During the short-term exchange to Slovenia in March 2017, students attended a long-awaited seminar on business in art.
The seminar was delivered by the acclaimed Slovenian accessories designer Edita Zelolepo, who runs a cooperative business Zoofa. Edita prepared an hour long seminar during which she talked about her studies, inspiration, first shop, difficulties running a business, the help she needed from a professional business adviser, the opening of a special type of shop – a cooperative, which sees many artists working together, splitting the costs of running a business and helping each other out.
Edita also explained that it is crucially important to gain knowledge of economics and entrepreneurship before you end your studies in art. Even though artists are generally very badly organized and do not want to have anything to do with numbers and dates and deadline, they have to face reality and get the knowledge and skills needed to be successful in business. That is why she agreed to participate in the project and share her valuable knowledge with our students.
She also pointed out that it is important to set the prices of your artefacts just right – otherwise they will not sell. It is something she struggled with for some time, but eventually managed to get it right. Edita also explained that in Slovenia it is very complicated and expensive to copyright your products and that she herself had had many issues with companies copying her work. She went on to explain that in her case art is her life – a calling, she said she had devoted her entire life to that and she believes it was the right choice.
She ended her seminar by wishing all the luck to our students and told them to keep their heads high and to believe in themselves.
After the seminar she was kind enough to open her studio for us, so the students could see where and how she works, and she also invited us to the cooperative Zoofa, where we saw how artists run and organize their shop.
With the seminar and visit our students acquired entrepreneurial knowledge, job-related information which will help them run their own business one day, students also got a better idea about the labour market they are about to enter and got familiar with an innovative business idea – a cooperative, which is a sustainable business practice offering many advantages to young artists.
Edita Zelolepo: http://www.zelolepo.com
Cooperative Zoofa: http://www.zoofa.si