As an emerging artist, I yearned to be more apart of the art world in a more exclusive way; by participating in the elusive artist-in-residencies and other opportunities for professional development. However, I think my marketing background gets the best of me sometimes because I see both sides. When I look at it from a marketing perspective the so-called artist opportunities and residencies are just that, marketing ploys to help the organization and artist and it becomes a two-way deal. However, sometimes this isn’t always the case and the organization often offers way-too-good-to-be-true opportunities and artists get sucked in and then they end up paying for most of it. The best things and most rewarding things in life are free and the best things that have happened to my career have been free. A lot of the time I do try to see it from the organization’s perspective and if I like them enough – do go ahead and pay that entry-fee or that one-third for an experience. 

I spent 3.5 years applying for opportunities and projects on a consistent basis and got rejected by most. Until I realized that most of these opportunities are just marketing ploys to help grow an organization. I have been to a few residencies and done a few projects with the artist community but other than that nothing too large scale. But yet again, my marketing/business background is showing me the other side of things. It’s telling me that with the right planning, connections, proposals, funding, etc. you don’t need those artist opportunities because the people behind all of that have done that already. It’s part of their programming and capacity building of the organization. I think these opportunities are great for emerging artists or those who are stuck within their practice. But your success as an artist shouldn’t be based off of what you can put down in a resume/cv, as always it should be what you can put in a portfolio, depending on what your approach is of course. Since those rejections, I have realized this and am now ready to focus on building a portfolio around a strong artist statement and a vision.