In her Brooklyn studio, artist, writer, and educator Sharon Louden is thinking about career longevity. Not her own—Louden is passionate about helping other artists. And, everyone else. “Art gives to the well-being of others,” Louden says. “There’s no denying that.” Yet there’s a reason tropes surrounding the working artist exist. It’s not a way of life with a tidy roadmap, regardless of the cultural richness artists create or the innovation they bring to the economy. For three decades, Louden has combined a thriving studio practice with advocacy on behalf of other artists; the latter path gives her as much joy as putting paint on canvas does.
In her early thirties, Louden, who moved to New York in 1991 after completing her MFA at Yale University, started to wonder why no one talked about how to make a career in the arts viable. Despite the passion she had for her burgeoning career, showing in galleries and museums in and beyond New York, she found herself plagued by worries about whether “it was the right path.” A life-long connector and teacher, Louden was drawn to educational roles, mentorship, and community work even as her pieces were sought after across the art world. As she built a career that focused as much on artist advocacy as it did her studio work, the worrying fell away, and her mission became clear. “I want to share and give as much as I can in the short life I have,” explains Loudon, from her Brooklyn studio. The artist went on to write the first two books in a series titled Living and Sustaining a Creative Life, both collections of essays about working artists—a group of diverse creative individuals who work with a wide range of media, all of whom generously reveal how they make their iteration of the artist’s life possible.
Louden’s many successes have catapulted her far beyond the worries of her early days in New York’s nineties art scene: her glistening sculptures and sparse, linear paintings are held in the collections of the Whitney Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. In January 2024, she had a solo show at Signs and Symbols gallery in downtown Manhattan, and her book, Last Artist Standing, which highlights artists over the age of 50, will be published later in the year. But when she works with other artists, she first focuses on the basics that plagued her back then. Sustainability begins with healthcare, a steady income, and a place to create, she explains. “The myth that artists can live from gallery sales is just a myth,” she says. “It’s only one piece of the ecosystem.” Grants, non-profit organizations, and teaching roles are ways to supplement their income, and financial solutions, such as those from Lincoln Financial Group, can help protect and grow their savings. Lincoln Financial, who supported our video of Louden’s studio, offers annuities, life insurance*, and other products that allow artists like Louden to continue to support their passions.
Louden has been teaching and advising artists throughout the entirety of her career, and also advises non-profit organizations across the country. Her parallel interest in philanthropy reflects a passion for laying the groundwork for the next generation. But lately it’s mentorship that makes up much of her day-to-day—and it is the work, she says, that she’ll still continue to enjoy even after retiring from teaching and her studio practice. When we spoke, she was readying herself for a gathering in her studio, which she was granted by the Two Trees Cultural Subsidy Program. The gathering, one in a series called ‘Needs Wants and Gives’ group conversations, will allow artists to share resources toward finding pragmatic solutions to fill their needs such as studio space to work, job and exhibition opportunities as well as share aspects of their own creative practices. Sometimes it’s as simple as thinking of finding ways to enter a gallery, or exhibition space, or residency through the backdoor, “where no one is in line,” says Louden.
Some of the artists she regularly mentors, like visual artist Helia Chitsazan, might stop by. Chitsazan, an Iranian artist in her twenties, recently graduated with a MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York, where Louden teaches. The attendees always vary: this week, emerging artists Capucine Bourcart, Shwarja Bhattacharjee, and Silvia Muleo are going to join for the first time.
Mentorship comes easy to Louden, and that is because she has her own mentors whose paths she is honored to follow. Sharon has a guide in Ruby Lerner, the founder of the non-profit arts organization Creative Capital. “She has continued to show me that the collective, community engagement of artists is a valuable resource which contributes to making a difference in people’s lives.” Louden hopes that a catalytic three decades spent championing working artists, advocating for more contemporary arts education in schools, as well as preparation for artists to integrate in all different sectors, will do as much for her community as it will for the greater public overall.
Sharon Louden has long since combined her love for education and advocacy with her career as a working artist and professor. But for many, passion projects, such as experiencing the arts and engaging in philanthropy, are kicked down the line until retirement. Lincoln Financial can help protect and grow your financial future to make your pastimes last a lifetime, whether retirement is five or fifty years away.
Watch Sustaining Creativity for a Lifetime with Sharon Louden here.
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