Have you read the book Art & Fear yet? I may have mentioned this book way back in 2008, but since it has been a while, and the topic has been on my mind, I highly recommend this book for all artists, arts consultants, marketers, producers, etc.

I have come across many artists that fear success for one reason or another. Or, perhaps it is the fear of failure attempting to get to success. In many cases, the fears cover both sides of this coin.

When fears come up, artists can start to act in ways that sabotage their own works. This makes building an audience for them very difficult. Maybe you have worked with a few artists that have displayed the following:

• They procrastinate the start of the project to the point that it is a nail biting experience when you do finally start.
• They do not get back to you when you need important information.
• Their language reflects their doubts.
• Or perhaps their bravado is over the top to cover these fears. An artist with an enlarged ego that hasn’t quite earned that status yet is a sign.
• They do not trust the process and instead do not do what is required of them to be part of the team for success.
• They ignore what needs to be done until most of the time it is too late.
• The last indication goes hand in hand with simply not doing what had been planned.
• They visualize failure instead of success.
• They do not build a team of support for ultimate success.
• They end up blaming everyone else for the failure.
• Or, they end up blaming themselves for being a bad artist (which most of the time they are not).

These are artists that lack self confidence, and some of them are not even in touch with themselves to the point to be aware of this lack.

This makes it extremely difficult to work on building relationships, audiences, and monetary support when the artist doesn’t act for success, and through their behavior actually sabotages the project.

I do want to point out that if the artist is doing everything they can, and they still fail, there are probably other factors involved, and the failure does not indicate fears. Sometimes when you experiment, you will fail, mainly due to the fact that you have no idea what the outcome will be in new situations. Even for your typical events, you still may find the outcome strays from the norm.

This comes down to not knowing what you are going to get no matter what, however, with proper planning and the right mindset and action, normally the positive outcome will present itself.

What I am discussing here is the fact that sometimes fears and doubts, negativity in thought and action, whether we realize it or not, is getting in the way of our own success.

I am now adding a question to my initial questionnaire to find out the artists’ thoughts and feelings on any lurking fears that could get in the way of our work together. When I sign a client, I am all in, and I want to make sure that the artist/arts organization is all in too.

The only way an event will have the most successful outcome if is you have a team of people who are committed to being all in (to the extent they sign on to help). This includes the artists!

Please do consider reading the book Art & Fear especially if you feel the lurking fears and doubts are involved with your art or arts organization. These thoughts hold us back from success, but in recognizing that they are there, you can do something about changing your mindset, actions, your overall perspectives for achieving success.

Or if visuals are your thing:

This is Bill.

Bill is an artist that recognizes he fears no one will come to his art show.

Bill buys the book Art & Fear and changes his thoughts to positive ones. 

Bill is smart. 

Be like Bill. 

Cheers to happy and loyal audiences (and artists/arts organizations),
Shoshana

Shoshana Fanizza
Chief Audience Builder, ADS

Another way to combat fears is to get as knowledgeable about audience development as you can. There are books for this too!