How to Survive After Art School is the manual that art schools never provide — a frank, often irreverent collection of practical wisdom from working art professionals on navigating the precarious territory between graduation and a sustained practice.
About This Book
What happens when the institutional scaffolding of art education falls away? This compact, pocket-sized manual addresses that question with directness and wit. Structured as a series of short instructions written in the imperative mood, the book draws on the voices of a wide range of contributors — artists, editors, and practitioners — to map the realities of building a career after art school. The tone moves between the ironic and the genuinely useful, resisting both false optimism and cynicism. For emerging artists navigating questions of professional practice, self-presentation, and creative survival, it is a rare thing: a resource that takes the difficulty seriously without making it feel impossible.
Key Features
- 188 pages of short, imperative-form instructions and contributions from a broad range of art professionals
- Edited by Olivier Bertrand, Clémence Fontaine, and Chloé Horta
- Contributors include Olivier Bertrand, Juliette Defrance, Antoine Doyen, Bernadette Kluyskens, Ivan Murit, and others
- Published by Surfaces Utiles, 2020
What You'll Discover
- How working art professionals have navigated the transition from study to sustained practice — in their own words
- The role of irony and humour as tools for processing the structural uncertainties of an art career
- A model of collective knowledge-sharing that cuts across different artistic disciplines and professional contexts
- Practical and philosophical strategies presented not as prescriptions but as fragments of hard-won experience
About the Author
Olivier Bertrand is listed as both a contributor and one of three editors of this volume, alongside Clémence Fontaine and Chloé Horta. The book was first published in French in 2020 under the Surfaces Utiles imprint. [Details available upon request]
Specifications
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 188
- Dimensions: 11 x 18 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9782931110089
- Publisher: Surfaces Utiles
- Publication Date: 2020
Perfect For: Emerging artists and recent art school graduates, as well as educators, mentors, and practitioners interested in the realities of professional life after formal art training.