Every artist should have a good resume, or “vitae”, and a biography. They should be kept up to date and ready to hand out as needed. The resume should contain the artist’s name, age, address, telephone, email address, website, and media. It should also contain a summary of art education, schools attended, degrees earned, and the years these were attended, relevant art teachers, seminars and continuing education. Another section should list by date significant competitions, exhibitions and honors. A different paragraph should list important public and private collections. Included could be some tastefully mounted photos of your work and/or a brochure.
Most galleries will not pay any attention to resumes, they care about the work itself. But, some will want to know everything about you and the resume is the best tool. Collectors, arts administrators, museums, competitions and others may want to see your resume as well. It will be used as a basis of information in articles or stories written about art or you or both.
The resume doesn’t need to be fancy, just neat, easy to read, and concise. There is no need to include hobbies, interests, goals, and objectives. Generally speaking include any information that makes you look good. If you studied under Picasso, or won a big award on the job and it can be art related put it in. Don’t lie and don’t exaggerate. If you want to leave something out, leave it out.
Get busy and get a great resume ready, make it a resolution to do it soon!
Gail Niebrugge, landscape artist
