Last week I had the pleasure to serve on a discussion panel at the Dennos Art Museum in Traverse City, Michigan. What a great city!
Serving on the board were artists Eric Daigh, Lindy Bishop, Richard Davis, Troy DeShano, Daniel Lisuk and Rufus Snoddy. This well attended discussion had a lot of input and thoughts not only from the artists on the panel but the attendees as well. We discussed pricing in art and how you can only go up . . . we all decided that we 'hate' pricing our work and doing all the book keeping that goes with it yet, it is very important. We also discussed how communities can benefit from 'artists' and how artists can 'benefit' from an active artist community. It was the consensus of all artists and many of the attendees that artists often times make less money than many other professions, however, we are asked to 'donate' our art for all sorts of fund-raising events. We all decided we work way too hard to have to do this and will further discuss policies for change on this subject. Do you have any comments on this?
We all agreed how important and how big of a draw having an 'artist community' is to a city or small town. Galleries, Museums etc. are always attracting visitors and vacationers to an area, thus bringing in money for the local economy.
Also, decided was how lacking the U.S. is in 'art' and it's importance compared to Europe. We felt that educating EVERYONE to appreciate art - not just the well-to-do or elite, would benefit the arts and society as a whole in our country.
And on a final note . . . one of the artists mentioned that some country (maybe Ireland)??? actually values their artists so much that they don't pay taxes . . . hmmm. . . does anyone know anything about that - I would love further information.

So . . . we discussed much and had an enjoyable time. We all left with inspiration to make art in our own communities even more important.
While I was there I delivered art to some great galleries that represent my work - if you are in the area stop by . . .
Tvedten Fine Art, Harbor Springs, Michigan
Gallery 50, Traverse City, Michigan
Crooked Tree Art Center, Petoskey, Michigan