Taking the Leap: Building a Career as a Visual Artist (The Insider's Guide to Exhibiting and Selling Your Art)

Taking the Leap is written in a positive, yet practical, tone and serves as an All-in-One Guide for the career artist. Although this book is a decade old, the information can still be applied in today’s art market. Nowhere is this more apparent in Chapter Two Creating Your Artist’s Packet. It discusses how to write an artist’s bio, artist’s statement, photographing your art, and sending out your artist packets to galleries.Since Lang’s specialty is photography she gives helpful advice to artist’s taking pictures of their art for the first time. The subject of taking slides of your art is touched upon with good reason. The older, more established galleries prefer the old technology of slides over a CD-Rom when it comes to viewing the art. Lang touches upon the subject of what most artists fear: Writing the Artist Statement. “I suggest keeping a visual diary with you in the studio as you work. As ideas and phrases come to you, write them down, in part or in whole. Don’t worry about your writing style, just get the thoughts down. Your work wants you to understand it; spend time with it, and it will speak to you. Later you can use the ideas as sources for your statement (pg. 38) and “keep the information as specific as possible” (pg. 37).The appendices contain quite a lot of organizations which can be of help to the career artist. Sidestreet Project offers support to artists such as grant writing assistance, graphic design, new media production, consultation, and digital projector rentals. Art deadlines list provides listings of contests, scholarships, juried shows, jobs, internships, and call for entries. Laughing Squid is a database of local, regional art and culture, and maintains daily show announcements.I first read this book in 2011 and just finished reading it again in 2016 because Taking the Leap is one of those few books which is worth re-reading. I applied its insights when I first read it and my art was accepted by a midtown gallery. This book is smartly written yet the language is clear; both the beginner and the careerist can get valuable insights from it. It presents several templates of what an artist’s bio, artist statement, consignment forms, and an artist-gallery agreement ought to look like. Cay leaves no stone unturned, even taxes and dealing with the IRS is discussed! Take the Leap and Buy this book.

I had this book as a textbook for an art business class in grad school, and really enjoyed it and learned a lot from it. Some of it is a little outdated (who really uses slides anymore?), but overall it was very easy to read and had a lot of great information in a very digestible format. The tone is overall very positive and breaks everything down into basic and simple steps, so it seems like you really CAN take the leap. I feel this book is a must-have for every art major who doesn't want to end up as a starving artist.

Being an artist mostly as a serious hobby until my retirement in '07, I wanted to give my hobby a boost into a possible career. The book is very good at detailing the necessary steps to building a profile and to get my art recognized. However, it is written more to the very advanced professional who just hasn't gotten the recognition they want. For me, it will take quit awhile to go through all the steps. For the more advanced it will make the journey a lot easier. I would recommend it for anyone who is serious at wanting to advance themselves in the art world.

This book was really for the beginner whom wants a career as an artist. This is a great book for a beginner. There was very little new information for me which was disappointing. That said it was motivational, and provided information about taxes for the artist and consignment forms which was in fact information that I knew very little about. It was a quick read so if you have access to a copy then you might as well read it but be forewarned, there was no information on grants which was my motivation for purchasing the book. Sorry Cay!

While taking art courses at the university there was not one class devoted to the business side of art. I believe this is a common thread throughout our public schools an universities. They are cranking out thousands of students each year who don't have a clue about what it takes to be successful. I believe Cay Lang's book is a valuable tool in helping fill this void. It gives "Real world" common sense examples of how to promote yourself and prepare for the wonderful, competitive world of Art. This would be a meaningful gift for anyone starting out in the visual arts.

It might be handy for someone starting out, however most of the information is very 1998. It was a recommended read from a well known arts organization that I follow and I purchased it based on that. I would suggest saving your money and searching the internet for the same information for free.

Taking the Leap: Building a Career as a Visual Artistby Cay Lang...nicely balances the aspects of what the title is about.It mixes references/examples with good old advice in an organized easy to read fashion. I feel that it is a great investment for anyone starting out or needs a good refresher.

This book seems really outdated and basic to me for a couple of reasons. First, the author talks at length about sending out artist packages to galleries via mail. Almost no one does this any more, and unfortunately new artists that read this book will spend money on materials to send packages to galleries that will never be touched. All galleries I work with today prefer these materials to be send via e-mail. So the content the author discusses is decent, but the method is extremely outdated. Also, for any artists reading this she fails to mention the commonly accepted term for an artist's resume' is now referred to as a CV (curriculum vitae).

Excellent advice for all practicing artists at whatever stage of their careers

This book has some great insights into starting to form an art career. Worth every penny.It also has some great templates!

This book is clearly marked and damaged, being passed off as a new book. This purchase would have been a gift, I’m a disappointed customer.

Thanks a lot for such a 1 st class service-after this "lost in nirvana" and a new item on tour.

Very interesting book.