Entrepreneurship

The ability to make money through development of products and situations appropriate to different markets requires application of certain skills.

2 April 2019

For our unit on Entrepreneurship, Grade 8s considered and practiced a variety of business skills and art-world conventions that practicing artists use to market and sell their work. Reinforcing their previous studies on Pop Art, students began by creating original gouache paintings of delicious icons of Vietnamese popular culture, including pho and instant noodles, banh chung, bingsu and bubble tea.

Requisite for making money on the sale of artwork is showing it to the world, so students set out preparing for a small exhibition and pop-up shop. Before going public, they signed their paintings, drafted artist biographies and artist statements, and together made progress toward an online catalogue of the pieces for sale on Google Sites.

Before the Pop-Up Shop debuted, students rehearsed in class different sales scenarios and practiced how they might communicate with prospective customers, drawing on various skills and knowledge they would need to successfully make a sale, including: product knowledge, strategic prospecting, active listening and communication, understanding the buyer, objection prevention and handling, and post-sale relationship management.

For two days, they sold framed originals, prints, and postcards outside the canteen at lunchtime. Even in a limited time, students were able to walk away having learned some valuable lessons about the nature of entrepreneurship as it relates to art. Among them: High quality products tend to sell better. Wallflowers don’t make as many sales! And entrepreneurs take risks and face challenges to forge successful start-ups.

Well done to all my Grade 8s. And a big thank you to everyone who supported us in this project!