Project Spotlight: Virginia Broersma + The Artist's Office
This month we are spotlighting another "sister-project” to Rhizomatic Arts — a great example of a creative, artist-centered, sustainability-oriented entrepreneurial project by an artist who seeks to grow sustainability and peer support in her community. VIRGINIA BROERSMA is a fine artist who recently started a business called THE ARTIST’S OFFICE, putting her administrative and organizational skills to work for others. She says, “I want to contribute to shaping the art world/community/market that I want to participate in. This world would offer opportunities to a wider swath of people, would support art and art makers as essential pieces of our society, and would make artists feel valued and less desperate.”
Virginia Broersma. Photo by Kiki Seror.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR CREATIVE PRACTICE, VIRGINIA. WHAT DO YOU DO IN THE WORLD?
I am first and foremost an artist. I make paintings and have been focusing on how the representation of the body influences perceptions of value in our world. My recent work is of people hanging around hot tubs and pools; many of my personal hangups and feelings about the body - desire, self worth, fantasy, judgement - are emphasized in these sites and so I’ve been spending some time thinking about them.
I also have a predilection towards systems, organization and research and put this to use in supporting my studio practice. I’ve recently developed some ways to share these skills with artists and have started a business called The Artist’s Office. Through it I’m sharing information, resources and offering various forms of administrative support for artists. As I hear of artist’s needs I am adapting to meet them and so far am offering: a subscription service for artist deadlines, help with applications such as working on artist statements and editing images, and strategic planning. I’ve also organized studio conversations with art world professionals, shared meals as a form of networking and an Adobe Lightroom workshop, with more things in the works.
There is also a research component to this work in which I am looking into existing support systems and career boosting opportunities and how they actually impact artists and the art community.
Virginia Broersma in her studio. Image courtesy of the artist.
HOW DOES COLLABORATION MANIFEST IN YOUR WORK?
I seek out ways to work with, learn from and collaborate with others particularly on projects that are not my area of expertise or comfort zone. Curating, performance art and sculpture are a few of the areas I have recently collaborated with others and I find it to be a hugely rewarding piece of my artistic life. Working in these other disciplines has helped me think more thematically about my work, and be less focused on the medium of painting, which I can very easily get wrapped up in.
WHAT WOULD A SUSTAINABLE CAREER LOOK LIKE FOR YOU?
I would love to be able to pay my bills, occasionally have some extra money, be saving for retirement and able to take a vacation once a year. To make this sustainable, my income would need to be from work that I love and find rewarding, whether it’s painting or some other tangentially related work.
Another component is having an existing support system of artist peers and art world professionals to collaborate with, compare notes with and go through the process together, which I do feel like I have and am continuing to grow. This piece of the puzzle is so important for me to feel like it’s worth continuing in this exceptionally challenging field.
Developing The Artist’s Office has been a big step towards creating this sustainability for myself. I’m shaping it to meet and nurture the criteria above and it’s been incredibly rewarding so far. It feels good to have identified skills and resources that I have to offer and to work with other artists, which I’ve found that I really love.
WHAT FUTURE TO YOU ENVISION FOR YOUR COMMUNITY OF ARTISTS?
I want to contribute to shaping the art world/community/market that I want to participate in. This world would offer opportunities to a wider swath of people, would support art and art makers as essential pieces of our society, and would make artists feel valued and less desperate. I’m not entirely sure how to do this, but I am starting to look at where current systems are failing artists and to identify the inadequacies of existing pathways to success that are perhaps due for revision. Starting there seems to be the best way to go about it and hopefully solutions will begin to present themselves.
WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT FOR YOU?
I will have a new painting in an exhibition curated by Cindy Rehm opening at the Wignall Museum in September, 2019. The show – “These Creatures” – references Nancy Buchanan’s anti-advertisement where women are looked at like strange creatures; the misunderstanding, mistrust and fetishization of women and the female body are things I consider in my own work so I am excited to see how the exhibition and the other artists explore these ideas.
As for The Artist’s Office, I am working on organizing upcoming conversations at my studio for artists that will bring in guests with particular experience/insight to share on various topics. I’m also excited for some new opportunities I have in the works for sharing even more information and resources to a wider community that will be announced soon!
