Looking Toward What's Next: Art Business Planning for 2026

Goal Setting for 2026 is underway now. How will this year be different?

For as long as people have been able to wonder, they’ve tried to predict what comes next. Whether through fortune tellers, star charts, signs and symbols, we’ve always looked outward for reassurance that the future is somehow knowable. I’ve never been fully convinced. The idea that our path is fixed or written in the sky feels comforting, especially when we’re navigating unfamiliar terrain, but lived experience has taught me something different. Direction matters more than certainty.

It’s with that in mind that I find myself, once again, at the beginning of a new year setting intentions, sketching goals, and asking not “What will happen?” but “What kind of life and work do I want to keep building?” That is how I am approaching art business planning for 2026.

A Goal Without a Plan is Just a Dream

Ten years ago, Bogdan and I opened our art business armed with a detailed business plan and an almost comical level of ambition. We were going to do everything “right.” Some of those early ideas never materialized at all. Others evolved beyond recognition. What no plan could have captured was how profoundly meaningful, and unpredictable, this journey would become.

Along the way, we’ve faced loss, upheaval, and moments that threatened the very foundation of what we were building. We lost my parents. The pandemic reshaped our income and our sense of stability. Assumptions we once held with confidence had to be dismantled and rebuilt. And yet, we’re still here. That fact alone sometimes feels miraculous.

No one Promised Me a Rose Garden

Making a living through creativity is not a conventional path. It’s demanding, vulnerable, and often uncertain. There have been difficult chapters, and there will undoubtedly be more ahead. Still, this is the life we chose. It is the one I continue to choose.

In previous years, my attention was largely focused on growth measured in numbers: sales targets, production goals, refining the work itself. This year feels different. The challenge that excites me most now is building and expanding community. Art does not exist in isolation, and neither does an art practice that hopes to endure.

Community is the Basis of any Successful Art Business

If you’re reading this, you’re likely already part of that community. Your support, conversations, and belief in what we do have sustained us in ways that are impossible to quantify. I’m deeply grateful. My intention moving forward is to take that shared energy and extend it. I want to invite more people into the conversation, to let the work travel farther, and to create a business that is not only fulfilling, but resilient and scalable. While I will never stop appreciating those who have been with us from the beginning, this feels like a year for widening the circle.

Art Collector Support Comes in Many Forms

I hope you’ll continue walking alongside us, offering perspective, sharing insight, and helping shape what comes next. Experience has taught me that plans don’t need to unfold perfectly to be meaningful. What matters is having a direction, a sense of purpose, and a journey that continues to challenge and nourish the creative spirit.

I can’t promise to predict the future. But I can promise to stay curious, committed, and fully engaged in the ride.

Thanks for a Wonderful Year

If our work has found a place in your life or your collection, I invite you to help it find its way to others who may be ready for it too. Share it with a fellow collector, introduce us into a space where art is valued, or simply remain part of the ongoing dialogue. Your belief sustains this practice more than you may realize.

Here’s to a new year, new possibilities, and whatever we create together. Happy New Year, and thanks again.