Earnings for artist that go it alone are unstable at best. They range from abject poverty to great wealth. As a matter of fact a few of the self-employed artist command monetary figures that far surpass their salaried counterparts. Artist are categorized in the following manner: An Art Director, Craft Artist, Fine Artist, Multimedia Artist, Performing Artist

Jobs in each category are numerous and varied. The Art director for instance has the top jobs in fields like publishing and printing. They are the ones who get to control the overall direction of any project.

Craft Artist makes things, some useful, some not so much. This sector holds all of the artist that work in the mediums of glass, clay, wood, canvas and even candles. When you visit a craft fair the people you meet there are not just dabblers they are often times highly regarded in their fields. There have been quilts that have sold for hundreds of thousand’s of dollars.

Fine Artist generally works on commission or by having gallery shows. They also get commissions from museums to support their work. The sad facts for fine artist are that not many of them can support themselves. The best of the best fine fame and fortune, others only find it posthumously.

Multimedia includes illustrators of a sort as well as animators work primarily in motion picture and video industries. They also are prevalent in advertising, and designing computer systems services. They perform what we call free-hand drawing that is refined by computers to create a series of pictures. This is the foundation that forms the animated images or special effects seen by millions in movies, animated flicks. Without these artist we would not have ” The Simpson’s”.

Performing artist are you actors, singers and musicians. This is not just about the artists that make the top 10 weekly countdowns. True performing artist study for years to compete for a place in ballets, symphony orchestra’s and the theatre. There are colleges for clowns, acrobats and even lion taming. These all fall into the category of performing arts.

There are so many jobs that fall under the heading Artist, defined as ” a person having superior skill or ability, or who are capable of producing superior work. An artisan is engaged in a craft or applied art”, that it would take days to list them all.

The term art galleries is used interchangeably between an actual art gallery where art is exhibited and sold for a profit and an art museum where collections of art are merely exhibited for the enjoyment and education of patrons. For the purposes of this introduction to art galleries, the former will be used. Although some of the most famous and important works of art are exhibited in art museums around the world, they are not for sale. The exhibiting of art for the purpose of sale is the major function of the commercial art gallery.

A commercial art gallery exhibits art for the enjoyment of the patrons, but the art is also for sale. This means that the collections in an art gallery are changing quite frequently as works are purchased and removed from the exhibit. The gallery will often have special exhibits featuring individual artists whose works are the centerpiece of special events. In most cases, the art galleries make their profits from taking a commission on the sale of the exhibited art, although in some cases, admission is charged. This is fairly rare in the commercial art gallery business, however.

The majority of work exhibited in art galleries are visual art with paintings being the most common form. Some galleries also exhibit other types of art such as sculpture and photography also. Some galleries that specialize in sculpture are also known as sculpture gardens and those that specialize in photographs are known as photo galleries. The term art gallery is most often used in place of these terms and many galleries feature all of the various forms of art.

The expression contemporary art gallery does not refer to a style of art, but is used to describe the modern commercial for-profit art gallery. The term is used to distinguish it from the art museum. Many contemporary art galleries tend to be clustered together in certain districts in larger cities. Greenwich Village in New York City is an example of this although most medium sized cities will usually have at least one gallery for local artists.

There are also art galleries that are artist collectives and not run for profit, but as a place for the artist to exhibit their own works. Regardless of the type, art galleries and art museums offer the public a chance to enjoy art of all kinds and also the commercial galleries allow them the opportunity to take some of that art home with them to add to their own collections.