Ingredients for success - your resume.
December 10, 2009
"Mother Tree" © Tracey Bell
sterling silver
16" length, largest leaf is 1.75"
Dear Harriete,
Have you covered how to compose a CV for submitting to galleries in your professional development series? I'm trying to figure out how to do that now and it seems most advice on the web isn't geared towards artists. Thanks, Tracey Bell
First of all, many people use the term CV when they mean resume. A CV should include all of your professional accomplishments. A Resume is abridged information, in other words, a summary of your professional experience. I have several resumes a one page, two page, five page, and a Judaica resume. These are just examples, but the point is to modify your resume for each particular situation.
At the beginning of your career, I would put your formal education at the top. Thirty years from graduation, it just seems that your education is a little less relevant and it might move further down on your resume.
Put the most important items at the top and work your way down to less important items.
Here is a list of suggested categories in an appropriate order.
Name and Contact information including address, phone numbers, fax, e-mail, web site. Do not include your address when posting your resume online, displaying it in a public situation, or sending this resume to a gallery for their clients.
Education degree, date, institution, major
If you don't have a formal academic education in the arts, perhaps you can push your professional degree further down the page as it might be less relevant to your art career than recent exhibitions or professional experience.
Workshops (if they were formative to your current work) could be covered as a separate category, but they are not education. Considering a two days to two-week workshop equivalent to four or seven years of dedicated study seems to be stretching a resume. Be honest and proud of what you have accomplished, but don't overstate the facts.
Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions
Group Exhibitions
At the beginning of your career list shows by year. As you add shows and you have a good number to list, maybe you will want to divide them up into categories. Eventually, you might have International, Invitational, Juried National, Juried Regional. List shows by date, most recent first, in each category.
Gallery exhibitions
Exhibitions at galleries or retail spaces should be a separate list from the museum and non-profit exhibition spaces.
Grants/Awards
Commissions
Collections (Public, Private, Corporate) Never list the name of a private collector without their permission.
Bibliography This could be called Selected Reviews and/or published photos of my work
Sub-categories might be: Books, Magazines, Selected Periodicals, Newspapers, etc.
Current employment (if this is relevant to your art career)
Current Gallery Representation
Another option for your resume may be listing your social networking sites, Facebook, Crafthaus, Flickr, Etsy, etc. I would only list these items if you keep them looking professional. If you are posting family photos, commentary about your spa experience, etc. do not include this link.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT RESUMES AND CV can be found on the CAA (College Art Association) website.
Your CV and Resume should include only the truth. No exaggerations. Be honest.
TMI (Too Much Information) Don't include information about your family, marital status, children, religion, pets, hobbies, travel, jobs irrelevant to your professional art career.
You can look at my resume on my website. Many artists include a resume on their site so look around for other examples. There are many right ways to make an art career resume, but you are correct in assuming that an art resume is different than the corporate style.
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Resumes - How much is too much info?
This post was updated on January 5, 2022, to provide current links.