Syllabus

Fall ’22 – Syllabus

19 August 202230 November 2022 by Glenn Zucman

Life is too short to remain unnoticed.
— Salvador Dali

Artist’s Portfolios, Websites & Careers

Long Beach State University
College of the Arts
School of Art
Art 490: Capstone Workshop: Artist’s Portfolios, Websites & Careers
Fall Semester 2022
Instructor: Glenn Zucman

Can You Really Have an Art Career?

Maybe.

Lots of people get Art Degrees.
Lots of people don’t have Art Careers.

Which will you be?

Honestly, it’s up to you.

“Great Artist” = Great Success?

It would be easy to think that the “great artists” succeed. And that those of us who are more ordinary don’t succeed and move on to business and other careers.

I don’t see that.

It might be part of it, but I mostly see that some people refuse to give up. They just keep pursuing their art career and it works out over time.

Will you show your work at Saatchi Gallery? Or MOMA? Or The Broad? Will you be an Animator at Pixar? Or a Designer at Pentagram? Will you Design the Sets or Costumes for a Broadway show? Will you win an Academy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Production Design? Or Visual Effects?

I don’t know. Not many achieve those things. But lots and lots of artists spend decades of their lives earning their living by making art. If you want that and are willing to work for it, I believe that you can have it.

But let’s be clear…

Giving Up

There are a lot of people with art degrees. The world doesn’t need that many artists. But it seems to need an endless supply of businesspeople, middle managers, spreadsheet jockeys, and others.

If you’re willing to say an art career is too hard and it’s just easier to take that day job, the world is perfectly happy with that.

And that day job might be easier and pay better. An art career doesn’t equal a great income or a great life. All I’m saying is that if you want it enough, are willing to work for it, and are not willing to take “no” for an answer, then it can happen for you.

The Wisdom of the Village Idiot

Course Details

Art 490 section 1, 3 – Capstone Workshop in Artist’s Portfolios, Websites, and Careers – Fall 2022

This is a capstone course in preparing SOA students to complete their time at LBSU and move into art careers. We will focus on Your Career Plans, Realistic Expectations, Preparing a Persuasive Portfolio, and realizing that portfolio as a clear, concise, and compelling Website that presents your work to the Curators, HR Directors, Collectors, Art Directors, Clients, and others interested in your work.

Instructor: Glenn Zucman
email: glenn.zucman@csulb.edu
Semester: Fall 2022
Section 1: Class #7120
Section 3: Class #11573
Prerequisite: None
Units: 1
Work Estimate: 3 hours/week
Textbook: Artists’ Portfolios, Websites & Careers, $0.
Course: August 22 – December 17, 2022
Final: No formal final. Your “final project” is your portfolio website.

Zoom Room

Online Course: Asynchronous
Room: Zoom: https://csulb.zoom.us/my/glennz
Password: soa

Lunch @ the Art Gallery

AKA “Group Office Hours”

Discuss the week’s activities
Share your interests and concerns
Bring your lunch, come and go anytime, hang out, chat about art, life, careers
Meet your classmates!
M Noon – 12:50 pm PDT

Final

We have no final exam. Your Final is to post the URL to your Portfolio Website on the class Padlet during Finals Week. You will have already posted your URL in Week 9 when you first launched your site. Please post it again during Finals Week so it will be at the top of our Padlet feed.

Schedule

Week 0 – Context & Inspiration: James B. Lansing, Ed Brokaw, Eric Griffith
Week 1 – Write Career Statement & Career Goals, Make New Work & Choose Accountability Partners
Week 2 – Write 5-year plan
Week 3 – Research A: Key People for your career & Viewer Profile
Week 4 – Sketch of Portfolio & Website: Menu & Site Map
Week 5 – Research B: Find 5 Websites in your field
Week 6 – Write About Yourself & Your Work
Week 7 – Photograph Yourself & Your Work
Week 8 – Choose a Platform & Domain Name
Week 9 – Build Website – 1st draft due by Sunday Night
Week 10 – Welcome Video
Week 11 – Social Media Week
Week 12 – Nomads & Tools Week
Week 13 – Testing Your Portfolio Website
Fall Break – 21-27 November
Week 14 – Website Classmate Critiques
Week 15 – Refine your portfolio. Final draft of website due by Friday Night
Week 16 – Internet Art

1-to-1 Meetups with Glenn

Meetup #1 – Weeks 4 & 5
Meetup #2 – Weeks 9 & 10
Meetup #3 – Weeks 14 & 15

Visit the Meetup Schedule Page to pick the Day & Time you’d like to meetup on Zoom.
I’m available for all the meetups you’d like by email or zoom. These are just our 3 “official” meetups.

Turning in Your Work

Text (Etherpad)

I’ve made an “Etherpad” page for each of you. Etherpad is handy in that we can both edit it at the same time. You can use it to post your weekly activities before your website is up, and when we meetup on Zoom, we can both look at it and edit it to refine your ideas and your text. I might be able to help with things like your Artist’s Statement.

Images

Etherpad is a text-only platform. For photos you can post images wherever you like and then paste links to the images on Etherpad. If you use a public-by-default platform like Flickr, you can just post. If you use a private-by-default platform like Google Docs, be sure to either set your images to Public or to add Glenn as an allowed viewer.

A few of the many places you can post images:

Flickr
Gyazo
Google Docs
OneDrive
iCloud
Tumblr
SmugMug
ImageShack
PhotoBucket
etc

In all cases, a free account is sufficient.

Video

As with images, you’ll post your videos on another platform and paste a URL on your Etherpad. The most common places to post your video are:

YouTube
Vimeo

Format of the Course

Online. Asynchronous.

Prerequisites

None

Objectives

The purpose of this course is to design & implement your Portfolio Website. To learn skills and methods that will allow the artist to maintain a current, and contemporary presence online. To develop a realistic career plan and begin the steps of your professional career journey.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to:

Build a 5-year career plan that includes career goals and financial income and outgo
Create a clear, concise, and compelling Artist’s Portfolio that focuses on specific career goals
Build a persuasive Website that presents your portfolio to your audience
Easily & Quickly Update the content of your Portfolio
Change the aesthetics of your Portfolio
Discuss the aesthetics of many different Artist’s Portfolios
Prepare Images & Videos for your Portfolio
Create an online CV (curriculum vitae) or Resume
Create an online Artist’s Statement
Exchange links with other artists

Materials

Textbooks

Course Website

This website, glenn.zucman.com/websites, is $0.
Do everything detailed in the weekly activity briefs and you’ll end up with a 5-Year Career Plan and a Portfolio Website clearly targeted at the people who can help advance your career.

The Art of Non-Conformity

Optional Text: The Art of Non-Conformity: set your own rules; live the life you want; and change the world, by Chris Guillebeau

Required Materials

Computer – laptop or desktop. Or computers in the Horn Center or Spidel Center
Camera – Phone, DSLR, Mirrorless, or Film
Cloud Storage – Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud, OneDrive, etc (free version)
Web Platform – Wix, Squarespace, WordPress, HTML, or anything else you prefer

Online Resources

Course Website – glenn.zucman.com/websites
Course Padlet – https://padlet.com/glennzucman/x924qywia5o8kcad
Our Zoom Room – csulb.zoom.us/my/glennz, password: soa
Your Etherpad – Launches in Week 1
Your Website – Launches in Week 9

We won’t use BeachBoard or Canvas at all. We’ll do everything with the above tools. If you have questions, just leave your question as a comment on any of Glenn‘s posts on Padlet. Or send an email.

Technology

Technical Competence Required

The ability to:

use a phone and a laptop
view websites & navigate to different locations
download and install software

Minimum Hardware Requirements

Any smartphone and laptop made in the last few years. Or computers in the Spidell Center or the Horn Center.

Minimum Software Requirements

A modern web browser like Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari, etcetera
Support software, like Photoshop or Adobe Creative Cloud, and perhaps a text editor like Brackets, Notepad++, or Sublime Text.

Safety

If you’ve been staring at a screen for 20 minutes, it’s a good idea to look at something further away for a moment. If you’ve been working for 2 hours, it’s nice to take a walk around the block before continuing.

Attendance & Grades

Attendance

Art is anything you can get away with.
— Andy Warhol

Points

Don’t think about making art, just get it done.
— Andy Warhol

Grades

Everyone gets an A.

Seriously.

Why?

Because this class is too important to waste any of your time thinking about Points & Grades. This is not a class in jumping through hoops or making Glenn happy. Our bar is much higher than that. This is a class in building your future. Stop checking your phone and get to work.

You, and your class Accountability Partners, should keep each other motivated and progressing.

Late Work

Do or do not.

There is no try.
— Yoda

About YOUR Education

I believe that you should be as in charge of your own Art School and Art Career Road Map as you’re willing and able to be. Take responsibility. Live the life you want to live.

I put my thoughts on this in a TEDxCSULB talk:

Other Details

Incompletes

The School of Art grants “incompletes” rarely and only for the most extreme conditions.

Withdrawal Deadlines

CSULB Enrollment Services: Key Dates & Deadlines
CSULB Dropping & Withdrawing Policies

Accommodation

CSULB will make reasonable accommodations for any student who has different needs. It is the student’s responsibility to notify me in advance of the need for special accommodations.

COVID-19 Health & Safety Requirements

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, CSULB has implemented health and safety protocols
(see LBSU COVID-19 website) that follow the guidance of local, state, and national public health
authorities. As a member of our campus community, you are expected to follow all campus
policies, including COVID-19-related requirements. These apply to anyone who is physically
present on University grounds or participating in any CSULB-related activity.

As an Online class, Art 490 students & faculty are not physically present on University grounds. If you wish to use campus facilities such as computer labs, then you must follow current LBSU COVID-19 protocols.

Eliminating Anti-Blackness

Faculty at CSULB strive to create an environment that supports meaningful dialogue grounded in research, academic inquiry, and mutually respectful relations. We also strive to remain conscious of and attentive to the damage that anti-Blackness does to the lives of our students, faculty, staff, administrators, and their related communities.

Title IX Statement

Title IX prohibits gender discrimination, including sexual harassment and sexual misconduct. If you have experienced sexual harassment, sexual assault, rape, dating/domestic violence, or stalking, the Campus Confidential Advocate is available to help. Jaqueline Urtez, advocate@csulb.edu / 562-985-2668, can provide free and confidential support, accommodations, and referrals for victims without having to report the assault to campus authorities. While students are welcome to discuss assaults with faculty or disclose such experiences in class discussions or assignments, both faculty and teaching assistants are responsible employees who are required to report all known incidents of sexual harassment/misconduct to the Office of Equity & Diversity/Title IX Office for follow-up. Reporting this information will result in the student being contacted by the Office of Equity & Diversity/Title IX Office with information on accommodations and reporting options for possible investigation. Students do not need to respond to the Office of Equity & Diversity/Title IX Office, but students who do wish to report the assault for possible investigation are encouraged to contact the Campus Confidential Advocate, who can help them through the reporting process, or they can report the assault directly to the Office of Equity & Diversity/Title IX Office by completing an online reporting form at csulb.edu/equity-diversity/title-ix or contacting the Office of Equity & Diversity: OED@csulb.edu.

Basic Needs

If you are having trouble affording enough food to eat, do not have a safe and reliable place to sleep, and/or experiencing an emergency or crisis, then the Basic Needs Program is here to help. The Basic Needs Program provides emergency services and resources for students. To learn more about the program, visit https://www.csulb.edu/student-affairs/basic-needs/basic-needs-services.

Undocumented Students

Undocumented students are welcome in this class. If your status presents obstacles to engaging in specific activities or fulfilling specific criteria, you may request confidential accommodations. You may consult with the Office of Equity and Diversity or the Dream Success Center for examples of possible accommodations. Such arrangements will not jeopardize your student status, your financial aid, or any other part of your residence. Please advise me if and when you feel comfortable during the semester so that I may make appropriate alterations as needed.

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