NCEC in the News!
UNCG Alum Conquers Contemporary Art World: Jane South
Researched and written by Ethanie Walentuk
Artists may not often be thought of as entrepreneurs, but building a career as an artist is definitely a business enterprise. Entrepreneurial skills are essential for cultivating interest and popularity for an artists work. For UNCG alumna Jane South, the business of art has always been secondary to making great art, and she says that’s the key to success as an artist. She can make that claim as an individual who has gained considerable success both nationally and internationally with her mixed-media, three-dimensional drawings. She has experimented with many mediums including theater set design and concrete sculpture, but now works with paper, ink, and paint to create sculptural drawings.
After graduating with an MFA from UNCG in 1997, South moved to Brooklyn and began showing her work. She hadn’t planned on making a living from her craft, but she remained determined and focused on gaining a name for herself in the New York art scene and cultivating interest among collectors and curators. When she began earning about fifty percent of her income through sales, she became more interested in pursuing the art career she wanted. Her emphasis remained on the quality of her pieces and placing her work in the right hands: serious collectors of contemporary pieces and galleries with reputations for showing avant-garde work like her own.
Her first sculptural paper exhibition was displayed at the Kentler International Drawing Space, a non-profit gallery in New York for upcoming artists. Several commercial galleries saw her work there, including the Spencer Brownstone gallery where she now exhibits her work regularly. Finding the right avenues for both exhibition and publicity were primary concerns for South. She wanted to focus on building a reputation that would last long-term. Her advice to upcoming artists for creating the right image is to be selective. It may seem smart to sell to any buyer who is interested in your work, but South stresses the importance of getting your art in the right hands. An artist’s reputation is paramount to their success, and placement of your pieces creates that reputation.
South spent two years studying at UNCG and says it was one of the best decisions she could have made for graduate school. She says that taking the time to develop her work here was influential to her success because it afforded her a block of time to fully concentrate on her work. She recommends UNCG because of the affordability and the positive attitudes of fellow students. The Weatherspoon gallery and the visiting artist program are also both great resources for our students, and the program is continuing to develop and expand.
Currently, South lives in Brooklyn and works out of a home studio. She spends about a semester a year traveling to colleges as a visiting artist and enjoys working with students and spending time in different places. She realizes how difficult it is to build a successful enterprise with contemporary art--an expensive piece of work from an upcoming artist is the ultimate luxury item--but she remains optimistic about her career goals. Her three-dimensional pieces range from five to thirty five thousand dollars, and she is able to live comfortably from sales and visiting artist positions. Building her career has been much like creating her intricate work- he process is slow and detailed, but the results are rewarding.
She recommends taking advantage of helpful resources in your community and online. Many communities have programs that are designed to promote and facilitate art in their area. The New York Foundation for the Arts is a great program; it includes classified ads on the web site. Here in the Triad a great resource is the Arts Council of Winston Salem and Forsyth County. There are always avenues available to aid artists, and they can provide support for exhibition and financing.
South’s final piece of advice for upcoming artists is to never let the business of art get in the way of creating it. The field is quite narrow, but there is always room for creative and determined new artists with exceptional talent.
Jane South was one of the panelists on the 3 October 2007 panel discussion of Entrepreneurship in the Arts presented at 4:00 p.m. in Nursing 130.
This case study was conducted in October 2007 by Ethanie Walentuk, a News and Documentary in the Media Studies Department. Her work was part of and independent study registered through BCN 395.
These case studies were compiled and archived as part of the former BELL (Building Entrepreneuruial Learning for Life) Program's Entrepreneurial Innovation in the Arts (EIA) initiative to provide a library of examples of how artists in many different fields have achieved success. The cases were researched and written by UNCG students.