ARTIST advocacy

Sharon Louden's work as an advocate for artists is extensive and growing. Her visionary efforts to create opportunities and collaborate extend not only to fellow artists, but also to curators, critics, museum professionals, educators, and others. Although Sharon focuses her energy as a catalyst, collaborator and connector in the following areas below, her advocacy and community building is ongoing and spread across many different channels at the same time. The underlying ongoing principal that connects all of her work is the simple idea that generosity yields generosity.

CONSULTING

With decades of experience working in academia, the non-profit sector, and the corporate world — coupled with Board memberships and organizing countless informal community gatherings, Sharon has accumulated a vast trove of personal and professional networks that she activates to help connect individuals and organizations throughout the country. Her primary goal is to create opportunities and partnerships for others by sharing resources that will lead to measurable outcomes, both monetarily and creatively.

Informed by collaborations and conversations with gallery owners, museum professionals, critics, curators, 501 (c) (3) organizations, residencies, academics and others in different art communities, her vantage point puts her in a unique position to identify and build relationships between siloed organizations that help to assist in programming initiatives and realizing individual missions.

For more detail on Sharon’s consulting efforts over the years, please visit this page.

The Living and Sustaining a Creative Life conversation tours which began in 2013 have so far led to over 160 events across the country and abroad involving more than 11,000 attendees. The most recent conversation tour, which used The Artist as Culture Producer as a platform for conversation, connected and created opportunities over a 100+ stop tour. Through panel discussions, symposia, workshops, casual conversations, and town-hall forums, Sharon cross-pollinates contributors from her books with local artists, critics, curators, thought leaders, non-profit organizations, and other members of the general public to learn about, lend their voices to, and be inspired by the vast range of influence that artists exert on society today. Frequent collaborators have included Hrag Vartanian, Wendy Red Star, Austin Thomas and Sharon Butler. 

The measurable outcome from these events continues to be substantial and wide-ranging, including employment and exhibition opportunities, community building, individual validation, and implementation of new ideas. Data culled from attendees has clearly revealed what is needed and wanted by artists in every community. The data was collected to form a case study that was shared publicly in different forms, including an exhibition in a collaboration with artist and Living and Sustaining a Creative Life contributor Jennifer Dalton.

The Ford Foundation endorsed the The Artist as Culture Producer Conversation Tour with fiscal support for events that cross-pollinated book contributors with local artists in communities who wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to participate.

www.livesustain.org

Sharon has taught for 30 years since graduating from Yale University School of Art in 1991. Her teaching experience includes studio and professional practice classes to students of all levels in many institutions throughout the United States. Colleges and universities at which she has lectured and taught include: Kansas City Art Institute, College of Saint Rose, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Vanderbilt University and Maryland Institute College of Art. She has been invited as a visiting artist all across the country and abroad.

Sharon is currently a faculty member in the MFA Fine Arts program at the School of Visual Arts in New York. From 2011 to 2019, she also served as Senior Critic at the New York Academy of Art where she organized a popular lecture series interviewing luminaries and exceptional individuals in the art world and beyond. Louden organized and moderated the Chautauqua Visual Arts Lecture Series, a once-a-month, year ‘round opportunity to meet and hear luminaries speak about their work from the art world and beyond. While Director of the Chautauqua Visual Arts, she would also conduct workshops focused on making a living as a working artist — covering grants, fellowships, art markets and commissions — to artists participating in the Seneca-Iroquois National Museum’s artist in residency program in Western, NY. In addition, Sharon has participated in over 350 panel discussions and group convenings over the years, acting as moderator for many of those in museums, galleries, universities, and nonprofit organizations both in the states and abroad.

In her capacity as a community facilitator, Sharon is frequently called upon to make recommendations of artists and critics for visiting artist programs of all sizes and attempts to give opportunities to artists who are generous to other artists from all over the world.

Webster, Derek, “Craft & Career: Sharon Louden Yale MFA, artist, educator, Chautauqua Institute – Part 1 & 2,” March 2022:

• Vartanian, Hrag, “Audrey Flack and the Last of the New York School,” Hyperallergic, July 18, 2021

• Mueller, Nicole and Adams, Amanda, “Beyond the Studio Book Club: Sharon Louden,” Beyond the Studio, April 18, 2019

• Ray, Meghann, “Ask the Experts 2.0: Museum Confidential,” Tulsa Public Radio, March 1, 2019

Vega, Tanzina, “Who Gets to Make a Living as an Artist?," The Takeaway, WNYC Studios, April 30, 2019

• Colosimo, Mandy, “TCAC ‘Haudenosaunee, Art of the Now’ exhibit open,” The Bradford Era, June 5, 2023

• Olean Times Herald staff, “Current Tri-County Arts exhibit features Seneca-Iroquois art,” Olean Times Herald, June 4, 2023

• Knows, Natasha, “Deck The Halls With Artwork by DUMBO Artists!,” BK Reader, December 14, 2022

• Sharp, Daniel, “On why you're more than what you make,” The Creative Independent, August 31, 2022

• “Best Fierce Quotes To Help You To Become A Fierce Person,” Your Fates, August 10, 2021

• Bhatt, Ananya, “120 Fierce Quotes for Strong and Fearless Women & Men”, The Random VibeZ, May 5, 2022 (quote #35)

• Chappett, Marie-Claire, “We The Muse: Introducing the digital platform which aims to help struggling artists,” Harper’s Bazaar, February 24, 2021

• “Online initiative is helping visual artists prepare for and navigate the emerging new art ecosystem,” Catalyst, February 3, 2021

• Substance 100, “What is the Purpose of Art in the 21st Century?,” Collecteurs, December 2020

• Gaskin, Sam, “In a Rebuke to Power Lists, Collecteurs Announces Substance 100,” Ocula Magazine, April 10, 2020

• Aronoff, Amy, “Business of Art | The Arts Administrator’s Creed: 5 Guiding Principles for Your Arts Admin Career,” NYFA Current, January 21, 2020

• Patti, Joe, “The Gallery At The End of The Rainbow,” Butts in The Seats, April 29, 2019

• Louden, Sharon, “Why Art Colleges and Universities Should Not Act Like For-Profit Galleries,” Hyperallergic, March 20, 2019 [pdf]

• LGBTQ Art Exhibit at the Erie Art Gallery, Juried by Hrag Vartanian and Sharon Louden, February 15, 2019

• Davis, Gene, “Raising the Value of Artists,” Fashion Islands, January 6, 2019

• Walker, Kimberly, “Why These Finalists: 2-D and Installation,” Wood TV 8 - Art Prize 10, Grand Rapids, MI, October 1, 2018 [video]

• Zuckerman, Daniel, "Talk explores growing the art community," Hudson Valley 360, July 9, 2018

• Hervey, Jane Claire, "10 Creative Entrepreneurs On Pursuing An Authentic Career Path," Forbes, May 8, 2018

• Hervey, Jane Claire, "This is Why the World Needs Artists," Forbes, February 27, 2018

• Terrell, Matthew, "Artist Entry Fees: A Necessary Evil or Barrier to Entry?" Burnaway, January 4, 2018

• "Interview - Sharon Louden," Point + Line, September 14, 2017

• Kienle, Miriam, "The Generosity of Cultural Production: A Conversation with Sharon Louden," Medium, April 7, 2017

• Butler, Sharon, "Sharon Louden: Consultants, careers, and community," Two Coats of Paint, August 1, 2016