Professional Development As An Artist/ Artist's Who Thrive

In our 4th year Art Seminar class we are going to be covering professional development as artists. I found posted today by a friend something, I thought it was worth  looking at and related to this very topic; a site called, Artist's Who Thrive. The name of it alone immediately caught my attention. I've always long held the belief in thriving, regardless of my life situation or circumstance and have drawn strength, hope and wisdom from others who have thrived, as opposed to survival, not in spite of their adversity, but thrived because of their challenging circumstances.

Here is the group's Manifesto. I like Manifestos. As Contemporary Artists, we need to write more of them.

The Artists Who THRIVE Manifesto The definition of Artists Who THRIVE: combining creative freedom with business savvy.
The mission of Artists Who THRIVE is to support artists, from all walks, to successfully combine their creative freedom and business savvy so that they may thrive.  And thriving means effectively marketing and selling their art.
This growing global community of artists includes painters, jewelers, photographers, videographers, designers, musicians, and more.
We explore business and marketing strategies that are particular to art.
That means articulating your work’s unique value and reaching a targeted market.  Translated, thriving in a creative enterprise means understanding your tribe, celebrating their culture, inspiring them, and building and owning your platform.
By sharing our successes, insights, energy, and resources we cultivate a positive and productive online global community.
Envision your creative enterprise and construct an action plan to manifest it!
* We proclaim proudly, “I’m an artist and an entrepreneur.”
* We realize that the traditional model of artist representation is permission and scarcity based and that it is limited and crumbling.
* We believe in getting our fair share, our piece of the art market pie.
* We believe that we have shaped our artistic voice and that we have the power to inspire.
* We understand that the market always has and always will pay for inspiration.
* We understand people are buying art and that there is plenty of market share to go around.
* We believe we offer creative expression that adds value to the world and therefore the marketplace.
* We know and can articulate our unique selling proposition to our defined market.
* We believe that we will not be discovered but our value can if we promote it effectively.
* We develop our own platforms and add unique value to a defined market space in order to grow sustainable creative businesses.
* We are confident and optimistic that we are in control of our destiny.
* We know that in this new conceptual economy “the right brainers rule the world.”*

* “A Whole New Mind” by Daniel Pink

Welcome to this whining free zone.