
What is a Motivation Letter & How to Write One: Sample + Tips
What is a motivation letter and how do you go about writing one? Find out with our step-by-step writing guide and take your job search to the next level.
As an artist in academia, you need to produce a masterpiece to land that prestigious position. Be a shoo-in with this expert artist CV example and guide.
You’re an artist in academia, the struggle is real. The agony of years spent grinding away to build a reputation.
Know-nothing critics and gallery owners. Grant applications. Lecturing gigs.
But—you know your talent. Your ‘Automaton Desecrating a Fragment’ puts anything by Tracey Emin in the shade.
As for your expertise in 19th-century bronzes—it’s second to none.
After all the pain, your time to shine in academia has come.Whether you’re applying to a top University, for prestigious grants, or academic admissions, one thing links them all—
You need an artist CV to prove your academic credentials.
But—how to convey the breadth and brilliance of your abilities? This one document could make or break your academic career.
Fear not. We’ll show you an artist CV example that you can adapt to win the most prestigious academic posts.
This guide will show you:
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Artist CV made with our builder—See more templates and create your CV here.
Here's an artist CV example made using our CV builder.
Mervyn Hudson
0777 777 7777
mhudson@art.com
www.mhudsonart.com
linkedin.com/mhudson_zety
twitter.com/mjhamm_zety
Art Lecturer with 11+ years of experience in facilitating learning in the fine arts focusing on contemporary artists who use digital media as a tool for photographic practice. Specialist in the communication of visual ideas through computer, digital camera and hybrid practice with a basis in photography as a medium for creating art. Active, exhibiting artist with portfolio of work available upon request. Contributed to 25% increase in BFA students taking up post-graduate studies and 20% increase in average test scores. Winner of Fine Art Photography Award 2017 in seascape category. Seeking to leverage my passion and expertise in the role of Photography Lecturer at the University of Liverpool.
2008 MFA in Visual Art
University College London
Thesis Exhibition: ‘Shadows of Automation: Landscape with Metaphysical St George’
Faculty Mentor Professor Maria Velasco
2005 BFA in Visual Art, Major in Expanded Media
University College London
Graduated with first class honours
2001 Modern Languages BA
Queen Mary University London
Sep 2013–Present
Assistant Professor, University of Roehampton
Sep 2010–Aug 2013
Lecturer, University of Roehampton
Sep 2009–Aug 2010
Research Associate, University College London
2018
South East Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship for Juxtaposed Manifesto of Superficial Matter
2017
Shortlisted: Myers Foundation Visual Arts Award for Eroded Sunset on Geopoliticus Component
2016
Winner: Liston Foundation Visual Arts Award for Melancholic Response with Dimensionality
2015
Shortlisted: Winter Solstice Juried Art Exhibition, Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, Brighton for The Electronic Venus
2014
American Express Cultural Heritage Grant for Work and Soul a Matter of Death
2012
Winner: Sunniest Place on Earth All Media Juried Show, Edinburgh for Still Life with Undefined Contrast
2011
Artist Grant, UK Arts Council for The Repulsive Metamorphosis - Kafka Rebooted
2009
Shortlisted: Fish and Wildlife Conservation Art Contest, National Trust, for Wild at Heart
2008
Winner: SD Arts Prize for Muse Ecstasy Reconsidered
2018 Two-Person Exhibition, Forthright Dualities in Didactic Discourse, Cumberbatch Gallery, Liverpool (with mixed media artist Tarquin St Clair)
2017 Solo Exhibition, Craven Poet in the Distance, Venn Exhibition Space, Manchester
2016 Solo Exhibition, Ode to Aesthetic Knowledge, KC Gallery, Leeds
2015 Manifesto of Metaphysical Hope, Shortland Gallery, London
2014 Solo Exhibition, The Modern Alteration, Green Grove Gallery, London
2013 Solo Exhibition, Theme from Enslaved Disgust, Althorp Gallery, Brighton
2012 An Echo of Melancholy, Hemsworth Gallery, Edinburgh (curated by Stanislava Janáková)
2011 Two-Person Exhibition, Summation and Summation, Dry Leaves Gallery, Glasgow (with sculptor Luiza Souza)
2010 Landscape with Linear Exclusion, Manchester (curated by Corey Masterson)
2009 Solo Exhibition, Apropos in Biscuit, Milton Keynes
2008 Solo Exhibition, Embarrassed Ego Fractionated, New Masters Gallery, Milton Keynes
2007 MFA Thesis Exhibition, Spencer Museum of Art, London
2016 Public Art Commission, Velut arbor aevo, hybrid photographic mural, Newcastle Nature Center, Newcastle
2013 Corporate Art Commission, Diente Blanco Grande, mixed media mural, Access Inc. Headquarters, Leeds
2011 Public Art Commission, Sentiment Life Fractionated, photographic mural, Croydon Town Hall, Croydon
Ashmore Collection, London
Clifton Museum, Manchester
Dennis Amenaza Collection, Birmingham
S. C. Siete, ‘Grayscale grandeur: Winter Photo Fair Success,’ Herald Post,
London, Feb 13, 2015. 76.
Brick Tamlyn, ‘Wilderness Photography Prize,’ Channel 4 News, July 7, 2013.
Dennis Chang, ‘Jury Prizes,’ Art Attack, May 16, 2012. http://artattack.com/archived/art-77092
‘Faulkner Envisioned: Depictions of Southern Gothic,’ The Tennessee Fine Art Digest, Tyrone Banks and Irma Watson, eds. (Knoxville, TN: Northern Tennessee University Press, 2013): 107–135.
‘Mixed Media as Literary Critique,’ New Visions, April 2012,. 86–97.
‘Vade Retro Satana - The Art of Exorcism,’ Ars Heretica, March 2011. www.arsheretica.com/contributor/mervhud/
Brutum Fulmen Gallery, London
Charlotte Jameson
Professor
University College London Department of Art
Gower Street
London
WC1E 6BT
0777 777 7777
cjameson@arts.ucl.edu
Board of Trustees, Southwest Painters Guild, London
Visual Artists Association
National Society for Education in Art and Design
French—Fluent
This guide covers writing an artist CV for academia, but we also have a guide with more general advice for writing a CV for academic purposes.
First, what’s an artist CV?
Artist CV is a record of your professional experiences and artistic achievements used to apply for juried exhibitions, grants, awards, gallery shows, commissions, and residency programs. As such, an artist CV is much more detailed and way longer than a typical CV for other types of work.
Pro Tip: As an artist in academia, you may still be asked for a ‘short CV.’ It’s limited to 3 or 4 pages in length and usually leaves out professional service and non-academic experience. You can also save space by only including ‘selected’ exhibitions and bibliography entries. More on that later.
Putting length considerations aside—
Above all, you need to keep your artist CV format simple and readable. This isn’t the time to get all avant-garde.
The first person to read your artist CV could be an academic administrator with no real art expertise. That’s why you have to make sure it’s easy to follow and understandable even by a layperson. Here’s how:
And what exactly to include in your artist CV?
Include the following sections in your CV for artists:
Less experienced artists might not need all of these sections. Also, feel free to skip any section that isn’t relevant to you.
The order isn’t written in stone either. As a rule, put the most impressive artistic achievements first. Here’s an example: if you have an amazing and prestigious bibliography but limited awards, feel free to swap them around.
So you’ve just seen the full list of the necessary sections for your artist CV. Now, let’s show you how to write each section to highlight your artistic achievements and skills:
It’s so obvious that it’s easy to forget. So make sure you include full contact information.
In your artist CV contact information section include:
Now that’s covered we can move on to the all important content of your artist curriculum vitae.
This point is as controversial as Andres Serrano.
For a standard CV for a jobbing artist we’d say, yes absolutely include a profile.
For an academic artist CV though, a profile is not always 100% in line with academic standards. The College Art Association’s guidance doesn’t specify that you include a profile but neither does it advise against using one. It’s a grey area.
In certain situations we’d still recommend using one. In particular, when you’re applying for a straightforward academic job like a lecturer. Including a profile statement on your CV for artists will give it that extra little bit of flair and set you apart from the competition. So get drafting!
And bear in mind that:
In this artist CV sample profile we’ll discuss a profile written for a lecturer role:
RIGHT |
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Art Lecturer with 11+ years of experience in facilitating learning in the fine arts focusing on contemporary artists who use digital media as a tool for photographic practice. Specialist in the communication of visual ideas through computer, digital camera and hybrid practice with a basis in photography as a medium for creating art. Active, exhibiting artist with portfolio of work available upon request. Contributed to 25% increase in BFA students taking up post-graduate studies and 20% increase in average test scores. Winner of Fine Art Photography Award 2017 in seascape category. Seeking to leverage my passion and expertise in the role of Photography Lecturer at the University of Liverpool. |
WRONG |
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Experienced Art Lecturer seeking role as Photography Lecturer at the University of Liverpool. Accomplished professional photographer looking to inspire the next generation. Good interpersonal skills and talent for promoting creativity and open-mindedness in an academic setting. |
The first artist CV profile is laser focused on a specific role. It details the applicant’s area of speciality and emphasizes their status as an active artist. It also includes performance metrics and mentions winning a prestigious award.
The second? Lots of colour, but no detail. There’s minimal effort in targeting the role and selling the applicant.
Discover more tips and tricks for writing a great opening statement in our guide: How to Write a CV Personal Profile
When making a CV in our builder, drag & drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building your CV here.
When you’re done, Zety’s CV builder will score your CV and tell you exactly how to make it better.
You’re targeting academia. Think Claude Monet, not a cheesy Thomas Kinkade.
Here’s how to do it right.
Start off by making a list of your degrees and arrange them in reverse chronological order (most recent first, followed by the one previous to it and so on.)
Include:
Here’s a sample:
2008 MFA in Visual Art
University College London
Thesis Exhibition: ‘Shadows of Automation: Landscape with Metaphysical St George’
Faculty Mentor Professor Maria Velasco
2005 BFA in Visual Art, Major in Expanded Media
University College London
Graduated with first class honours
2001 Modern Languages BA
Queen Mary University London
Why include the BA in French when it’s a non-fine arts degree? Well, in a CV it pays to include all your education. This artist CV example could show you’d be a prime candidate to assist with a study abroad programme.
It’s these extras that make or break your chances in the hyper-competitive field of academia.
In this section of your artist CV you have to list your teaching, academic, and related work experience. Again, follow the reverse-chronological format as you did in your education section.
Unlike a standard CV, this section in an artist’s CV is a simple list of academic positions you have held so far. Start with dates, followed by your position and finish with institution and location.
Use a table to separate dates from the remaining information. It helps to make the formatting of your artist CV clearer.
Pro Tip: Be precise with your academic title. There are important differences between associate professor, assistant professor, lecturer and so on. If the school doesn’t use ranks and distinctions, you can use ‘faculty’ instead.
Sep 2013–Present
Assistant Professor, University of Roehampton
Sep 2010–Aug 2013
Lecturer, University of Roehampton
Sep 2009–Aug 2010
Research Associate, University College London
But don’t include your non-academic work experience here. In artist CVs, it is covered in a separate section.
Now is not the time to be shy.
Anyone can claim to produce great art but few are recognized as great artists.
Whatever the purpose of your artist CV—academia, juried exhibitions, gallery shows, commissions, or residency programs—it pays to list the accolades you’ve received.
The greater your achievements, the more your artist CV will stand out from the competition.
Important:
Don’t forget to include short listings as well as prizes you’ve won. A short listing is still a prestigious acknowledgment of your artistic talents.
Again, make use of formatting to improve clarity. Use italics for the title of the piece or exhibition like on the artist CV sample below:
Pro Tip: Take time and list your grants and awards. Keep a master list and add to it every time you receive a new accolade. This will make your life (and artist CV writing) easier.
Time for another key section of your CV for artists.
This section of your artist CV is of paramount importance. If you had an academic career in literature, you’d use this section for your publication record. It’s that big.
Follow our lead below:
Once again, the key here is to keep it simple and readable. Artists earlier on in their career may wish to use one heading—‘Exhibitions.’
Those with more extensive experience may wish to divide this section of their artist CVs into subheadings. We'd suggest ‘Solo Exhibitions,’ ‘Group Exhibitions’, etc.
Use clear and consistent formatting and italicise exhibition titles. Here’s an example for your CV for artists:
RIGHT |
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If your record of exhibitions is more impressive than your awards list, then definitely put this section first. It carries a lot of weight.
Pro Tip: More experienced artists should be selective and choose the most important exhibitions in your career. Do so by using the word ‘selected’ to preface your heading. Also, note that adjudicated or refereed exhibitions hold more weight with academic administrators. Be sure to include these.
If applicable, include a commissions section in your artist CV. A commission from a government body, large corporation or notable individual will add more threads to the rich tapestry of your artistic career.
For very accomplished artists it may be useful to divide these into sub-categories: public, private and corporate.
Here’s an example—again, take note of the formatting:
If your work is part of a collection then you should include a separate section on your artist CV to note this.
Again, if your list is long, feel free to use sub-headings. As with commissions, private, public and corporate are a good start.
However, the formatting here is slightly different. You don’t need to use the reverse chronological format as with the preceding sections.
Instead, list the collector, city, and state, and arrange these in alphabetical order.
In an artist CV, a bibliography is a list of mentions of you and your work published in print or the media.
This includes publications in traditional academic journals, newspapers, magazines, television, Internet and radio, as well as published photos of your works.
When citing online sources make sure you insert the link into your text. Always make sure it’s clickable and the page is still live.
Keep readability in mind. It’s best to stick to reverse chronological order here, too. Also, place the first name of the author before the last name. It scans better.
This artist CV section focuses on published material that you’ve authored. For an academic artist CV template, this helps to cement your subject matter expertise.
Include reviews, essays, journals and blogs and, again, use the reverse chronological order. Also, don’t forget to insert links where appropriate.
This will only be relevant to the most experienced artists. If you do have representation, also known as gallery affiliation, then include it as a separate section of your artist CV.
You just need the gallery name and location:
Brutum Fulmen Gallery, London
You’ll know the person by the company they keep. In the art world, this parable is ever more true.
Aim to list between three and five people who can serve as professional references if needed. Choose a mix of supervisors, instructors and mentors from your studies and your employers.
Make sure they’re happy to be used as a reference and make sure they’re going to give positive feedback on you as an artist.
When listing references on your artist CV, you should include their:
See the example:
Charlotte Jameson
Professor
University College London Department of Art
Gower Street
London
WC1E 6BT
0777 777 7777
cjameson@arts.ucl.edu
So, by now we’ve added the final brushstroke right?
Not necessarily.
There are other sections you can add to transform your artist CV into a true masterpiece.
This section is useful for recent graduates with limited artistic experience. If you have work or art-related experience that you feel is relevant then list them here.
Think art internships or volunteer work. Use the same style we showed you for professional experience.
For some schools, evidence of community service is a must. If you serve on a board, sit on a committee, consult for projects or volunteer for events this is the place to put it.
For formatting, go for year, your title, organization, city and state. Here’s a brief example:
Mention the art bodies you’re a member of. List them alphabetically.
For example:
There are other additional sections you may wish to add to your artist curriculum vitae. Think of this as a bespoke commission. It will vary depending on your own unique skill set and experience.
Here are some suggestions for additional sections on an artist CV:
For more ideas about what to add, check out our expert guide: What to Include in a CV: Must-Have CV Sections
The arts are a highly competitive discipline. So there’s no room for complacency when writing an artist CV.
Make your artist’s CV a masterpiece with these tips:
Plus, a great cover letter that matches your CV will give you an advantage over other candidates. You can write it in our cover letter builder here. Here's what it may look like:
See more cover letter templates and start writing.
Got more questions about our artist CV example and guide? Not sure if a specific additional section is worth including? Let us know in the comments section and we’ll give you the answers. Thanks for reading.
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