bluebee met with Meike Brunkhorst to talk about art marketing and running your art like a business.

Meike Brunkhorst - Photography by Mateusz Łapsa - Malawski

Meike Brunkhorst

Photography by Mateusz Łapsa - Malawski

bluebee met with Meike Brunkhorst to talk about art marketing and running your art like a business.

Meike has been surrounded by art and artists for nearly all of her life. However, as life wanted it, she decided against pursuing a career as an artist and followed her second passion, mathematics. Even during her previous career as an advertising sales manager for international art and lifestyle magazines, Meike organised gigs and art events for her friends on the side. This way she always sought to be personally involved in the arts.

Being surrounded by talented musicians and artists, and increasingly disillusioned with the media industry, she decided to

return to the art world, but as an art marketing consultant, rather than as an artist herself. Today, Meike runs factor-m, a consultancy providing essential guidance and strategic support for artists seeking to improve efficiency and to achieve set goals.

She does some art herself, but only for her own ‘therapeutic’ self. Career-wise, she prefers to be judged by her work as a marketing consultant, which is difficult, because marketing as art itself is very subjective, and success lies in the eye of the beholder.

Meike is passionate about all her clients and really takes the time to understand each artist’s work individually. Supporting her artists is at the core of everything she does, and at first sight it seems that she may not practise what she preaches. She doesn’t have the biggest internet presence or thousands of followers, for instance, instead relying on organic growth and word of mouth. This approach allows her to avoid being swamped by inbound leads, and she doesn’t need to turn down amazing artists due to her workload. It’s all about quality over quantity.

There is no fast track to fame and fortune, and if someone promises something like this to you, don’t believe it. Some steps may seem very easy, but they must also be taken. Most artists could do it all themselves but may decide to spend time in the studio instead. Very often Meike is called at the very last minute, when artists realise that there is more to be done than just putting on a show. Just because

you have built it, people won’t necessarily come. You need to tell them about it, and this is where the penny tends to drop.

In order to run your art practice as a business and not a hobby, and to do it all yourself means that in the worst case you end up only doing what you love, art, for 20% of your time. This frustrates a lot of people. However, you need to gain a competitive

advantage over your fellow artists to succeed in the art world, and marketing will be important to help you do that. The good thing is that there are people who can help. It may not come for free, but in some cases it comes cheaper than you think. Number one piece of advice: Get a website.

In order to run your art practice as a business and not a hobby, and to do it all yourself means that in the worst case you end up only doing what you love, the art, for 20% of your time.

Even a free website is better than nothing, and it’s irresponsible to have no digital footprint nowadays. Make it impossible not to be found. Even if you don’t like Facebook, an art collector who likes your art may. There are many stories of artists getting big on Instagram, but you can’t put all your eggs into one basket. It’s more difficult to stand out in a crowded marketplace. For example, Saatchi Art is now overrun by artists, and therefore it may be good to look for a curated alternative, such as one dedicated to photography or abstract artists only. Do your research.

In a related example, it’s surprising how often emerging artists reach out to galleries for representation without doing any research into the gallery. Furthermore, most don’t even care to show interest in the current exhibition or know anything about the other artists represented.

Don’t think ‘what can the art gallery do for me’ but ‘what can I do for the art gallery?’. Why would they be interested in representing you?

The same applies to journalists. Why should they write about you? What’s in it for them? If you are an unknown artist, don’t expect the art editor of The Guardian to come to your show. Do your research and find out which journalists write about upcoming, undiscovered artists and normally make the journey across town to see new talent.

It sounds difficult, and it may even take some years, but running a business isn’t normally a ‘Get Rich Quick’ thing. Nevertheless, it can be done with the right strategy, and it doesn’t have to be expensive. Sometimes there are easy wins. You just need to do it.

It’s still possible to make a living out of art, although society generally expects artists to be less well off. This is a shame, and it may come from history, when even brilliant artists such as Picasso paid for their wine with art. However, Meike believes that there should be artists from all social classes and that artists should be considered equal members of society. Collectively we need to recognise the value of creative ‘content’, not as a commodity to be exploited, but as an essential contribution in the ‘value chain’.

Reading this interview, you may be an artist yourself. Meike recommends that you don’t give up. The world needs artists. If you aren’t successful in an open call, this doesn’t mean that you aren’t good. It just means that another artist may just have fit slightly better in this situation.