How to Live and Succeed like an Artist

An Evening of Readings, Psychology and Conversation with a keynote by Dr. Matthew Pelowski, Psychology Department, University of Vienna.

There are countless books, podcasts, and coaches for aspiring artists who promise success if you follow their advice. However, by focusing on how to succeed rather than on what it means to succeed in art, they assume that we agree on the goal: visibility, prizes, biennials, and collectors. This leads to a neat ranking of money and fame – despite Béla Bartók’s reminder that “competitions are for horses, not artists.”

This themed evening offers a different proposition: to treat “success” not as a finish line, but as a question that can be approached through artistic experience, philosophical reflection, and psychological insight.

It is also presention of How to live and succeed like an artist, an “anti-manual” developed with students in the seminar of the same title (2024–25) at the department of Sculpture and Space, University of Applied Arts Vienna.

This evening will be offering a lively mix: readings from the book and its authors (poems, notes, detours, failures), psychological studies on how we value art and those who produce it, and an open discussion that welcomes artists and non-artists alike.

After all, the “artistic lifestyle” has long been an aspirational one: not because it guarantees glamour, but because it experiments with attention, risk, freedom, and meaning.

With
Dr. Matthew Pelowski, psychologist, head of ARTIS (Art Research on Transformation of Individuals and Societies) Lab, Vienna University
Marie Pircher, artist, Zeichnung und Druckgraphik, Universität für angewandte Kunst, Wien
Hanka Taschenziegel, artist, Sprachkunst, Universität für angewandte Kunst, Wien
Dr. Klaus Speidel, art critic, philosopher, curator, University of Applied Arts Vienna / AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
and further guests (tba)