n-e-life.com spoke to Art Evolution's Victoria Anderson about her typical day running the online gallery.
n-e-life.com meet Victoria Anderson, managing director of Art Evolution Ltd.
1. What do you do?
I run Art Evolution, a culture company that promotes over 70 North East based artists who produce work across a range of medium including painting, photography, sculpture and film.
Art Evolution is improving the accessibility of emerging artists by renting and selling their work to corporate clients and individuals across the region.
2. What does your average day comprise?
A complete mix of things from meeting with clients and artists, attending networking events, liasing with our partners, continuous marketing activities and a whole multitude of paperwork!
3. What makes you tick?
Achieving what I set out to achieve, whatever that may be. It could be finally speaking to that elusive client I have been chasing for months, having a proposal accepted, installing art work with a client or something as simple as finally getting round to competing my filing!
4. What makes the North East the best place to do business in?
The North East is an exciting place to live and work at the moment, particularly if you’re a cultural business.
There is huge interest for artwork and the creative industries in the North East which is growing massively. I feel that the region is evolving culturally and is finally being recognised as the vibrant, forward thinking place that it is and that is something we can all be really proud of.
5. What is the best piece of business advice that you’ve received?
"Go for it" and "don’t be afraid to take risks, approach the people you want to do business with (even if they seem a little scary!), be resilient and believe that knock backs are only their to make you more determined to succeed".
6. And the worst?
I am lucky enough to say I haven’t had any bad advice.
All advice is good even if you decide that it is not of useful to you.
Constructive criticism helps you rule things out, illustrates potential pitfalls and ensures you don’t make the same mistake twice. I believe ‘bad’ advice is only bad if you make use of it!
7. What is your dream job?
I’m doing it!
I get to meet interesting people, am surrounded by wonderful pieces of art work that I love promoting and have the opportunity to visit many of the region's iconic buildings.
What could be better than that?
8. What is your greatest achievement?
Setting up the business and making it a success.
Setting up a company has many barriers and I am very proud that I have overcome them and have gone on to build a business that is more than I anticipated it could be.
9. What do you like about the North East?
All of it!
I love the way it is evolving and changing continually, making it an extremely exciting region to belong to.
It offers great towns and cities as well as wonderful countryside and coastline.
You have everything you want and need on your doorstep for work and play.
10. Do you have any IT tips?
Get advice regarding hardware and software from someone you trust ideally via a personal recommendation. If this isn’t possible ask around and find out who your contemporaries are using and then take references out on them. Also be patient. It is better to wait for the right people to do the job then rush ahead with the wrong ones!
I’m one of the lucky ones, my business partner is an IT graduate, which makes understanding the technical terms used much easier.
11. How do you juggle work and your home life?
With difficulty sometimes, although I am learning to set rules about what is work time and what is home time.
Thankfully I have an extremely supportive husband who allows me to work when I need to and offers help when I need help it.
April 15, 2006 11:17am
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