Curriculum Vitae (CV) - The Word
with Heather René Dunaway
June 2025
Curriculum Vitae – fancy latin but what does it mean? Well, it literally translates to “the course of one’s life” but most of the time when we hear “CV” we think work. For artists specifically, it’s a list of all the projects you have ever worked on. Or at least the most important ones.
I think of it every time I put on a show. “Oh, I gotta remember to add this to my CV.” As an artist, it’s really important you keep track of what you have done. Artist CVs come in handy when you are applying for shows, grants, etc. They show that you mean business. That you have and can handle a great deal. If you don’t have a lot on your CV, just having one shows you have a professional mindset.
I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve had artists apply to participate in shows or participate in an event, and they couldn’t tell me anything about themselves or what they had done in their career. Explaining away the Resume and CV question with “I just make art” or “I make music, enough said.” It’s can be an irritation to the curator or juror who has to read that explanation. Especially when social media makes it so easy to go back and look at the stuff you have done to make your CV and AI / Chat GPT make it even easier to write one for you.
While I don’t like AI because what it does to the art market by cutting artists out, it can be a useful tool for artists. That’s right, use it against itself to get you WORK. Make it to do that grunt work that takes away precious time from the actual fun part of being an artist, creating. Because nothing can compare to your one of a kind work. Robots don’t emote, but you do and it makes your art better.
In a world where everyone is demanding something from you, demand AI do the boring work for you so you can make music, paint, write, cook or dance. All you have to do is tell it you want an artist CV, plug in what you have done in the last ten years and BAM, CV.
Or hey, maybe you like doing that stuff yourself. Even better.
I started thinking of updating my CV this morning while reviewing some info about my upcoming Art of the Rings show at Le Chat Noir. Documenting your work is so important. Writing notes and photographing the process for me helps me to remember what is needed the next go around, but also what to add to my resume and CV. I have a running list of events I have participated in or organized since college. Keeping up with it can be a challenge, but ultimately it’s worth while to have.
If you want to learn more about writing your CV, Artwork Archive has a great article about just that. You can find it by clicking here.
Well, that’s the word. Now go write some words on your CV.
-Heather
