Making art *and* money

There are a lot of resources mentioned (and linked) in the article along with some inspiring success stories. Here's a taste:

Mr. Niles and Ms. Hellmuth have learned on their own what Elliot McGucken teaches in his course, Artist Entrepreneurs, which he developed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a grant from the Kauffman Foundation. Mr. McGucken?s course, now taught at Pepperdine University, rests on the principle that those who create art should have the skills to own it, profit from it and protect it.

?It?s about how to make your passion your profession, your avocation your vocation, and to make this long-term sustainable,? he said.

Tristan Hummel, 22, a senior at the Art Institute of Chicago, said he wanted to help create a world where artists could do art as their primary practice and still make a living. Three years ago, after reading that Chicago?s El trains were available for rent, he got the idea to bring artists together to create an art show on wheels. This fall, his idea came to fruition with ?Art on Track,? an eight-train car on the orange line that traveled Chicago?s loop while displaying the work of more than 200 emerging artists.

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Art schools, too, are starting to step in. At the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Fla., students can now major or minor in a program called ?The Business of Art and Design.? Larry Thompson, the school?s dean, said he was inspired to create the program when he read about Dan Pink?s book, ?A Whole New Mind,? which popularized the notion that artists, especially those who can marry left and right brain skills, the analytical and the creative, will be in high demand in the coming years.

?I am committed to destroying the myth of the starving artist,? Mr. Thompson said.

There are more art-related and creative jobs now than ever before, because of computers and the Web. Also, running your own arts or crafts business is much easier now, for the same reasons. It takes only some skill and samples to get started in many cases, so educating yourself is the place to start.