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Boston artist  uses found objects in his sculptural collage pieces, mixing things like kombucha labels, Japanese packaging, and cardboard boxes with his detailed ink drawings. He puts a lot of thought into the symbolism of his materials, but earlier in his career, not so much their longevity. He remembers the day he realized that selling art means thinking of the future. 

“I sold a piece of artwork that was made almost entirely out of cardboard, and the person that I sold it to called me one day and said, ‘Hey, this work is falling apart on my wall,’” he said. He drove to New York City to fetch the piece and reassemble it, painstakingly sandwiching the cardboard between layers of gel medium and finishing with acrylic varnish. Now, ensuring archival quality is part of his process. 

Thorne recently shared some of his hard-won lessons on being a professional artist with a group of Master of Fine Arts students from SMFA at Tufts, where he earned his MFA in 2012. They visited his studio as part of a new course, Graduate Professional Practices, which gives budding artists strategies for building their careers. 

The course teaches students important practicalities, from contract and copyright law to grant writing and art world etiquette. But there is one theme that runs through the class: Like pieces of a collage, artists have to stick together. Thorne, for example, credits a fellow alum with hooking him up with his current studio space.

, the artist and professor of the practice who teaches the course, wants the students to know that they not just joining a profession, they are joining an art ecosystem that survives and thrives through symbiosis. Successful artists attend each other’s shows, share news about opportunities, and work together to produce group exhibitions. 

“I’ve told them that everything will grow from their own friendships, that they make their peer networks right in front of them,” Murrow said. “I remind them that the people sitting next to them are probably going to be the most important links that they make.”

In a way, the course’s content is nothing new: SMFA faculty and advisors have always given students guidance on working as artists in the real world—it’s woven into the curriculum. But with this course, it’s more explicit, and more experiential. As part of their assignments, students must apply for real grants and fellowships, create marketing content for their web sites, and plan and advertise an art exhibition with their classmates. 

“We could have a philosophical conversation about how to promote your work, or you could do it,” said Katie Sullivan, SMFA assistant director of career services, who, along with Laurel Nakadate, J98 (BFA), graduate program director, and Kenson Truong, AG18 (MFA), associate director of graduate programs, helped Murrow design the course. 

One assignment, called “Hitting the Streets,” asks students to visit as many galleries and open studios as they can, and to even reach out to artists and curators they haven’t met. 

That last part can be a challenge for shy students, Murrow said, “but we have students who’ve gotten amazing artist assistantships right out of graduate school by just emailing an artist that they admire and expressing interest in their work and trying to start a conversation.”

Murrow tapped a dozen artists to record videos about their post-grad professional lives, which he shared with the class. “Some of the advice is really unvarnished,” Murrow said.  One of his favorites talks about the importance of patience, noting that art successes—and relationships—can come in fits and starts.

“Five years after you meet a person, they finally come back into your life in a way that’s productive or an important connection,” Murrow said. 

, AG25 (MFA), who took the course, said Murrow has prepared the class to shine in job interviews and fellowship applications. “It’s all really practical stuff,” Diani said. “But he’s also great at getting us to think deeply about our practice and how it is that we want to be in the world.” 

For example, Diani has seen how Murrow researches the companies and collectors who offer him commissions, and how he ensures that the personality he presents online is a reflection of his values. 

As MFA students, “we’re so in the thick of it, thinking about the next critique or our next work, and we’re not really thinking about the bigger picture,” Diani said. “And he encourages us to do that work.”

, AG25 (MFA), said the class has made her more confident in how she talks about herself and her art, a necessity for communicating with potential clients and gallery owners. She was particularly inspired by a field trip to the Institute of Contemporary Art, where they met with chief curator Ruth Erikson and learned how she helps artists to develop their ideas. Before that meeting, said Yun, “I couldn’t visualize the process, how work goes from the studio to an exhibit at a museum.” Now she can. 

On another field trip, Murrow brought the class to the South End building where he, Thorne, and several artists have studios. The students met with sculptor , who said that when he was starting out, he paid the bills by doing art-adjacent jobs, such as crate builder for a fine art shipper and an installer for a museum. He took on jobs for neighboring artists in the building, fabricating, for example, aluminum composite panels for them to paint on.

“Not only am I making money to support myself in this space, but I’m also creating this social currency where I’m a stakeholder both in their work and in my own,” Gould said.

Making connections led him to become a manager for the ICA’s Watershed project and a visiting lecturer at MassArt while simultaneously growing his studio practice. His work has now been shown in exhibitions from Boston to Los Angeles. 

Asked by a student how he keeps a work-life balance, Gould said it starts with having a partner who is OK with him coming home late and working weekends.

“I think that the idea of balance as an artist is a lie,” he said. “It’s such an imbalanced lifestyle.” Non-artists don’t necessarily understand the time commitment, he said. “They don’t really get the dedication or get the spiritual significance. And I think surrounding yourself with people who love you and are also open to understanding that the studio is a priority is a strategy that I’ve learned.” 

In another studio, , AG18 (MFA), talked about how she went about securing her first solo shows. 

“I went and supported the people that were putting on the shows that I wanted to be in,” she said. “And I started applying to things that I knew I wasn’t going to get, but I liked the juror and wanted them to see my work. It takes up a lot of time and it can feel very defeating, but it’s a numbers game and I’m still playing it.” 

“You’ve got to keep swinging,” she urged the students. “It’s a lot of, ‘Hi, I’m still here.’”

Her 2023 show of portraits at the , described as “a love letter to the artists and makers of Boston,” left no doubt of her affection for the local arts community. Being an artist is sometimes arduous, she wrote in the show notes, “but in our community we may find a solution.”