The art of making a living: Creative entrepreneurs turn their passion into careers : Ct
The art of making a living: Creative entrepreneurs turn their
passion into careers
MARCH 04, 2015 7:20 AM • BY LINDSAY CHRISTIANS | THE CAPITAL TIMES
One of our most persistent cultural myths is of the artist as
cloistered genius.
Solitary in her work, the artist painted alone in her studio. He
wrote songs, and maybe someone bought them. She made
earrings. He performed “Hamlet,” and people bought tickets
and watched.
But for artists working in Madison today, simply creating
something beautiful (or provocative, or smart) and waiting
for somebody to discover it is no longer enough.
Artists have become marketers, web designers and social media experts. For many among Madison’s
creative class, their business skills must be as diverse and sharp as their artistic skills. The sculptor must
learn how to set up an LLC and the musician must also be a promoter.
“The notion of the artist as a solitary genius — so potent a cultural force ... is decades out of date,” wrote
William Deresiewicz in a December 2014 story in The Atlantic called “The Death of the Artist — and the
Birth of the Creative Entrepreneur.”
“A new paradigm is emerging, and has been since about the turn of the millennium, one that’s in the
process of reshaping what artists are: how they work, train, trade, collaborate, think of themselves and
are thought of.”
Madison has become a hub for creative entrepreneurs for a variety of reasons, such as a relatively low
cost of living compared to big cities; the university, which attracts creative people; and resources for
young families.
Anne Katz, director of Arts Wisconsin, noted the importance of a support system. It’s a little easier, she
said, to strike out on a creative venture when your spouse or partner has a job with health insurance and
benefits — at the state or university, for example.
“Some people think I can only be famous and sell my work in big galleries in New York,” said Katz. But
“most people, not just artists, put together a lot of things — what their hearts drive them to do.
Entrepreneurialism is at the heart of all of that.”
“Artists have always been entrepreneurial in their nature,” agreed Sarah Marty, who teaches an arts
entrepreneurship class, launched in 2008, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “It’s very rare that an
artist has been able to just exist and someone else takes care of figuring out their audience ... who’s
going to buy what they’re doing.
“Even through the patron system, you had to figure out a way to make your living as an artist.”
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The art of making a living: Creative entrepreneurs turn their passion into careers : Ct
What has changed over the last 10 years, Marty said, is “the level of business background and
entrepreneurial skills you need to have to break through ... to build an audience, to build a following, to
get your name out there.
“Now, as an artist, you need to be savvy in social media,” Marty said. “You need to build yourself a
website, you need to think about how you’re going to market what you’re doing to your audience.”
When talking about the artist as entrepreneur, some bring up Amanda Palmer, the Dresden Dolls and
Grand Theft Orchestra punk/cabaret musician whose “The art of asking” 2013 TED Talk has been
viewed more than six-and-a-half million times. (In 2014, she turned it into a book.)
In that talk, Palmer explains how her connection with her fans has changed, from interacting with people
as a human statue and talking with them after shows to, now, asking for things directly on Twitter.
“Through the very act of asking people (to pay for music), I’d connected with them,” said Palmer, whose
$1.2 million Kickstarter toward her album “Theatre is Evil” broke records in 2012.
“When you connect with them, people want to help you,” she said. “It’s counterintuitive for a lot of artists;
they don’t want to ask for things. It’s not easy to ask, and a lot of artists have a problem with this. Asking
makes you vulnerable.”
But arts advocates like Marty say that, in the 21st century, that’s what creative entrepreneurs have to do.
“You have to help sell your own shows,” Marty said, “and build your brand and do all of that extra legwork
on the side, in addition to what makes you an artist — painting, or playing music, or being onstage, or
choreographing.
“You have this whole second job now that’s all related to business and entrepreneurship.”
Here, then, are four Madison area artists — creative entrepreneurs — who have made it their professional
goal to live and work at what drives them.
Ben Ferris, 25, bassist
When Ben Ferris tries to explain how he balances all of the
music-related things he does for a living, he shrugs.
“I really don’t,” Ferris said. “It’s not balanced. I’m able to do it
currently because I’m crazy.”
Ferris, a bass player, is just a year out of school at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison. Already, the list of
ensembles he plays with, places he teaches and bands he
books gigs for is dizzying in its length and scope.
“I love what I’m doing,” Ferris said. “I’m a little too busy. But
that’s such a nice thing to be.”
PHOTO BY MIKE DeVRIES
Ben Ferris, right, performs with the
Jon Hoel Trio at the Tip Top
Tavern on a recent Saturday night.
Buy Now
Ferris spends weekdays at Winnequah Elementary School,
where he teaches general music and strings. After school, he
heads to James Madison Memorial High School where he
directs the jazz program, or to Madison Music Makers, a nonprofit where he teaches bass, violin, guitar
and piano.
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The art of making a living: Creative entrepreneurs turn their passion into careers : Ct
After that, Ferris might rehearse for one of his bands. He headlines the both the Ben Ferris Quintet and
the Ben Ferris Octet, a scaled-down big band, and plays with a Latin group called Edi Rey y Salsera,
among others.
When Ferris was in high school, “the hip thing was MySpace,” he said. “We made a demo recording of
some original music ... and played mostly at a place called The Journey.”
The idea was that Ferris’ high school fans would come for his band and stay for the unknown indie band
they opened for. This sometimes worked, but more importantly, it started Ferris on a road of savvy selfpromotion.
He learned how to promote a gig, make a website, take photos and get people to come out.
At school, studying music education at the UW, Ferris joined the Wisconsin Union Directorate and played
with the Black Music Ensemble, which during his time moved from playing gigs in the smaller Morphy
Hall to the Play Circle at the Memorial Union.
“I got to do things I can’t believe I got to do,” Ferris said. “I booked the entire Isthmus Jazz Festival with a
committee. I got to pick up Diane Reeves in my minivan ... that was a treat.”
Ferris studied with Prof. Richard Davis, playing classical and jazz music. He played in theater pit bands,
subbed in for bands like The Big Payback (soul/funk/R&B) and began teaching younger students.
Now, his schedule is so full, he sometimes doesn’t have time to sleep. But he said teaching energizes
him, and working with his quintet is how he blows off steam.
“It’s not relaxing to do the Facebook and make the website and submit to Isthmus and WORT and
everything, the jazz calendar,” Ferris said. “Make a poster; I make my own posters.”
But being a successful musician is “a different thing now,” he said. “You’ve got to be diverse in everything
you do. I’m diverse with the music that I play and I love that, but you’ve got to be diverse beyond that.
“I’m so lucky that I get to do music all day. And the energy and joy my students have inspires me to keep
doing it.”
Alisa Toninato, 32, owner, FeLion Studios and American Skillet
Company
Alisa Toninato started her artistic practice as a sculptor,
planning group shows with fellow artists in Milwaukee.
“The first step for me was research,” said Toninato, who
graduated from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design
and now has a studio on Madison’s south side. “Reaching
out, cold calling ... landlords would have an awesome space I
wanted to rent out, to pitch an idea for a show I wanted.”
At the time, Toninato called her art “kinetic, interactive,
sculptural installation work.” The shows involved working with
bands, painters and dancers to create “these awesome
events.”
“It was this weird beginning, where I thought, I need to be on
my game,” Toninato said. “I need to be the organizer here.”
PHOTO BY MICHELLE STOCKER
Alisa Toninato, who runs both
Buy Now
FeLion Studios and American
Skillet Company, sets up one of her skillets for a
photo shoot at Lakeside Street Coffee House.
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The art of making a living: Creative entrepreneurs turn their passion into careers : Ct
Then, in 2008, Toninato got a residency at Franconia Sculpture Park in Minnesota. Artists there were
“making their own shows, finding warehouse spaces, opening up guerrilla galleries for a day.
“That’s when things started to change for me.”
She began casting pieces, not only as part of a sculpture, but as a final product in themselves. It was
Toninato’s colleagues who first saw her design for a skillet in the shape of Wisconsin and encouraged
her to perfect it.
“I was so profoundly inspired by the people I was working with,” Toninato said. “People were really
encouraging.
“I was interested in the technical (aspects) of it. I failed a lot in the beginning. There were at least nine iron
pours where I came back with nothing.”
After lots of positive reactions to the first skillet, Toninato decided to make an interlocking map of the
whole Midwest, all from skillets with handles facing outward. That evolved into a map of the entire United
States, funded by Kickstarter and first shown at ArtPrize in Grand Rapids.
Eventually, in 2011, Toninato founded FeLion Studios, where she makes hand-crafted skillets and cast
iron art, including custom commissions. For one, she designed special fajita pans for two Tex-Mex
restaurants.
“The more popular they became, I realized they were hard to turn out consistently,” Toninato said. “I
thought, I’m going to do this full time. People were willing to support me enough to justify taking that
leap.”
A second business, American Skillet Company, makes smaller versions of the state skillets and has
received national attention from Martha Stewart. Skillets that come out of FeLion can be huge, like
Texas, and are much more expensive.
Locally, Toninato designed the pig-shaped skillet that winners of the SloPig heritage pork and cocktail
competitions receive (the next event is March 22, at the Madison Club). Her work was featured at
Underground Food Collective’s first restaurant, Kitchen, and her Wisconsin-shaped skillets, now in use at
Liliana’s Restaurant, were featured on a Feb. 23 episode of ABC’s “The Chew.”
American Skillet Company currently makes Wisconsin, New York, Illinois and Minnesota pans.
“I wasn’t planning on ... like, I’m going to a launch a business around this marketable idea,” Toninato said.
“That was not the game plan at all.”
Key for Toninato were connections with fellow artists, educators and industry professionals.
“I didn’t have a business plan,” she said. “I just wanted to make this thing work.”
Toninato got help from the Entrepreneurs’ Resource Clinic at the UW-Madison, where law students
helped her name and launch FeLion Studios as an LLC.
The business has affected her ability to do the kind of solo sculpting she used to do.
“That’s the sacrifice, unfortunately,” she said, but added that “when I do design work for other people
that’s my creative outlet. I love collaborating with people, I always have.
“I love that kind of creativity.”
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The art of making a living: Creative entrepreneurs turn their passion into careers : Ct
As a business owner, Toninato said she learns something new every day.
“It keeps me on my toes,” she said. “But it’s definitely not visual creativity — it’s game plan creativity. I
would argue it definitely takes a creative mind to manage all these balls in the air. I think artists are
naturally good at that.”
Jessica Lanius, 41, and Mike Lawler, 41, co-directors of Theatre
LILA
Theatre LILA, a dance-based theater company with New York
roots, started as “pure art,” according to co-founder Jessica
Lanius.
She and Andrea Arden Reese were “just thinking about
creating new works, less about the company or the
business,” said Lanius.
But the pair, then in their 20s, quickly found that in order to
put up a play that people would come to see, they had to
figure out how to market it — write a press release, take
photos, handle the box office.
Lanius moved herself and Theatre LILA to Madison in late
2013, using it as an opportunity to clarify the company’s
vision.
PHOTO BY MIKE DeVRIES
Di'Monte Henning, left, plays Puck
Buy Now
with direction by Jessica Lanius,
center, and Mike Lawler, right, in Theater LILA's
production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream,"
produced with Children's Theater of Madison.
“Coming here, we started with the art again, too,” Lanius said,
“but with the understanding that in order for the art to be
seen, you’ve got to have a foundation and a strong company and supporters.”
Since moving to Madison, Theatre LILA has staged the moving one-woman play “No Child” starring
Milwaukee actress Marti Gobel (a re-staging recently closed at Next Act Theatre in Milwaukee).
It has also produced strikingly original work, like last year’s “The Suitcase Dreams,” which drew from local
writers and performers to create a mash-up of dance, theater, storytelling and clowning.
Lanius brought on Mike Lawler as a co-director, and the two now split the responsibilities involved in
running the company, from writing grants to coordinating with designers.
Their next production, an adaptation of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” produced with Children’s Theater
of Madison, opens Saturday.
“Even thinking about ‘Midsummer’ right now, I think, when am I going to be creative? When is that time?”
Lanius said. “Because so much time is planning and marketing and selling. That could easily be my full
time job.
“I just need to hide and remember that that is the product.”
Lawler, who is also the production manager for CTM, compared the making of theater to any other
business.
“You have a product, whether you’re selling a widget or you’re selling art,” he said. “You need some
sense of how to run your business, who your audience is, who your market is, how you get your product
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The art of making a living: Creative entrepreneurs turn their passion into careers : Ct
to them — or in our case, how to get them to come to our product.”
“It’s almost sad, in a way, that we do have to spend so much time thinking about the business end of it.
But if you want to do it, you kind of have to.”
Lanius estimated that she and Lawler each do six or seven jobs to make Theatre LILA work, including
directing, handling the financials and meeting with potential supporters.
Advances in technology have made it easier to handle some aspects of promotion, Lanius said.
In 2004, “there was no Facebook, was no Twitter, digital cameras were just coming up,” she said. “Now
you can do videos ... and get it out to the public pretty easily. And if you’re creative people, hopefully you
can do a good job at it.”
What drives Lanius and Lawler, ultimately, is their passion for the work.
“We want to be doing work that is not being done in Madison at a high level of craft and professionalism,”
Lawler said. “Other places may be doing quirky, edgy, weird work, but not at the level we’re doing it.”
But Lawler accepts that they’re not always going to get it right. He would tell young artists, “You have to
fail quickly and fail often.”
“Just do it. Keep failing,” he said. “That’s the only way you’re going to get better at anything you do. Keep
doing it and doing it and doing it.”
Craig Grabhorn, 35, printmaker
Craig Grabhorn has a sharp visual eye — he knows pattern
and style.
Since moving to Madison from UW-Stout in 2004, he has
parlayed that skill into a half-dozen different ventures.
“I was looking for a way to output designs in a more creative
way,” said Grabhorn, who maintains a studio in Dodgeville
but lives in Madison. “I picked up screen printing as an
output.”
At first, he designed posters for bands, album covers and tshirts, screen printing in the basement of a house he rented.
He joined Firecracker Studios, a collective print shop, and
took a job at Trek Bicycles, choosing and designing print
patterns.
PHOTO BY MICHELLE STOCKER
Craig Grabhorn sits next to some
Buy Now
of his screens used for printing at
the Madison Public Library Bubbler.
Now, Grabhorn works with Land’s End as a producer, helping build sets for photography shoots, painting
them, collecting props and composing each “scene.” He collaborates with a woodworker, who uses some
of his prints on furniture pieces.
And Grabhorn recently shifted his focus to a line of housewares — pot holders, oven mitts and more, all
of which he makes himself. His prints, cards and bandanas are for sale at Hatch Art House, among other
places, down the street from his first major mural: “Pure Life,” on the side of the Plan B nightclub at 924
Williamson St.
“I try to keep diversity in my world which is a fine line,” Grabhorn said. “To manage a schedule takes you
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The art of making a living: Creative entrepreneurs turn their passion into careers : Ct
away from the actual creative work. I try to keep a balance that allows me not to have to constantly be ...
keeping track of too many things.
“Any artist that I know that’s doing something at this level, you’re working massive amounts of hours for
whatever it is you believe.”
Grabhorn has spent the last three months as an artist in residence at the Central Library’s Bubbler,
leading screen printing workshops that will continue every third Sunday of the month through May.
It has been a fruitful time for him creatively, thanks in part to support from Bubbler director and fellow
artist Trent Miller. Grabhorn started a new series of landscape prints and embraced the teaching side,
helping budding artists as young as 6 years old turn their drawings into prints.
“I looked at it as, I have this opportunity to have face time with a lot of public traffic,” Grabhorn said,
calling the Bubbler “a critical space.”
“There are not a lot of facilities in Madison or organizations that are as open and excited to have an artist
come in and deal out what they believe in,” he said. The Bubbler’s paid residency “allows you this space
to rest and get out your ideas without trying to ... pay the bills somewhere.”
For Grabhorn, his end goal is to find artistic endeavors that are “sustainable.”
“Housewares and screen prints I can work on during downtime if I’m going to Land’s End for awhile to do
sets,” he said. “Or I’ll have a little time to work on producing a new illustration series.
“Breaking into invoices or new client meetings — it’s definitely a challenge to find a flow within a day.”
Currently, Grabhorn is working on an album design for a local band called The Czargles and will be
starting a part-time job as a designer for Rubin’s Furniture.
“It’s always critical for (an artist’s) longevity to build a network,” he said, and “to find a voice that connects
whatever ideas you really want to do in as clear a voice as possible.
“What do you want to say to the world with your work, and how do you want to say it?”
Screen printing at Madison Public Library
Sunday, March 15, 1:30-5 p.m.
Central Library, 201 W. Mifflin St.
madisonpubliclibrary.org; 266-6300
Note: Registration closes the Friday before each event. Events are currently full through May.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m., and Sundays, 2:30 p.m., March 7-29
The Playhouse, Overture Center, 201 State St.
$33
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The art of making a living: Creative entrepreneurs turn their passion into careers : Ct
overturecenter.org/events/midsummer-nights-dream; 258-4141
Lindsay Christians
Lindsay Christians has been reporting about the fine arts and food for The Capital Times and 77
Square since 2008, when she completed a masters at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She
earned her journalism degree at Michigan State University and is a native of northwest Ohio.
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