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How did Jim Henson turn arts and crafts into a multi-million-dollar company?

How can artists living today learn from the financial philosophy of Jim Henson?

 My name is Elizabeth Hyde Stevens and I've spent the last few years researching these questions out of personal necessity. As an artist, it is hard to make money and maintain integrity. Sometimes it seems like health insurance and creative freedom are mutually exclusive. For myself and for my friends, I needed to know how Henson did it.

Make Art Make Money  offers ten practical lessons I learned from researching Jim Henson's career. It was selected by @BrainPickings as one of the best books of 2013 on writing and creativity. 


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"Weekend at Kermie's" by Elizabeth Stevens was viewed over 160,000 times and praised across the Internet

From Twitter: 

  • “Smartest article I've read in a while about art and creativity”
  • “Hands down the best piece on the Muppets I've ever read.”
  • "Great piece that takes a serious head-on approach" 
  • "This is the single best article I have read this year" 
  • "An incredibly perceptive article" 
  • "OMG so wonderful, sad, beautiful" 
  • "intense and readworthy" 
  • "This summarizes my Muppety feelings 
  • “This article made me want to watch all the Muppet films all over again”
  • "A thoughtful, poignant, intelligent, wide-ranging piece" 
  • "Yep, yep, yep" 
  • "Not crying, just put drops in my eyes" 
  • "It's all true" 
  • "THIS FUCKING ARTICLE IS FASCINATING" 
  • "one of  the most astounding pieces of cultural criticism I have read this year" 
  • "Completely delighted by this entire piece" 
  • “Some serious thinking about Muppets. We need more scholarly work on this subject.”

 

Make Art Make Money continues my research into Jim Henson's unique career. How did he turn art into money without compromising the art? The answers I've found are simple yet applicable to any artist living today.