Metro art students learn business, marketing savvy

By Tim Fields
The Metropolitan

Metro art students are a hot commodity for local businesses needing custom art and graphic work.

Students have done projects for organizations such as The Denver Center For the Performing Arts and The Denver Botanic Gardens as well as several private business and state government agencies.

ãWe receive about five calls a week from contacts that are interested in having students do some work for them,ä said Susan Josepher, chairwoman of Metroâs Art department.

Josepher is also working with the Marketing department to develop an art marketing minor to teach students how to sell their work.

Both Josepher and others in the department routinely encourage beginning students to take marketing classes.
If you donât give (students) the information at the beginning, (they) will end up doing a lot of backtracking, said Rodger Lang, who teaches ceramic arts at Metro.

Some students, however, already have a penchant for selling their own work. One student grossed $1,300 in sales one year in the annual ceramic show that Metro sponsors every spring, Lang said.

Lindsay Runyan, a Metro junior majoring in graphic design, said Metroâs art program is a ãlot more professionalä than other schools on Auraria Campus because Metro provides a better idea about the business aspect of being an artist.

Lang said the college can only provide students with opportunities such as internships, job contacts and art sale events but itâs up to the students to take advantage of them.