Dear Artist,

A few months ago, a Praxis member named Peter posted something in our community that I keep coming back to.

He had been away from making art for thirty years. Thirty years. And when he finally came back to it, he was living in southern New Hampshire, far from the usual gallery circuits, with no obvious path forward.

I suggested he start simple: have a show at his place.

He enlisted a friend, cleared out his woodshop, brought in a live band, offered free beer, and opened the doors.

More people showed up than he expected. One of them owned a gallery nearby. That led to a group show. Then two more. Then, recently, Peter got the solo show he had been quietly dreaming about.

"The dominoes fell precipitously," he wrote.

I tell this story not because it is dramatic, but because it is ordinary. Ordinary in the best sense: it is the kind of thing that happens when an artist stops waiting for the right conditions and starts working with what they have. Sometimes all it takes is a small shift in strategy. A new frame. Someone who has been through it saying: just start.

That is what Praxis Center is built around.

Not the fantasy version of the art world, where talent alone opens doors. The real version, where careers are built through action, connection, and a community of people who are actually doing it alongside you.

Here is what Praxis includes:

Weekly live Zoom sessions with working curators -- people who have organized exhibitions for institutions like the Venice Biennale, Manifesta, Documenta, and MoMA PS1. These are not lectures. They are conversations.

A full library of professional development courses: grant writing, artist statements, selling online, crowdfunding, social media strategy, and financial planning for artists.

A global community of working artists who share their wins, their questions, and their honest experiences.

And for annual members: the Praxis Center Portfolio. A directory of member websites sent directly to our curator network. Not a public list. Not searchable. A trusted, private resource that curators actually use.

I will tell you more about the Portfolio this week, including something specific and time-sensitive about it.

For now, I just wanted to reach out, in case it has been a while.

If you have been reading my emails for years, I appreciate your patience. And if Peter's story sounds even a little bit familiar, if there is a version of that woodshop show still waiting somewhere in your own life, I hope this week gives you something useful.

More tomorrow.

With warmth, 

Brainard Carey 

Director, Praxis Center for Aesthetic Studies 

Author of Making It in the Art World, New Markets for Artists, and more 

Host of 1,700+ artist interviews for Yale University Radio