The true measure of the wealth of a society throughout history has been the record of its art, and the importance the society places on the arts of the citizens within the society.  This does not mean that each citizen is an artist or artisan, but that the government of the society fosters an appreciation of The Arts as part of its governance.

Nor does this mean that the government buys artworks of dubious quality, or subsidises the creation of artefacts in the name of art, but that it fosters an environment where artisans are encouraged and given opportunities to become educated further in their art and taught how to become commercial with their art.

Art is subjective, and what one person sees as art, others may see only as a pile of mud, splashes of colour across a canvas or other such interpretations, as many as there are people.  However, the opportunity to be an artist is the right of every person, as much as it is to be a tradesperson or a teacher.  Just as that person has the right to be an artist, they have the obligation to become commercial and to support themselves independently of the government, employed or in business, as every other citizen of the nation is.

A critical component of education in general currently, is that it does not teach the student how to become commercial in their chosen field, with the notable exception of some business education courses.  Art, in particular, is one field where this feature is very important as the artist, by definition, is usually more creative than business minded.  Every educational program dealing with artisans, including writing, painting, sculpture and other fine arts, needs to have a business management and business promotion component, to ensure that the artisan has the ability to either self promote or source promotion and understand the application of that business resource.

A solution to this may be the development of a generic business education module, which could be included as a core element in all educational programs, whether a trades, degree or higher-level training program.  The business module would include:

1.     Basic money management

2.      Basic self and business promotion

3.      Basic sales training

4.      Business networking

Once the student has graduated, they will not only be qualified in their field of interest, they will know how to promote and sell themselves to the world commercially, or at the very least, become employed in their field of interest.

The benefit of this is that our community and society will have its artisans and we will all be better off for that, but they will also be better off, being able to be commercial with their artwork, and not the financial burden that many of the artistic communities currently are.