Unit 0: Course Introduction
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Mike Monteiro "Fuck You, Pay Me"
Sections
Associate Director
Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry
College of Fine Arts, Room 111
Adjunct Professor of Arts Management
CMU School of Art
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Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry. We're a laboratory for atypical, anti-disciplinary, and inter-institutional research at the intersections of arts, science, technology and culture.
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Master of Arts Management (MAM), 2012
Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University -
Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), 2008
Bowling Green State University -
A few of the places I've worked for and worked with:
Assemble, Attack Theatre, ATONATON, Bunker Projects, Contemporary Craft, Conflict Kitchen, The Drift,The Mattress Factory, The National Endowment for the Arts, The Processing Foundation, Prototype, VIA Festival, The Wick Editor.
Let's go around the room:
- Your name?
- Your pronouns?
- What kind of creative practitioner are you?
- What do you hope to get out of this course?
- A course in business fundamentals and professional skills with CFA majors—Art in particular—in mind.
- The content of this course is designed based on the most common questions I receive from current students and CFA alumni.
- This course is about introductions to concepts.
Charles and Ray Eames, Powers of Ten (1977)
- We're taking the 20,0000 foot view in this course.
- We're going to cover a lot of ground, very quickly.
- Units will be primers on business concepts and how they relate to creative practices.
- If there are topics you want to delve more deeply into, I am happy to suggest further readings or other courses.
There are going to be endless opinions that you will hear/have heard throughout your life on what makes a great artist, an amazing designer, or a brilliant architect. If you choose to adhere to these standards, that is your choice. We will not debate or discuss the best career path in this course. Likewise, we will consider career success to be however an individual student defines it for themselves.
If you want to work in a corporation, go for it. If you want to run an anti-capitalist social movement, do it. If you want to be an art world gallery star, rad. If you want to be a hermit in the woods, awesome. Any of the units we cover in this course can apply to whatever career direction you want to take, but we will not debate which is the best.
I've spent a lot of time over the past year teaching myself to cook. One of my favorite books on the subject is Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat. The basic premise is that mastering four basic factors will make food taste delicious. But these are just elements of good cooking. There is a world of amazing food that depends heavily on our culture, background, personal taste and preference—and our appetites.
Business is very much the same way. We're going to discuss how business works and go through many of the best practices—but how you best apply these factors to your practice depends on your background, your tastes, your needs.
The units we will cover throughout the semester are frameworks, guidelines, skills, and concepts for achieving success in creative practices. These are not rules. So, while an answer may be correct and match best practices, that does not make it automatically the right answer for your practice.
Please consider this class a safe space, once a week, for three hours, to explore what you want to do with your life and creative practice. Ask the questions that are difficult, that feel dumb, or that feel intimidating to ask out loud. My goal in this class is not to turn you into the perfect businessperson, but to empower you.
A number of the business concepts we will cover in this course will seem simple at the surface level, but as we apply them in practice, they will become increasingly complex.
For example, filing your individual taxes each year is something you can often do on your own, but filing taxes for a corporation, correctly, will almost always require the aid of a certified accountant.
Throughout each unit, we will address a number of different challenges that all creative practitioners must deal with. To keep things manageable and within the scope of this course, we're going to focus on three levels of problem-solving:
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DIY — Do It Yourself. Take an online class. Google it. This is the default starting point.
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Find an Advisor — Very few problems in business are unique. Talk to your network, seek out industry experts, call on your friends. Workshop. Brainstorm. Find people who can mentor you through a challenging process or who will provide honest feedback.
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Engage a Professional — Often it’s necessary to call in an expert. Lawyers, accountants, insurance agents—working with the right professional can save you money, reduce risk, and enable you to take on more challenging endeavors.
To place units in a real-world context, we're going to discuss topics in relation to three different scales:
“I’m a loner Dottie, a rebel,” Pee-Wee Herman.
This is the starting point. It is approaching business with only your interests in mind. You are the sole beneficiary of your work, but you are also solely responsible for all aspects of your business.
- Terry received his BFA from the CMU School of Art ( I also went to graduate school with him).
At this level, the focus is on how to form a working group and operate at the small business level. What business structures will work best? How are decisions made? What if the relationship between group members sours?
My example: The Institute for New Feeling
- The Institute for New Feeling is comprised of members Scott Andrew (CMU MFA 2013), Agnes Bolt (CMU MFA 2012) and Nina Sarnelle (CMU MFA 2012).
To differentiate this from the Small Group, we’re going to consider a large group to be more than 50 employees/members. How are decisions made when working within a large corporation? What effect does massive size have on conducting business?
My example: Kevyn McPhail (CMU Arch) Kevyn McPhail