You may be considering taking on teaching art workshops to boost your cash flow as the economy softens. Yes, workshops can be profitable, but they also have other advantages. In disguise, they are also a fantastic way to boost to your own creative process – and to relieve artist’s block. Here’s why:
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1. Opening up less conventional paths
As makers, we tend to settle into the way we do things in our hands-on practice informed by lots of trial and error, and then just stick with it. However, this can often close us off to new learning. Teaching art workshops can shake off those shackles of routine. Being around new people – amateurs and first-timers experimenting and creating – will often bring up questions like, ‘Will it work if I do it this way?’ or alternatively you may observe someone using their own hack.
Beginners are not bound by convention and tend to engage in original techniques and approaches that experienced artists may overlook, or not think of. Everyone benefits – you as well as your students – through fresh thinking.
2. Force you to be more time efficient
An art workshop is about a project-based outcome within a specific timeframe. There is no wobble room. You need to plan – and time – the steps to making a particular object. You need to work out actual material quantity and costs, and understand the stages to making that object. This in an incredible lesson for your own studio practice, which may help to streamline waste and time in your daily practice.
3. New thinking from peers
Artists teaching other artists in their workshops not only sees them joined by a fabulous supportive collegiate network, but also offers an invaluable check-in to share information about supplies, events, opportunities, sales and – best of all – knowledgeable tips.
We tend to stick with the tools and suppliers we have, often becoming blinkered to other options. As a jeweller, I love the little hacks shared that you will never learn at art school or in a technical guide. I also find being in another artist’s studio and seeing how they store things, arrange equipment and move efficiently around their space, a really good check with my own studio practice.
Read: Tips on how to run a creative workshop
4. Boost confidence and kill the lurking imposter syndrome
When you deliver a workshop as an artist you are forced to talk about technique in particular, and the creatives processes behind making. This is a great way to boost confidence in speaking about your own work in public.
With time, this level of confident delivery can also lead to other opportunities, such as speaking at art schools or other educational programs, hosting a residency program or being a guest artist with a speaking engagement.
5. Reinstate the pure joy of making
Working solo in the studio, artists can feel isolated. By delivering art workshops, you immediately get that injection of social connection. Better still, many who sign up to do an art workshop come with little experience with art, so the tone of the day is a sense of ‘wow’ in the discovery of being creative. It is extremely reaffirming as an artist.
Read: How do I market my workshop for success?
6. Increase your exposure
While this is a bit of a no-brainer, bringing a group of new people into your studio will increase your exposure and profile – not just to this group, but to their friends and social media network. As time has persistently proven, word of mouth is the best marketing tool in the box.
Remember to leave them with a ‘calling card’ an old-fashioned way to stimulate that word of mouth, and something they can give to interested friends. You also want to create a bit of a community among participants – maybe by doing a special ‘open studio’ day partly for workshop attendees or perhaps launch your program for the next season. While these are simple marketing tools, they build your followers – which often means building sales.
