5 reasons artists might want to brand their art practice as a “studio”

Half a dozen viewers look at a reflection of a spherical video installation projected on glass. The central most viewer’s head is nicely framed inside the spherical projection.
Viewers engaging with Citysphere at the Dumbo Arts Festival in Brooklyn, NY

Reason 1: Freedom to embrace a diverse set of projects

Photograph of a single-use plastic bottle with a red, starburst-shaped 1.25 inch sticker on it that says: ‘This plastic will exist for at least 450 years. We need better options #450yrs.’ In the background, behind the bottle, is a green field

TL;DR: a “studio” implies multiple people working under one roof which is a more natural fit for an art practice that works on a diverse set of projects.

Reason 2: A helpful layer of abstraction

TL;DR: working under the umbrella of a studio can provide a valuable mental buffer between you and output of your art practice that can liberate you to pursue different kinds of projects.

Reason 3: Online marketing

Two facebook ads shown side by side with “shop.ericcorrielstudios.com” highlighted on the left, and “shop.ericcorriel.com” highlighted on the right.

TL;DR: a “studio” is more legitimizing to an uninitiated audience when selling products online.

Reason 4: Communicating with the external world

kate@ericcorriel.com

  1. handle all communications themselves (not possible for large scale projects)
  2. have an assistant handle communications from their own gmail (messy, lose access to communications when assistant leaves)
  3. have assistant use the artist’s email (messy, no privacy)
  4. have the assistant use a generic email like contact@artistname.com (decent but doesn’t scale beyond one assistant without getting messy)
  5. create an email like kate@ericcorriel.com (nope)
  6. rebrand your entire freakin art practice to be a studio so you and your assistant have separate email addresses that make sense (ding, ding, ding)!

TL;DR: if you think you might have more than one person communicate with the outside world on behalf of your art practice, email addresses like kate@yournamestudios.com are cleaner, more private, respectful, and professional than any alternative.

Reason 5: Think ahead

TL;DR: Operating as a studio allows other creators to work within the structure of your art practice while maintaining their own identity.

Conclusion

  1. It’s a more natural fit if you plan on embracing a diverse set of projects that don’t easily relate to each other
  2. It’s conceptually liberating to have a layer of abstraction between you and the work
  3. It’s a more natural fit if you plan on having other people communicate with the outside world on your behalf
  4. It’s more reassuring from an online marketing perspective
  5. It’s more future-proof if you ever plan on being able to provide a structure under which other artists can work

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multidisciplinary art studio • immersive and interactive public art • video installations • art activism • nyc

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Eric Corriel Studios

multidisciplinary art studio • immersive and interactive public art • video installations • art activism • nyc