About Caroll Michels
Caroll Michels is credited for having pioneered the field of career development for visual artists, and as an artist-advocate she has brought to the attention of artists the ills and injustices in the art world – with pragmatic and proactive ways to counter the status quo.
She has served as a career coach since 1978. Michels is the author of the classic handbook How to Survive & Prosper as an Artist. Selling Yourself without Selling Your Soul (Henry Holt & Company, New York), which is now in its 6th edition (June 2009). She has helped thousands of beginning, mid-career and established fine artists launch and sustain their careers — with art marketing, art business, and career advice.
Michels is on the faculty of the Ringling College of Art + Design, Continuing Studies and Special Programs, in Sarasota, Florida, where she was a keynote speaker for the 2010 “Next Step Career Conference.” She served as chairperson of the Fine Arts Advisory Board of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, and was on the faculty of the New School for Social Research. She conducts career management workshops throughout the U.S.A. and in Canada.
Her artwork has been exhibited in museums in the United States and abroad, including the Georges Pompidou Museum in Paris, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and in New York City the Institute for Contemporary Art, The Clocktower, and Exit Art. Michels has received numerous grants, including those awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts; the NY State Council for the Arts; the NY Council for the Humanities; and the International Fund for the Promotion of Culture/UNESCO. She was a fellow at the Alden B. Dow Creativity Center in Midland, Michigan.
Photograph by Anibal Merlo
