Developing the Artist Community in Europe

[Mischa Milosevic]

What ever ones interest in regard to this topic I would love to hear from you. As the saying goes 'more heads are better than one'.

At the moment, I am developing different levels of art my personal, that I may be the best that I can be, community, national and Europe wide.

The idea of this project is to promote skill, professionalism and a sense of gratitude to the teachers of the past "The Masters of Old". One aspect of promotion is competition and exhibits. At the moment, I have some solid contacts that will contribute and will be of extreme impact as this project develops. I also have huge space and ideal space, that I can use for such events at operating cost. I plan to have the support of professionally acclaimed artists as judges. These artists will be artists that have international recognition as portrait artists and as instructors and artists whose goal is to promote other artists.

Even though I love adventure and would climb Mount Everest my self but I have learn't that wen doing something for someone it is best to get them involved. If you would like to get involved and you are from Europe even if you are not from Europe and you like to get involved please let me know by writing to me personally.

If you like to contribute via this post you are quite welcome for that to is quite important as well for I respect the voice of my fellow artists.

Thank you for taking the time to respond

[Mischa Milosevic]

Just for clarifications sake, in no way am I thinking of starting a art club. There are to many art clubs around, especially in my area.
I will be and am talking with these organizations "art clubs" to see what would be the extent of their involvement.

My idea is to reach out to serious artists and reach individuals that wish to be serious artists. Sure that there is different skill levels and the opportunity will be extended to all that wish to get involved.

There are quite a few different avenues one can take with this and I am sure that you all have some thought on the mater. These ideas are welcome. One idea, crumb if you may, is to offer participating artists, individuals that are serious about the craft, a chance to develop their skills by long term studying with someone in their area. This opportunity will be extended with minimal costs if any but it will involve their time and in helping other individuals to learn. The skilled artists will benefit in a number of other ways. I plan to involve professional artists from other countries and continents and all to their benefit.

There is more and if you are a visionary and a individual of action we can talk. One more thing if you like the idea and you care to get involved know that everything will be and must be a 100% transparent.

[Allan Rahbek]

Mischa,
Are you thinking about starting a portraits workshop, a get together of likeminded artist ? I think that is a fine idea, especially if you can have a model and housing at low costs.
My only concern for you is that this project could be time consuming for you, but as you say , all have to contribute if it shall be interesting for you. Good luck with the project.

[Mischa Milosevic]

Allan, thank you for the encouragement and I do hope you will get involved for your comment in regard to the Nordic competition has a lot to do with this. This is and will be a artist for artists project. We all have some additional skills beside our craft some are promoters, some know how to manage, others know how to receive visiting guests etc. We must function like a body and each body has its functional parts but the whole body benefits.

Yes, there will be workshops and these will be set up in such a way that visiting artist will benefit. Everyone that gets involved will benefit and to benefit one must get involved. I am soliciting hotel director/managers and have started negotiations with the Arkadia hotel chain and I am not just looking to rent a room for the night.

Let me share to what extent my expertise lies. I spent ten years in the humanitarian field. One of my functions was to do assessments, assist with project planing and in writing project proposals. I am talking about million $ projects USAID type stuff. My last project involvement was in Bosnia a food for pensioners project, worth 5.4 mill, funded by USAID.

My idea is that if we do not pool together well I hate to think. Let me put it this way the artists that are making it know the rode they had-to travel in order to get their work out there.

[Grethe Angen]

Mischa, what great and creative ideas. A center of competence and development of classical realism and portraiture is sorely needed.. I believe there are quite a member of artists in Europe that are serious about and wanting to develop the classical traditions. And to have their work appreciated and judged for what it is. The result of the Nordic Portraitcompetition shows that the skill of classical realism needs to be defined, no doubt.
It is a great initiative indeed.

[Mischa Milosevic]

My fellow artists, if you are not sure how you can get involved here is the first thing where you can contribute. If your communicating skills are well trained in advertising and writing we need to talk. If you have a excellent sense for design and promotion we need to talk. If you have a uncle that has a printing press we need to talk. If you are bilingual we need to talk. If you have good connections with the local or national paper we need to talk. If your uncle manages a hotel in your area we need to talk. If your brother or sister is a figure in the community, state country we need to talk. If you have sold less then five paintings or drawings this year and you did not earn enough to cover five months rent on your flat we need to talk. If you just care and you wish to help we need to talk.

To what extent this will grow depends on individual participation. How will it work? It all depends on ones vision, balanced and solid planing.

[Marina Dieul]

Hi Mischa,
when you began speaking of your project, I thought you were thinking to a sort of " European Portrait Society" but now I read what you have written, it seem to be more like an artists guild like in the past... What do you mean exactly by " Art club" ?

Ok, I think the first thing is to establish clearly the status of what you want to do ( association, organization, guild, society...) and to write the mission statement : the goals and artistic objectives.
Doing that will help poeple to decide if they want to get involved, because it's necessary to know in what you will involve.

Second idea which comes to my mind, is that you should attend at least one big event like the annual conference of the Portrait Society Of America, to study from the inside how they organize things. Your expertise in the humanitarian field is very impressive, but I'm sure there would be a lot of things to learn which are specific to the artistic environment.
Maybe it would be a good idea to contact founders of such organization to see if they have some advices to share...
I thought also you can study the website of a young society like the Portrait Society Of Canada which was founded only 6 years ago to see the differents steps of the developpement.
Ok, these are my first ideas for the moment.
I'm very optimist that it can work!

[Allan Rahbek]

Originally Posted by Marina Dieul

Hi Mischa,
Ok, I think the first thing is to establish clearly the status of what you want to do ( association, organization, guild, society...) and to write the mission statement : the goals and artistic objectives.
Doing that will help people to decide if they want to get involved, because it's necessary to know in what you will involve.!

Mischa,
I have the same questions as Marina. It would be much appreciated if you could define your vision of this project.
It seems to be very ambitious and I foresee some problems of geographical sort. If I should be involved I would have to stay there for longer periods and that would be a problem because of my normal job.
Are you thinking about an educational center with teaching and housing ?

[Mischa Milosevic]

While here in my area I was offered membership from a number of local art clubs. Being that I am knew in the area I asked questions in regards to the benefits for the artist if one became a member. First, they all charge a fee and the fee I find does not differ much from the Canadians. They all have a similar program set up and I like what the Canadians are doing. I am not curtain to what extent the Canadian program is benefiting the members maybe Marina you can clarify that.

My hope is to unite professional artists in a joint venture a association if that is the correct name. Together we can pool our individual skills and gifts to help other artists and at the same time to better market what we do and what we stand for.

To acheave this or something close we need to poll together. This is not designated for one area only rather we work together to promote each and every country. My thought is to have a functional body within each country Germany, France The Nordics etc.

This is something that is progressive and it takes time to develop. It takes time to define a mission statement and it takes people. There are procedures to go through to get a working license and register a organization if that is what we want first. I think that a structure needs to be planed out first and possible problems need to be solved or at least the solutions recognized. When one recognizes the problems artists had in the early 19th century one can and should learn from the past to better understand ones future.

My suggestion is this: if you can see the benefit and I am not talking about a operating fee in fact I car not to ask members for a monthly fee of any kind. I believe and stand for hard work and planed marketing strategies.

Again if you can see the benefit and you wish to get involved get in touch with me. In the mean time do the research for we need all kinds of information. I have some knowledge in running successful exhibitions and workshops but someone knows more or you have a good source of reliable information.

I hope I was able to answer some questions. If I seem reserved please understand that this is a open forum.

[Ngaire Winwood]

Mischa, I applaude your enthusiasm and can connect with you on more ways than one. Being myself so far away from credible teachers, I too earlier on wanted to connect with like minded artists, which I found here on the forum. Their genorosity and time to be moderators is inspirational to say the least.

I am interested in hearing aspects of your proposal in more detail.

SOG might be interested in hosting such an event, if this is what you seem to be proposing. I am sure after all of Cynthia's hard work and the existing morale here on the forum re 'towards technical excellence' and wide range of skill levels that it is a perfect staging ground for such an event.