, living in the real world as an artist that also needs to feed and house themselves is not quite so privileged. What's missing from this picture are little nuisances, like the constant back and forth DMs from online shop customers, the tedium of packing and shipping pieces, and the ongoing burden of promoting your work on social media. Not to mention the overall lack of systemic or governmental support for working artists in America. But what is it really like to make a career out of being an artist?
Noelle: I walked into a print store and the man running the store was also an artist that was represented in the store. And I said, kind of casually, like, what is it like to be an artist in Berlin? And he looked at me and said, "whoa, that conversation's gonna take a drink..."
Host: Today's episode features Noelle Harasym. Creativity has been a part of Noelle's life since she was an art school kid, and when she started producing art as an adult, she was forced to confront the often-harsh financial realities of trying to earn money as an artist. This experience sparked a curiosity that led her to travel to several cities in Europe to learn more about the life of artists, what tools they use to sustain their careers and what opportunities there might be to make a digital platform that serves them better.
This is her Inspiration Grant story.
Noelle: When I think about what got me interested in kind of the art space and I like to say the sustainability of artist careers, this goes way back. I was a very active child and I ended up in an arts elementary school, which introduced me to the concept of drama and dance and visual arts and music. I wasn't particularly good at any of them, but it was an opportunity for me to try a lot of different things and get very comfortable with making mistakes and ambiguity. I realize now coming to Kellogg, like, I think it gave me the confidence to tackle problems and be comfortable trying new things.
During the pandemic, I actually did my first ever collection of large-scale painted contemporary works, and that was, I'd say I started actually calling myself an artist, which in the art world, this is like a big moment for people. And I talked a lot to different artists that I met about this. I think for a while you might call yourself a crafter or you might call yourself, like somebody likes to "do creative things," but it takes a while for you to actually kind of own that title.
I decided to continue with the momentum I had and I did a second collection, and this is when I experienced firsthand how difficult it is to turn your work into actual money to fund my next collection. And I think that's when I became particularly obsessed with: what does it take to have a sustainable career in the arts, and what does that even look like?
We're at a really interesting turning point where we've seen tools like OpenAI and DALL-E come out where you can start to produce, really high quality imagery with just a few keystrokes and words. And so I'm curious, as somebody that cares a lot about the arts and the role that it has in our society, and I understand the impact that it's had on me and my ability to kind of like make decisions and do problem solving, I think that we're at a real turning point where if we don't protect and value the arts and help artists differentiate themselves from these platforms, then we could be at risk of losing it.
In terms of where I went on my trip, I focused on places that I felt had a differentiated focus on the arts and maybe had some structural differences in how they were supporting artists. So this took me to Paris, Berlin, and Copenhagen. From afar in North America, Paris, objectively, is the place that you think of when you think about the arts.
And then when I think of Berlin, I think of the colorful streets and the graffiti and the mix of kind of like modern and history.They also have a freelance artist visa, which is specifically focused on providing artists the opportunity to come live and work in the community in Berlin, and I was curious what that would look like and how that supports artists differently.
And then in Copenhagen, chatting with gallery owners there and seeing what it's like to be an artist in a more expensive city and seeing how that kind of influenced the art community there.
When I was thinking about the itinerary for my trip I had two main objectives. I was one, really interested what it was like to live and work in these cities as an artist and what it took to sustain them as a career. And then the other primary hypothesis I had was around the role of technology and platforms.
My hypothesis going into it was that these platforms that exist to help artists with discovery and building their business are actually more work than they are reward. I was expecting that when I would talk to artists about these things, I'd find a lot of workarounds and other ways of doing things.
Those were kind of the two key spaces I was curious about: (cut if needed) what it takes to be an artist in these cities and have kind of like a working living as an artist, and then, how are platforms and technology helping or hindering these artists in having a successful career.
I'd say like my big moment in Berlin was going to this type of residency called Haus Schwartzberg. There are about 10 artists working in different studios in this building. You walk in and it's just covered in street art and stickers and posters, and it's kind of overwhelming, but if you're willing to kind of pass the threshold, you start to meet people and connect.
This space actually was where I got to meet someone named Safi, and he'd been working there since the 90s when it originally opened. I'd describe him almost as like the security guard or the overseer for the space, like he is an icon of this venue. He manages the cafe, which is on the main floor, which is connected to a bar, which also is connected to a small museum, two floors up is a print store and then above that are all these studios.
So it's like this one ecosystem of a building that just starting to understand how communities like this are helping to sustain artists. Artists take their turns working in these different spaces, and that allows them to afford working in the studios. It's like a full non-profit, but so the revenue they make from the cafe, and the bar, and the museum, and the print shop all goes towards allowing the artists to do their work in the studios.
So that was a huge aha moment for me. I like went home after that day exhausted and inspired about the opportunities and just kind of like, the world that doesn't exist, I'd say, in America. And the value and the way that artists are kind of sustaining and supporting each other through these different structural models.
And then I got into Copenhagen, and here I had the chance to meet Iskra, who works at a gallery called the Copenhagen Outsider Art Gallery. It's actually a space for individuals who are mentally and physically disabled to showcase their work. So they're supported by the government and they have the opportunity to work full-time as an artist because they aren't as worried about financial concerns. I sat down with her and she let me do like a full interview kind of ad hoc and she just told me about the business of art, and she was actually probably the first person to talk to me about art like a business. I think her stat was something like she only spends 10% of her time actually creating and she spends the other 90% of her time figuring out how she's gonna sell and networking and connecting with people.
It was definitely an eye opener and it started to put things on the spectrum of what it really takes to be an artist in different places and how the macro kind of differences between them start to impact the way artists have careers.
Showing up and thinking that I was going to talk about technology platforms and AI with artists in different cities around the world was probably pretty naive of me. Especially as someone that is an outsider to this community, showing up and asking them what they think about ChatGPT would have almost got me like shown out the door.
I did have the conversations around these platforms and the role of technology, and I quickly realized that: it's true, these platforms aren't serving the artists in the way that they're touted.
So a platform like Instagram, the idea is that it's for discovery and helping you showcase your work. That might work at some scale, but artists aren't really getting any actual value out of it. When they say, "oh, like, the likes on my photos have gone down," and then I ask well, does that matter, and how does that kind of impact what you're doing? It doesn't. I think they really noticed that like these platforms hold the control and kind of like the keys to the fan bases, and that makes it a lot less attractive for artists who take on this career because they want to be in charge of what they're doing, and they want to share their own perspective. And I don't think they want to be beholden to a platform that's going to tell them what their art should look like in order for it to get discovered.
So it was kind of interesting to hear that I'd say what's expected or what they're expected to do just isn't serving the actual artists in the community.
I definitely came back completely inspired, my phone is full of notes and pictures, my laptop is full of stories.
Going forward in my next steps, I'm going to continue to produce art myself and see like what it takes to put it out into the world, and how I can be that better facilitator in the community. I have a lot of interest in starting my own business. I come from a family business background and I've been thinking about my time at Kellogg: we don't just talk about product-market fit, we also talk about founder-market fit. And when I think about a customer group and a community that I want to be engaged with, I don't think there's one that I'm better suited to kind of serve than the arts community.
The biggest takeaway and the thing that is going to stick with me is this empathy for artists and how you have the conversation, and how you open the door, and it's not about making money, and it's not about the career of an artist. People are doing art because of the way that it makes them feel. They get the chance to be the best version of themselves when they're creating art.
I think historically the platforms that exist are a little self-centered and they're too technology-focused. They aren't putting the artist first. So how do we build something that allows just for that? That's really where I see the opportunity and it's definitely something that I'm excited to continue to explore.
When I think about the role of art in general in our world, it like brings us joy and it's something that is exclusively designed to make us happy and start a conversation and it's something that I want to make sure is sustained in the world going forward. It's on us, this next generation, to start having those conversations and showing that we care for artists in our community. When I think of young people today and the pressures that are put on people to go to school and get perfect grades, that's very different than what I experienced growing up in an art school where the pressure was put on us to try things and make mistakes all the time and be comfortable being bad at something. And I think if we don't create space for the arts, people are going to lose that comfort solving problems. I hope that we get to sustain this and I think it will sustain, but I think it could use some reinvention and reimagination and some new eyes.
Host: The Levy Inspiration Grant Program is made possible through the generous support of Larry and Carol Levy and is managed by the Entrepreneurship program at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. To learn more about the Levy Inspiration Grant Program and other ways we support student entrepreneurs, visit our website at kell.gg/entrepreneurship. That's kell.gg/ entrepreneurship. I'm your host, Tyler Seybold. Thanks for listening.
