I'm a fine artist - isn't selling merchandise beneath me or inappropriate for serious artists?

Consider this: can you name a single museum that doesn’t have a gift shop? You can’t, because they all do. If Van Gogh can hang on the wall and the museum can sell gift shop items, your art can hang on the wall and you can sell merchandise too. This isn’t about having a hobby - it’s about having a business. Merchandise has become an easy way for creative people to get their work onto products through print-on-demand, which requires no minimums and no inventory. Whether it’s tote bags, hand-painted wooden spoons, or any other product, what matters is that it qualifies as an impulse purchase that helps you acquire customers.

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Asked by a fine artist resistant to selling merchandise · Answered by Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2023-03-09