Project management: Why artists benefit from efficient planning

Most artists dream of working hard and targeted on their art and thus being successful. But many artists, especially at the beginning of their career, always surprise how much non-artistic work is necessary to support art.

As a freshly baked creative, it is too easy to underestimate how time -consuming it would be time to organize the sale of one's own art, pack and send commissioned work, to communicate with studios, galleries and art buyers, to stay informed about deadlines, and to regularly present your own work on homepage, Instagram and Co.

The myth persists that, as a creative person, you can simply concentrate on your art in your studio and everything else would happen automatically. However, this is not the case. Artists have to be more than many other professions multitasking, work in teams, manage sales and career and also carry out their own doctorate.

Especially when important deadlines or important projects are pending, effective coordination with different people and dealing with tasks with different deadlines is required. It can be overwhelming to keep all of these things under control at the same time. If the burden of administrative tasks that are necessary for the production of art is too great, this can lead to burnout, communication with partners, dealers and customers and reduce the quality of art.

If you look at art production from the perspective of project management, project management tools can help to manage the administrative and coordinative tasks. A project management -oriented approach can support to maintain overview of responsibilities and to strengthen communication with employees and partners.

This makes it clear, as every single measure contributes to realizing the larger vision.

What is project management?

Project management is systematic planning, leading and controlling projects in order to achieve defined goals within time, resource and budget requirements. Projects are characterized by their temporal limitation and a clear objective.

Many project management concepts have their origins in the business world , especially in the technology sector. For example, a project in the technology world can include the development of a new app or the redesign of a website. But artists can also benefit from the principles of project management .

Even if the entire career of an artist is not a project, concrete projects such as staging a play, the production of merchandise articles for Christmas markets or the application for scholarships can be considered as projects. Different methods such as agile, Kanban and waterfall/Waterfall are used in project management, but basically follow the same steps.

These steps can be sketched as an example of a free theater group .

1. Initiation

The first step determines how your project is designed. What goals do you pursue? How big or small should it be? A fictional theater group could use this step to decide whether a play, a scenic reading or a series of independent monologues would like to perform, and whether this should only be done for one evening, a limited number of ideas or a series of pieces.

2. Planning

In the planning phase, it is determined how you want to achieve your goals. In this phase, a budget is created, the right team is put together and possible risks and challenges are identified. Our sample theater group would use the planning phase to fill the roles, to find the director, to set stage helpers, to choose a performance location and to discuss potential problems.

3. Production / execution

This is the most exciting part! In this phase you implement your planned measures. For the theater group, this means rehearsals, technical runs and finally the performance.

4. Monitoring and control

This part of the project management extends over the entire life cycle of a project. Here you and your team can check whether you are still on track and, if necessary, set new goals. For the hypothetical theater group, this could mean ensuring that the stage structure, the timing of the actors and the design of the costumes are smooth.

It could also mean offering the team support to ensure that all resources are available and difficulties are overcome.

5. Completion

Every project has an end. This last phase is about giving the project a worthy conclusion and clarifying all open ends. For the theater group, this could mean holding a reflection meeting with the actors and the technology team in order to discuss the project, to organize a celebration with the ensemble and to ensure that all invoices have been paid.

This structure can be transferred to most artistic areas made of representative and visual art.

Why project management is important for all artists

At first it may seem as if the application of project management to your project means additional administrative effort or as if you feel sold if you use the business expressions to determine that your art is sold out.

Nevertheless, your art actually requires certain administrative elements. Even the procurement of materials and adhering to a budget with which you are satisfied are part of administrative work. The search for a studio is administrative, just like editing purchase inquiries.

By creating a framework to understand these administrative aspects of your work, you can disassemble them into manageable parts and remember that answering emails or creating tables ultimately contributes to realizing your creative vision.

Project management can help you to set expectations and borders to support both your team and yourself. If you can tell your team exactly what you imagine, how it fits the overall picture and when certain steps have to take place, you have a better understanding of what you need and can plan your work processes accordingly.

A project -based way of thinking can help you remember that the unattractive administrative work is only a phase of the project and that you will soon sink into creative work.

By taking care of administration and planning in advance, you can better channel your creative energy. "

First steps with your project management: ask yourself these questions

In order to integrate a framework concept for project management into your creative process, it is advisable to start with the following key questions .

1. What are your goals and wishes?

Specifically think about what you want to achieve in the coming months or years. Would you like to complete a series of sculptures, produce a feature film, complete your script or receive a financing for a break? Clear goals help you to stay focused and to work motivated.

2. What resources do you need?

Consider the financial means, premises, materials and employees that are required for your project. Good planning helps you to avoid bottlenecks and work efficiently.

3. Who has to be involved?

Creative work often requires cooperation. Think about which people and experts need you in which phase of your project. From suppliers of materials, team employees, to gallery owners, PR managers, agents, etc.-they clarify early on who is involved and how communication with everyone involved is to be designed.

4. What are the phases of your project?

The structure of your project is of essential importance for success. It is important to clearly define the individual phases that have to be completed in order to achieve the desired result. When producing a film, these phases can include writing the script, fundraising, filming, post -production, marketing and finally the premiere.

As ceramists, relevant phases could be throwing, cutting, glassing, taking pictures, photography and selling.

A clear structured approach in phases helps to keep an eye on the progress of the project, even if the final result is still a long way off.

5. What is the desired goal or ideal result?

The determination of the goal or the ideal result of your project serves as a guide.

By imagining what your best possible scenario looks like, you can measure your success and make sure that you are on track to achieve this goal. This can mean collecting a certain amount of money, selling a defined number of tickets or receiving an offer to get your show on tour.

6. Which time frame does your project spanned?

The temporal component of your project is another important aspect. Some projects have flexible schedules without clear endpoints, while other fixed dates, such as a festival or an exhibition.

By determining a time frame, you can plan backwards and make sure that all steps are done in good time. Consideration of the schedule supports you in accounting yourself and your team for accounting and setting realistic expectations.

Optimize your planning with a visual time beam

As we can see now, a structured planning and organization is essential for artists. Since artists are often very visual, you can take advantage of this property and optimally adapt project management.

What are the methods for visualizing project management?

In essence, there are three approaches to visual project management that help you with your planning and work organization, especially if you have employees or work in a team.

Time rays and timelines (Gantt diagrams)

Graphic timelines are perfect if you want to know when individual project phases ideally start. At the same time, they gain an overview of the necessary duration of each phase.

Resources can be better assigned by means of time rays. Important employees for various tasks can be clearly assigned and dependencies between key periods can be viewed optically.

Tip: At the provider Miro you will find a template Timeline Template from a well -carried out project .

Kanban boards

Kanban boards are excellent to understand the progress of the project tasks. Such work tasks can be differentiated into different columns such as "to-do", "in processing" and "done". This procedure enables a clear overview of the current status of each project section.

calendar

A calendar helps to get important appointments and milestones into account. So you are able to visualize essential events, upcoming meetings and urgent deadlines in a clear framework.

What does a supportive project management app do?

Regardless of the project variant, a supportive project management software can be used, which brings you closer to your goals. In this way, all participants - from normal team staff to artists, gallery owners, agents, managers and art dealers - benefit from manageable visualizations and effective planning steps.

Tip: Note that a well -structured time beam makes up the decisive difference between success and chaos in your projects.

How do you create an optical time beam?

Here are essential work steps to create a time beam for your strategic project planning. In principle, the creation of a visually appealing timeline borders on a skilful art design.

1. identify project phases

First filter out the main phases of your project. This includes advance planning, design/concept, development/production, revisions/test phases, publication/publication/presentation as well as sales and aftercare.

2. Define the phase duration

Check the expected duration of each phase thoroughly. Calculate dependencies between the different tasks.

For example, a complex completion (e.g. a sculpture series or a large installation) cannot be tackled until the design is complete.

3. Create time beam

With paper and pen: Start your design with a sheet of paper or a whiteboard. Draw a horizontal line that represents the time frame of your project.

Use of IT tools: Alternatively, use special project management software or suitable online tools to create a digital time beam. These useful tools often offer additional functions such as automatic calculations and color coding.

4. Add milestones

Mark relevant milestones on your time beam. The start of every phase, key dates or the completion of essential project tasks are striking examples. Use significant colors or symbols for the purpose of characterizing different phases.

5. Enter tasks

Add individual tasks or actions into the graphic representation of the temporary phases. Use meaningful short descriptions and precise date.

Connect the detailed work steps with arrows to visualize dependencies between the individual activities. A prime example of such explanations of contexts and priorities is: "Design completed" before "Product development begins" .

6. Update and share

Keep your time beam up to date during the ongoing project. If necessary, modify appointments if the project process is changing.

Share the time beam with your team, manager, gallery owner or agent so that everyone involved maintains the overview.

Tip: Calculate that an optimal time beam is flexible. Adjust this if the framework conditions are different. Use every timeline as an effective means of communication for your work team.

Visualization as a helpful tool

A visual time beam is an efficient tool to optimize your strategic project planning.

Using the visualizations of relevant time processes and pioneering milestones, you can organize complex projects in the best possible way. At the same time, they set necessary priorities and clearly identify any bottlenecks.

A structured, manageable presentation ensures optimal communication in the team and improves the effectiveness of implementing work tasks.

Final words

By optimizing your creative activity with a strategic project management approach, it is not just about creating administrative structures. The use of project management frameworks and tools can largely support you in your creative projects.

It helps you set clear goals, to identify necessary resources and to set a realistic schedule. Project management enables you to effectively restructure the administrative aspects of your work by always focusing on the fact that they serve their overarching goals.

In addition, it supports you to decide which team members and partners should include in order to then determine clear expectations together and to respect the time to energy and limits of everyone involved. While you continue to create powerful and inspiring works, you will certainly get much independently with the right support and guidance for administrative and organizational things.

Joachim Rodriguez y Romero

Owner and managing director of Kunstplaza. Publicist, editor and passionate blogger in the field of art, design and creativity since 2011. Successful conclusion in web design as part of a university degree (2008). Further development of creativity techniques through courses in free drawing, expression painting and theatre/acting. Profound knowledge of the art market through many years of journalistic research and numerous collaborations with actors/institutions from art and culture.

www.kunstplaza.de/