Arts entrepreneurs combine talent with business

You'd think self-employed artists, who almost by definition live on the edge of the disposable income the rest of us may or may not spend, really must be suffering — unless you're thinking about Victoria Lyman.

Owner of Evanston's Allegro Dance Boutique, Lyman is one of a perhaps surprising number of arts-focused entrepreneurs who have successfully combined their passion — Lyman was a dancer — with solid business judgment.

“Dancers don't stop dancing because there's a recession,” she says. “People will cut back on restaurants faster than they will take a child out of ballet.”

Lyman, who moved her store to larger space just two years ago, knows how to reach her market. “It's a small community with strong word-of-mouth” Lyman says. “We get to know studio owners and dance instructors” who recommend Allegro.

In turn, Lyman puts studio brochures in her store.

John McDavitt and Theresa Brooks aren't dancers, but, like Lyman, they have combined their artistic talents with business.

“I'm a guy who can draw,” says McDavitt, a Plainfield visual artist and president of McDavitt Design Studio Inc. “I do product development. I help manufacturers who have to have style to get their products on retail shelves make sure their aesthetics are effective.”

A particular skill in special effects helps. “I understand how things can be molded,” McDavitt says.

Brooks is a musician. “From junior high,” she says, “I knew I'd be in music. But I thought I'd be performing or composing.”

Instead, Brooks and her husband, Jeffrey, run Apocalypse Cow Productions, a Montgomery recording studio that records, mixes and masters sounds for clients that range from rock bands to story tellers.

Brooks does compose, aiming to sell her work to music libraries and ad agencies — and, hopefully, film and TV producers, where the money is biggest.

Not everyone is doing well. Kevin Luthardt, a Skokie visual storyteller who has authored and illustrated eight children's books, created more than 50 murals and whose mostly whimsical works are represented by a Chicago gallery, is struggling. School budgets for visiting artist programs, once a key source of income, have been slashed; gallery sales are down, and the publishing industry is still adapting to change.

“I'm spending more time marketing my work, doing everything I can to boost business,” Luthardt says. Everything includes looking for a part-time job.

Emerging artists, primarily those about to leave the comfort of school for the realities of the business world, have some help. Chicago's Coleman Foundation, which supports entrepreneurship programs at educational institutions around the country, backs an annual Self Employment in the Arts Conference at North Central College in Naperville, where conference director Amy Rogers says artist practitioners can “learn the business side of the story from successful practitioners.” Coleman also sponsors related regional SEA conferences.

Ÿ Jim Kendall welcomes comments at Kendall@121MarketingResources.com.