[PODCAST] Position is Power
New Netvvrk Hub
The Art Problems Podcast is back after a two-month hiatus — and I’m back announcing the biggest update in Netvvrk membership history.
The economy’s rough. The art world’s uncertain.
And I’m not pretending otherwise.
But that does mean that focusing on your career now can give you a leg up.
This episode is about giving yourself that advantage by finding your place in the art world — and actually moving forward.
Podcast Episode 84:
You are listening to the Art Problems Podcast, episode 84. I'm your host, Patty Johnson. This is the podcast where we talk about how to get more shows, grants and residencies. And today the podcast returns after a two month hiatus. Can I just say I have missed you all? As some of you may remember, I took that break so I could focus on developing the content of the membership.
So last week, I relaunched network. It's the same membership you know and love, but with a step-by-step curriculum hosted on a new hub. It's easy to navigate, a fully designed experience and probably the best work I've ever done in my entire life. So all that's great, but if I'm being honest with you, I've been pretty nervous about the launch because I've built this thing that's really fucking awesome and it's gonna help a ton of artists.
And Donald Trump is busy burning down the country and the world economy. How am I supposed to get to work with any of you and help you if we're all too worried about what's gonna happen to make the investment? That's what's been on my mind. So I guess I just wanted to tell you what I'm doing because I think we're all in the same boat together.
I am making the investment in artists, even with all the uncertainty that surrounds it. Why? Because what else is there to do? I can only control my own actions, so I choose to invest in you. And I do that because I think that is my best path towards success, and I think it is our best path towards success to make something so good that. We all can't do without it. And to be honest, this was true even before the upgrades and Netflix's first two years of existence, artists earned over a million dollars in grants and opportunities. Our artists this year alone, have won Creative Capital Awards, Guggenheim's and Pollock kras. Moreover, I'm working with artists to help them secure exhibitions at some of the largest and most important institutions in the world.
Those details, by the way, are top secret, but you better believe. I'll let you know about those when I can, but if I am being honest. It's not like those gains occurred without any friction. So I wanna step back a minute and break down the issues I was seeing inside the membership and how I went about solving them. Because even if you've never seen the membership, these challenges will feel familiar. So issue number one. Was that we had enormous resources inside the membership, but artists frequently had trouble identifying where to start and what to focus on. And this is true even without access to our resources.
Like you can access a whole lot online already, and AI helps you find more now than you ever could have with Googling alone, but it doesn't help you prioritize what you can't prioritize for yourself. So as a result, I started focusing on goal setting. I felt this would help artists because if they set goals, they'd know exactly where to place their efforts. Well, that proved to be more of a bandaid than a cure. I found that no matter how detailed my goal setting programs were. Artists often got stuck setting their goals. They weren't sure how to orient themselves. And this makes sense too, right? Because if you're trying to figure out your goals, but you don't have enough information to set a direction, you're gonna get stuck.
And so this was my starting point. How can I help artists identify the exact place in the art world so they know where and how to focus their efforts? And this was complicated somewhat by the fact that many artists I work with have been working inside the industry for ages. Like many of you may relate to this, right? You already know the art world. You still get stuck even when you feel like you know your position well enough. Well, I'm not the only one who has attempted this work, right? Andrea Frazier recently published an article last October in flx titled The Field of Contemporary Art, A Diagram In it, she created a matrix that identified different sectors in which cultural power trumped economic power and vice versa, and old identities versus emerging, and their power relative to this sector.
So I love this diagram and I spent so much time on it that I actually. Spent about three hours manually breaking down the chart, and I still didn't feel like I had any more agency than I did before the chart in terms of actually acting on it. Right. So that was part of the problem. It's like, even if I have this. Thing, what good is it if I don't know what to do with it? So probably the most useful work I found in building a map for artists came from Louise r Mayhew, who identified the sectors of the art worlds and their traits on Instagram. So she talked about the experimental art world, which is basically conceptual art, traditional, which is artists who show in commercial galleries community. Artists who work with the public and retail artists who sell online. And there are more, of course, like you might be a new media artist, work in academic circles, that sort of thing. But those were the four main ones. And once I had those broad definitions, I was able to start applying those concepts surrounding artist, career level and reach to what I was teaching, meaning.
If you know what career level you're at and what part of the org market you want to participate in, then setting goals can become a lot more purposeful. You can decide where to focus your efforts because you know what will take you the furthest relative to your career level. And if you make updates to the materials representing you, you'll be able to do so with your specific audience and objectives in mind. So that's a massive shift. From what we've seen in the past, which treats all actions of self-representation as relatively equal and operates as though artist materials have a relatively uniform marketing purpose. The fact is, is they don't and they never have. But I've never seen an explanation of why we even use the materials we do for self-representation, much less how we should adapt them for our specific audiences.
So what I've created gives you these tools. Imagine what it would feel like to stop spinning your wheels and finally start gaining real momentum to know exactly where to focus, to have a network backing you, making connections, sharing opportunities, celebrating wins. That's what's possible Inside Network. I've created access to these tools based on your level and what you need. It's basically a restructuring of the membership that better responds to the needs of artists. So the first access level is what we call starter. This is perfect for people who have been working in the art world for less than five years.
Or are at a higher level in their career, but are unsure if they're ready to commit to the network membership. So let me explain how I've structured the material so it meets the different career level needs. The starter tier gives you access to what we call positions. It's what I like to think of as your field work, the foundation for navigating the art world strategically. It's the first course in our curriculum. We have individual lessons built out for artists at the different levels that you may be in. If you're a beginner, it will give you the information and language to articulate the art world in a way that you might not have been able to achieve on your own. If you're more advanced, you have materials that tell you where to focus your efforts for that level and how to think about and craft your career narrative tools required.
Particularly at higher levels in the art world. So in this tier, you also get access to the coaching call recordings for the month. So you have a sense of what we talk about on those calls and the advice that other artists like you are seeking. So the cost for this tier starts at $29 a month, and this is the framework that I wish every artist had. It's a real map, not just advice that you somehow have to figure out how to apply to your practice and now. For the first time, you can choose the level of support that fits exactly where you are Now. What you don't get access to is the full curriculum, the individualized feedback, the specific instruction on how to build your representation materials, that community or the vast resource.
This is what you get in our professional level tier. It's the level that I recommend for most artists who listen to the podcast and where you get the most bang for your buck because you get positions, the field work course, but then you see it applied to every aspect of your career. You get the support that is truly customized. This is ideal for artists who've been out of school for at least five years, and you're showing, but you know, not as much as you would like. You know, you need access to more resources and a larger network and you don't know how to get there. Network solves this problem through our fully designed curriculum, vast and highly searchable research library.
Incredible community and the cost for this tier starts at $99 a month. Now, when you have the right guidance, the right community, the right plan, like everything changes, you stop feeling like you're guessing and you start seeing real measurable growth. And that's what the pro level gives you. And honestly, this is where I see the most growth with the artists. That I work with because it's where the momentum really starts to build, and you can make the biggest gains from the changes you make. And what you don't get access to at the pro level is fully customized packages based on your particular needs. We solve this problem with our mastery tier. Which typically serves artists who have needs that extend beyond representation, so most artists don't need this level of support.
At this stage. You're likely trying to solve staffing and legacy issues. You have an established practice and need highly specialized consulting for artists. At this stage, we build an entirely customized consulting package and require a minimum of $2,500. For a down payment on a larger scope of work. So whether you're just getting started building professional momentum or ready for advanced support, there is a path for you and that's a major upgrade for everyone.
So if you're thinking about getting serious about your, our career, not just hoping for more shows, grants and opportunities, but actually building towards them this. Is your moment. And I say this because I just launched the brand new curriculum and the excitement inside the membership honestly is palpable. Like people are psyched and it's so, I don't know, it's just so exciting to hear like and to see like every day. For the past week, I've received messages from members who I have found the new hub profoundly used. Full, getting them unstuck and thinking about their careers with more purpose and direction.
It's so great to see that. And I just want you to have access to that too, if you wanna take advantage of everything that's happening right now. The new curriculum, the coaching, the community. Now is the time to join. And yes, the world is burning. I mean, it's not gonna feel like it's a great time to focus on your career. I mean, I'm just, that's just the way it is. But if you do this now, if we do this together, we are the ones with the advantage. You're out ahead, you're staying connected. You are doing things when others are not. You don't have to figure this out alone, and you also don't have to already be getting the shows and the grants you want.
This is what we're here to help you do because joining network isn't just about getting tools. It's about stepping into a version of yourself that knows where you're headed and knows how to get there, and knows there is a community there to help you every step of the way. So head to the link in the show notes. Or visit, get more shows.art and click Join Network. I'd love to see him inside. Thank you for listening. If you like the show, please leave a review and share it with a friend. It really helps get that valuable information out to more artists just like you. You can find all of the names and the links that we reference in this conversation@berksshop.art. Slash podcast.
Paddy
