Crucial skills for the entrepreneurial success of fine artists

This article aims to define crucial skills for the entrepreneurial success of working fine artists as these skills have not yet been clearly identified for this professional group. The identification could be beneficial for artists' entrepreneurship education at higher education institutions (HEIs) in order to prepare them for their careers as effectively as possible. In order to achieve this aim, the paper is first focused on the entrepreneurship literature to identify the skills that are, in general, important for the entrepreneurial success and failure of entrepreneurs. In a second step, a survey was distributed to lecturers in Fine Art at HEIs in the UK and Germany, all of whom were simultaneously working artists, to determine the crucial skills for fine artists based on their professional experience. Both survey and literature findings show evidence that in particular seven skills, the "five plus two" skills, are crucial for the entrepreneurial success of professional fine artists.