Yesterday, my family spent a delightful afternoon with Tom Turnbull in his Nashville studio. Tom is an amazing ceramic artist and entrepreneur and his hospitality proved to be on the same high level as that of his work.
During Tom's chat with my son, he encouraged Matt to take some business and marketing courses as part of his graduate studies. Advice like this is something that Matt has heard before (ahem), but coming from a successful artist and businessman gave that advice much needed credibility. Tom's advice to Matt gave me food for thought as well...
Over the last several weeks, I have been exploring online communities of artists just to get a sense of how they are using technology and social networking to connect with each other as well as their customers/markets. I have been amazed to see what is going on...almost like an undiscovered, online sub-culture. I am considering an adoption of sorts...this sub-culture of artists. These handmade communities appear to have many of the qualities one might expect in a learning community and their tales are worth the chase. Stay tuned.