Taking Aim!: The Business of Being an Artist Today

Taking Aim! The Business of Being an Artist Today is a practical, affordable resource guide filled with invaluable advice for the emerging artist. The book is specially designed to aid visual artists in furtheringtheir careers through unfiltered information about the business practices and idiosyncrasies of the contemporary art world. It demystifies often daunting and opaque practices through first-hand testimonials, interviews, and commentary from leading artists, curators, gallerists, collectors, critics, art consultants, arts administrators, art fair directors, auction house experts, and other art world luminaries.

Published in celebration of the 30th anniversary of Artist in the Marketplace (AIM)-the pioneering career development program at the Bronx Museum of the Arts-Taking AIM! The Business of Being an Artist Today mirrors the structure and topics featured in the AIM program's weekly workshops and discussions. Each chapter focuses on the specific perspective of an art world insider-from the artist to the public art program director to the blogger. Multiple viewpoints from a range of art professionals provide emerging artists with candid, uncensored information and tools to help them better understand this complex field and develop strategies for building and sustaining successful careers as professional artists.

The book ends with an annotated chronology of the past three decades in the contemporary art field and a bibliography of publications, magazine articles, online sources, funding sources, residency programs, and other useful information for emerging artists.

Marysol Nieves is a New York-based independent curator and art consultant with more than 20 years' museum and corporate art experience, specializing in contemporary and Latin American art.

AIM Foreword

Sergio Bessa

Acknowledgments

Holly Block

Taking AIM: An Introduction

Marysol Nieves

Talking AIM: A Conversation with Holly Block and Jackie Battenfield

Marysol Nieves

THE ARTIST

Three Decades, Three Artists: Rina Banerjee, Kate Gilmore, and Whitfield Lovell

Roco Aranda-Alvarado

Small Worlds: An Interview with Polly Apfelbaum and Amy Cutler

Lydia Yee

Art without Market

Anton Vidokle

THE CURATOR

Climate Change: East Coast to West Coast Curators Articulate the Evolving Curatorial Role

Regine Basha

THE CRITIC

Art Criticism at Present: Five Voices

Raphael Rubinstein

AIM in Review: The Critics' Perspective

Brian Sholis

THE DEALER

Gallerists and the Marketplace

Carla Stellweg

THE COLLECTOR

The Scoop on Miami

Axel Stein

Cultivating Young Collectors through The Contemporaries

Rodney Reid

INTERSTICE

The Leibowitz Questionnaire

Cary Leibowitz

THE ART ADVISOR AND CORPORATE CURATOR

The Journey from the Studio to the Collection: Six Interviews with Art Advisors, Corporate Curators, and Others

Barbara Toll

THE ART FAIR DIRECTOR

The Art Fair Effect

Omar Lopez-Chahoud and Ian Cofre

FOUNDATIONS AND ARTS COUNCILS

Funding Artists: An Inside Perspective

Melissa Rachleff Burtt

ARTISTS' RESIDENCIES AND COMMISSIONING OPPORTUNITIES

Between the Lines: Residencies, Commissions, and Public Art

Sara Reisman

THE WEB AND SOCIAL NETWORKING

Art World 2.0

Kianga Ellis

Selected Chronology of World and Art Events, 1979-2010

Compiled by Monica Espinel

Selected Bibliography and Resources

Compiled by Monica Espinel

Artist in the Marketplace Alumni List

List of Contributors