What is an artist CV?

An artist CV is a short summary of your artistic experience, skills and achievements. It should focus on information about your arts practice. It doesn’t need to include your wider work experience from non-arts related work unless it is relevant to your arts practice.

What is the intention of an artist CV?

An artist’s CV is a way you can quickly share your arts practice, experience and achievements with people. Often you will need one when applying for funding, residencies, fellowships and commissions as well as proposals, pitches and awards.

People who are assessing funding applications will often Google you to get an idea of your career and how your application will support your career progression. It can be really helpful to have a website, Instagram account or Taha Hotu artists profile page.

If you are posting your CV online (e.g. on your website), you might want to create another version that doesn’t have the section about yourself or your contact information.

Including a short bio

An artist CV doesn’t have to include a bio. But if you want to, you can include a short section about yourself, your arts practice and any contact information you would like to share. This can be helpful if you are just starting out or you don’t have a lot of experience to include.

This kind of bio is different to a statement you provide about yourself for an exhibition or artist talk. Check out our How to write an artist bio resource to learn more about writing an artist bio.

Before you start

If you would like support to write your artists CV you can reach out to Arts Access Aotearoa. Or, you might want to ask friends, family, another artist.
Your artist CV will be most effective if it is:

• clear
• informative
• easy to understand.

Keep your formatting consistent. 

We have included some formatting suggestions, but you can tailor your artist CV to suit your own style and preferences.

We have divided our guide into different sections. Not every section of this CV guide will be relevant to everyone. If a section is not relevant to your arts practice you can delete it.

Formatting your CV

As you fill out your CV, list the most recent information first and work backward.

If you have a lot of experience include only the most important or relevant examples in your CV.

For a virtual CV, you can hyperlink to any online content such as reviews, videos and other press

What to include

• name
• iwi affiliation
• pronouns
• birth year
• town, city or region where you live/ practise
• agent details (if you have one)
• a short introductory statement about yourself and your work
• a link to your website if you have one, your Taha Hotu artist page or your Instagram account.

All of these suggestions are optional. You don’t have to include them all.

Arts education history

This section of an artist CV is usually about any formal tertiary study you have completed in the arts.

It can also be a section where you talk about your experience as an artist because education can also be proven through experience. If your experience as an artist is more relevant you can prioritise it here.

You don’t need formal education to be an artist. Deaf and disabled artists have often been excluded from formal education opportunities through systemic and intersecting barriers. It’s okay if you haven’t had any formal education or training. Being self-taught is equally valid.

If you are self-taught, you might like to include a statement about why you are self- taught and list some of your learning. You might want to include online tutorials, books you’ve read or research you have done.

If you are or have been a member of arts collectives or other groups, you can include these here.

You can also include any classes you’ve taken or artists you’ve been taught by.

Tip: Put your highest qualification first and include the year you graduated. 

For example:

Bachelor of Media Arts (hons) Waikato Institute of Technology 2010
Bachelor of Fine Arts (hons) University of Montana, 2015

Your professional experience

If you have worked for a well-known artist who wasn’t your mentor (for example, as a studio assistant or technician) and you have developed your own professional arts practice as a result of working with them, then list them here.

For example:

Technician for Susan Jones, 2006–2010

Awards, grants and residencies you’ve received

In this section list any awards, grants or residencies you have received that are related to your arts practice. It can be helpful to include one section each for awards, grants and residences if you have received several.

Tip: year, name of award, fellowship or residency, organisation or venue, and location if relevant.

For example:

2007, School of Media Arts, Special Awards, Resene Award for Excellence in Painting and Sculpture

Your exhibitions, productions, published work

List your exhibitions or productions you’ve done or books you’ve published.

If you have a lot, you might want only to include a recent or the most relevant selection of them. 

You can also include upcoming shows if you haven’t had an opportunity to show your work often but ensure it’s clear that this work is still to come.

Tip: For visual or exhibiting artists, it’s helpful to group your solo shows and your group shows separately. Put your solo shows first and start with the most recent working backward (2024, 2023, 2022 …)

For example: 

2021 – 2022, Artists at the Isolation Hotel, Canterbury Museum

Curation and production

If you have curated a group exhibition or produced another artist’s show, include it here. You can include a short explanation if you’d like to.

If the curation was collaborative remember to include the names of the other curators. In a theatre context, this might be production, dramaturgy or stage management.

Tip: Format as - year, name of the show, gallery or venue.

For example:

2023, The Reduced Shakespeare, Criterion Theatre.

Published writing

If you are not an author or writer and have had work published, include it in this section. For authors, use the exhibitions/productions/published work section.

Tip: year, name of work, your name, where published, hyperlink to the work, if possible.

For example:

2020, How I Do My Art, The Spinoff.

Teaching, panels, guest lectures

If you have taught art classes, lectured at university, been a part of panel discussions, led workshops or given guest lectures in relation to your arts practice include them here.

Tip: year, name of course, paper, panel etc, school, organisation etc, location 

For example:

2016, History of Māori Carving, Southern Institute of Technology, Invercargill.

Media, press and reviews

If there have been articles, stories or reviews published about your work include them here.

Tip: year, name of article/story/review, author or reviewer, name of website/newspaper etc. Include hyperlinks, if possible.

For example:

2022, Review of A Book of My Short Stories, Jane Smith, The Listener

Crip hack

Three tips for your CV:

1. If you are a visual artist/designer demonstrate those skills by being creative in your resumé and CV.
2. Many employers are disappointed by non-creative resumé’s and CV’s from artists.
3. Be authentic, be brave, be bold and stand out from the rest.

– Neil Wallace, Artist, Design Lecturer, Arts in Corrections Advisor, Arts Access Aotearoa

More information

Get your own Taha Hotu artist page 
Email Taha Hotu: tahahotu@artsaccess.org.nz 

This guide was inspired and informed conversations with Deaf and disabled artists from Aotearoa and information online, including the Learning Connexion.