Art Incubator

Over the past year I have heard a great deal of talk concerning an "Art Incubator". It is a grand idea and a concept that is long overdue for Youngstown. Several years ago I took it upon myself to start one with the limited resources I had on hand.
My first step was to take a good look at the business techniques that lead to my own success in the art world. I then broke these techniques down into their most basic components.
From there I had to find an artist who was willing to go along with my plan. Luckily I knew a painter who was very motivated to try my techniques in his artistic endeavors. Not all artists I approached were willing and some who were lacked the necessary motivation and vision.
An incredibly necessary aspect of this endeavor was finding an artist who had a place to work, as I could not provide studio space. The artist I approached had a room in his apartment where he could work, but this limited the scope of the experiment somewhat. We had to modify my art/business techniques to fit his circumstances.
Without going into detail of the techniques, I will say that we had a great deal of success, more than I had anticipated. With an investment of $500 the artist created 30 small paintings (averaging 12x16 inches). I promoted the work over one of my websites and we sold most of them at somewhat below market value, which helped us create a substantial amount of money quickly. This money went directly back into the business and in 8 months the artist had a self sustaining art business with only a moderate amount of help from me. At this point I became the artist's agent. Because of the financial delicacy of the situation I took only a very small percentage of the sale or was paid in artwork
As I said, this endeavor was limited in scope due to the modest amount of funds and workspace available. However, I began to apply these refined techniques to my own art business and found that I could increase my output of fine large oil paintings dramatically. I also found that my marketing skills had improved significantly which lead to an increase in my own sales. Finally, the increased amount of finished work and following sales allowed me to get my artwork placed in more influential collections than I had previously been able.
Should any business or organization be interested in consulting with me on creating an art incubator, please email me: artbake777(at)aol.com.