Demystifying the Art World: How to Talk About Yourself

Session 2 of the series Demystifying the Art World: Practical Knowledge & Skills for Early-Career Artists, addresses how to approach and write CVs, artist statements, and artwork descriptions.

These texts are the most common ways to communicate the nature of your practice to curators, audiences, and others, but composing these is also a valuable process that can help you gain insight into your own work. In this online session, Letticia Cosbert Miller and Su-Ying Lee, both writers and curators, will break down and walk participants through the steps of developing these texts. First, we’ll go over the purpose of each of these documents or formats. We’ll use examples to look at different approaches and read for clarity and effectiveness. Finally, we will talk about finding a writing voice that both reflects your own voice and your art practice.

This session is free and open to all early career and emerging artists. It will be hosted on Zoom, with captions. If you have other accommodation needs, please let us know through the registration form or contact dmg.utsc@utoronto.ca. After registering, attendees will be provided with a Zoom link to join the program virtually.

Letticia Cosbert Miller (she/her) is a Toronto-based writer and curator. She is currently a PhD student in the Department of Classics at the University of Toronto. Letticia’s work as a writer is often in dialogue with historical, mythological, or philosophical tropes from the western classical tradition. Her academic research interests lie within the reception of Classics in Black diasporic contemporary culture. Her writing and editorial work has appeared in the Toronto Star, BlackFlash Magazine, Canadian Art Magazine, MOMUS, as well as in publications by Aperture Foundation, the Aga Khan Museum, Gardiner Museum, Akimbo, and others. Letticia has curated exhibitions for Trinity Square Video, The Blackwood, and others. Letticia was the 2020-2021 Writer-in-Residence for Gallery 44, and formerly the Director of Koffler.Digital at Koffler Centre of the Arts.

Su-Ying Lee (she/her) is an independent curator and has also worked in institutions as Assistant Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA), Curator in Residence at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, and Assistant Curator at the Art Gallery of Mississauga. She received a Masters Degree in Curatorial Studies at the University of Toronto and is an alumnus of the Toronto Arts Council/Banff Centre’s Cultural Leaders’ Lab. Her projects have taken place across Canada, in Hong Kong, Mexico City and Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines where she co-curated the third Kamias Triennial Manila (February 2020).

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This session is offered as part of the series Demystifying the Art World: Practical Knowledge & Skills for Early-Career Artists, running from September 2023 - May 2024.

Whether you’ve attended art school, pursued other forms of art education or are self-taught, there are foundational professional skills and practices that are rarely taught in formal environments. Artists often glean such knowledge through trial and error, having mentorship, or through information shared in their social and professional circles. Conceived of for early career and emerging artists, this series, organized by curator and educator Su-Ying Lee for the Doris McCarthy Gallery, aims to make key information accessible and demystify how artists approach essential tasks. Through nine sessions, some in-person and some online, participants will be familiarized with the practical knowledge needed to enhance and support their careers, through advice offered by a wide-range of experienced artists, curators, writers, and arts workers. The entire series is free, and participants can sign up for one session, multiple sessions, or the whole series – choose your own adventure and learn with us!

Session 1
Professionalism Starter Pack: Besides making art, what makes an artist a professional?
Thursday, September 21, 12:30 – 2 pm
Online, registration now open

Session 2
How to Talk About Yourself: Writing CV’s, artist statements, and artwork descriptions
Monday, October 23, 12:30 – 2 pm
Online, registration now open

Session 3
Get to Know Curators: What do they do, why approach them, and how?
Thursday, November 16, 6:30 – 8 pm
Doris McCarthy Gallery, registration opens in October

Session 4
See and Be Seen: Documenting your artwork
Saturday, December 9, 12 – 3 pm
Doris McCarthy Gallery, registration opens in November

Information on sessions 5 - 9 to be announced later this fall, stay tuned for more details!