BY Rachel Skaggs, Lawrence and Isabel Barnett Assistant Professor of Arts Management
The job of a professor is made up of three interwoven commitments: to teaching, research and service. The best moments in this profession are when these commitments overlap. I have been incredibly fortunate to find that kind of overlap in AAEP through a synthesis of research, teaching and advising service around the topic of arts entrepreneurship.
My own graduate education included an independent study titled “Educating the Entrepreneur,” and I was fortunate to work with the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) to analyze data about the skills and entrepreneurial training that over 30,000 arts graduates received in their time in college and write SNAAP’s special report on Career Skills and Entrepreneurial Training for Artists.
While I came to Ohio State with significant research expertise in arts entrepreneurship, in the time since I arrived on campus, it is teaching arts entrepreneurship that has blossomed. The university and the College of Arts and Sciences have reported that entrepreneurship is a growth area for Ohio State. While many people think of entrepreneurship in terms of tech startups and scientific breakthroughs that need to be monetized, the arts are a highly entrepreneurial space. Just as the Fischer School of Business and the School of Engineering offer entrepreneurial training for their students, AAEP offers a minor in Arts Entrepreneurship that serves students across all majors in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Based on an increasing interest and need for formal curriculum around entrepreneurship in the arts, I developed ARTEDUC 3690 as a new course for the Arts Management (BAAM) major and Arts Entrepreneurship minor offered by our department. I was fortunate to work with an instructional design coach, Hanna Primeau, due to a Meaningful Inquiry Grant from the Ohio State Libraries and spent over a year working on course development.
One of my primary pedagogical goals in developing this course was to allow students to take risks without fear of failure. Being able to identify opportunities and fill them with an entrepreneurial venture is risky, and traditional education is not always well-equipped to allow students to try out such ventures in a graded course. In ARTEDUC 3690, I developed the class around such an opportunity — from the first day of the course, students knew that they would spend the semester working to earn $100 “doing something creative and legal.” With just this loose structure, students got started. Their ventures were wide ranging and included projects like attempting to go viral by creating fan art on TikTok, selling decorated cakes, designing and selling digital art, and putting on events.
Students paired this primary focal course activity with practical readings about how to market their work, deal with taxes and business structures, and how to manage liability. Some students did fail, but failure in this arts entrepreneurship venture required a pivot rather than a failing grade. One student found that the world of NFTs was more complex than he had initially thought and shifted to providing paid photography services for a local baked goods shop. Another dealt with scammers trying to take advantage of him on eBay. Despite setbacks, the learning in this class went far beyond the value of $100.
BRAYDON TOMAK CREATES JAM STATION
Dr. Skaggs teaches entrepreneurship at The Ohio State University with a hands-on approach: "Find a way to make $100.” In her class, I was able to develop a concept and bring it to market as an MVP (minimum viable product). This experience taught me how to utilize resources at my disposal, bootstrapping, and integrate them into something of perceived value. My project involved a methodology of incentivizing customers to purchase a professional photo with an additional bonus gift (as a courtesy thank you for having participated in my business). I set up shop on October 23, 2021, at an event run by Kenzie Gelo called Manifestavibe. With a total addressable market of about 100 people, and at a price of $1, I had conducted 20 transactions within a time span of about 20 minutes. Capturing roughly a fifth of the market share, I felt that the endeavor was successful despite not having hit the$100 quota. Dr. Skaggs is very knowledgeable in the field of entrepreneurship — I would highly recommend taking her course(s) to anyone that has a business/entrepreneurial mindset. Learn from the best!
