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"Devotion to a successful career, often at the expense of one's personal life or ethics." (Dictionary.com)
"The practice of advancing one's career at the expense of one's personal integrity." (Webster.com)
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When I was in art school, "careerism" was a dirty word. It still is, although the definition and parameters of career ambition have changed.
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Back in the 60s, 70s, and early 80s, the mere admission of wanting to have a career was careerism. God forbid you talked about prices, creating a network of gallery representation for yourself or, horrors, earning a living from what you do. If you were so fortunate to achieve this kind of success, you would have been branded a sellout--because if the public responded favorably to your work, it couldn't be any good, could it? That notion was fostered by the professors (who all had jobs, thank you very much) and foisted on the students, who eagerly used the careerism cudgel to bash any of their peers who dared to go after, or achieve, what they were all secretly hoping for.
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Now, polished resumes, well-crafted exhibition proposals, business cards, a website, regular postcard mailings and even an e-newsletter are the welcome norm for professionals who want a piece of the pie. What used to be looked down on as "careerism" is now just ambition organized into a professional plan.
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The two dictionary definitions, above, of "careerism" are interesting to me. Neither is warm and fuzzy, but while the first suggests obsessiveness with a bit of nasty thrown in, the second is seriously pathological. Frankly I don't think either describes most ambitious artists, who are hard working and, yes, devoted to the pursuit of having a career in what they were trained to do. Creating a successful career takes a tremendous amount of work, precisely because we often must create not only the art but the opportunities to get it out into the world.
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Yet that c-word is often lurking.
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So today's Marketing Mondays poses some questions to you:
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. Is there a good reason artists shouldn't promote themselves or want critical and financial success for what we have been trained to do?
. Where does ambition end and careerism begin?
. Does age make a difference in the perception of careerism? That is, are mid-career artists still clinging to outdated and negative notions about self promotion, ambition and success? And, if so, is that outmoded thinking detrimental to their careers?
. Are there any young artists uninterested in creating a career for themselves?
. And finally, ethics: If you're driven but ethical, it is still careerism?
This is an open forum.
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