Coaching with A.C.T.'s Art Business Mentor Alexandria Levin on Pricing Your Work
“Money is neither intrinsically good nor bad. Having money doesn’t make you a better person or divinely blessed. Poverty a virtue, and suffering does not make you great. Having money, or not having it, is no reflection of your inherent worth as a human being. It’s neutral.
Money is an agreed-upon unit of exchange. You need to be able to assess the value of your work, and that starts with doing the math. The myth of the “starving artist” is just that- a myth and is being shattered each day by the work of creative, committed artists like you. If you want to make a living making art, you must learn how to price your work.
Pricing artwork is a major issue for many artists. The majority of art schools do not include pricing in their classes. Indeed, some perpetuate the myth that pricing is a dirty business not suited to the temperaments of fine artists. Being an artist is a vocation. You work hard and put in the time, so you have the right to make a living making art.”
Alexandria Levin has exhibited her oil paintings in galleries, museums and cultural centers across the country since 1981, including ten solo shows. Her paintings are in private collections from Boston to Japan, as well as in the state of New Mexico’s Capitol Art Collection in Santa Fe. She has lectured on her art in the San Francisco Bay Area, Philadelphia and Tokyo, and was awarded major state grants from the California Arts Council and Massachusetts Arts Lottery Council, plus she has received various exhibition and purchase awards. Ms. Levin attended Massachusetts College of Art to study painting for two years and later returned to school at the San Francisco Art Institute where she received a BFA with honors in 1989.
Alexandria is currently living and painting in the Philadelphia area, and has recently written two bookson the arts and creativity. She is also working on two collections of poetry and song lyrics. As always,and as the top priority in her life, she is painting whenever possible; continuing to build her two currentbodies of work with well over a hundred and seventy paintings to date and going strong. www.alexalev.com
Alexandria is available to work with you individually on your pricing strategy. There is no minimum time requirement (beyond 1 hour) and a coaching program can be customized to meet your specific needs.
Register here for hourly coaching at $125/hour.
If you want more independent study resources, please visit the Art Business Library to purchase other A.C.T. Art Business Tools: www.artbusinesslibrary.com/artist-money-matters.