On career luck

Gabrielle Hoad | Lucky Catch (Dawlish Warren) | Digital photograph | 2023

 
I'm a firm believer in the idea that as an ordinary working artist, you must make your own luck: work hard, play fair, be generous to others, network regularly and never give up. But none of that sticks without a little extra glue. And that glue is credibility.

Credibility is something you can earn, but more often it is gifted: a friend or relative who's an art world insider, being taught by a well-connected art school lecturer, inherited ease with middle-class interactions. Talent is important, of course. But it's a myth that the best artists invariably rise to the top. Even for the best artists, it's credibility in the eyes of commissioners, curators and funders that makes the networking accumulate into opportunities, the hard work accrue into a reputable career.

Mainstream curators are rarely in the business of 'discovering' new talent - and if they are it's usually because they are pursuing a short-term inclusivity agenda. Otherwise, they tend to select artists that other people have already validated through a track-record of exhibitions, awards, recommendations and so on. 

Do I feel lucky? Well, I am a white European, which I realise confers considerable  privilege, but I am also female, older and from a background where a career in the arts was never considered a viable career option, hence being such a late starter. The question of credibility is rather tougher. On paper, my career as an artist is hardly glittering, but I've found - or more often, made - sufficient opportunities to create satisfying work, even if they haven't always had the level of funding or support they needed to really get off the ground. I am happy with my working life, if a little disappointed in the art world.