2.2: Mission, Vision, Values

Consider What You Stand for and How That Impacts Your Practice
Read by Wed Sep 10,
Reading Response due Wed Sep 10,
Batman Slapping Robin Meme: Our Mission is to inspire moments of optimism and hap... <slap> It's to make money!

Why?

Mission, vision, and value statements are typically found in the business world where companies and non-profits outline their purpose for existing. Being a professional artist often means that you function slightly as a business, and as such it can be helpful to articulate mission, vision, and value statements for yourself. It can help provide focus and function as a measuring stick against which you can weigh the decisions you make.

Required

Mission Statements for Artists: What They Are and How to Write One, Fractured Atlas

"Mission statements are powerful tools for artists, arts organizations, or any group of people looking to have an impact with the work that they do. In one or two sentences, a mission statement can help you clarify the effect that you want your work to have for yourself, for your audience, and for donors."

How to Write Mission, Vision, and Values Statements – 100 Examples to Help Guide You Through the Process, Bâton Global

"Mission, vision and values statements serve as the foundation for an organization’s strategic plan. They convey the purpose, direction and underlying values of the organization. When developed and implemented in a thoughtful and deliberate manner, these statements can serve as powerful tools that provide organizations with meaningful guidance, especially under times of rapid change. Consequently, taking the time to craft relevant mission, vision and value statements should be carefully considered."

The 100 examples of mission, vision, and value statements can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/1y03uaeyt0ll02s68umvs/100-examples-of-mission-vision-value-statements.pdf?rlkey=1nmia1401domhlr2fn2ge0i9u&dl=0. You are not required to read these now, but they can be a useful reference when you have to write your own.

Response Question

Select one question below to which you will respond. Remember to cite specific instances from the text to support your views.

  • Write a mission statement, a vision statement, and a value statement. Each statement should be a single, concentrated sentence. Next, describe why you focused on the things you did. Take this seriously, since you will refer to these statements throughout the semester.

2.1: The Big Picture + Groundwork

A Wider Perspective for a Broad Field
Read by Mon Sep 08,
Reading Response due Wed Sep 10,
Guy Richards Smit, Leap of Faith, 2022
Guy Richards Smit
Leap of Faith, 2022

Why?

Art is practiced in a number of different ways including commercial and non-commercial, rigorously and as a pastime, and so on. The different practices are as diverse as the number of artists. This course is meant to address options that artists have and the ways that they interact with the world. We will talk about the practicalities of taxes, contracts, selling artwork, and we will discuss alternatives to the most visible ways that artists operate in the world.

Our text, Art/Work, is a good contemporary introduction to many of these ideas. Our first couple of chapters lay the groundwork for the rest of the text and this course.

Required

The Big Picture + Groundwork, Art/Work

Pages 1–57. These first two chapters of Art/Work provide an introduction to the professional world of artists and how varied the options are.

Response Questions

Select one question below to which you will respond. Remember to cite specific instances from the text to support your views.

  • What aspects that are introduced in these first chapters are you most interested in learning about and why?
  • What most surprised you from these first two chapters—i.e., things you hadn’t though much about? Do you think these surprises are practical and something you’d like to implement, or do you see them as not applicable to you or frivolous? Why?