We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Andrew Pollack a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Andrew, appreciate you joining us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

I’ve been a professional working artist for over 25 years. As a kid I had jobs in restaurants and the like, but never felt it as a career. I learned I could work hard and I wanted to put that energy into myself. Since college I have depended on my craft and the side-hustles associated with it – be it making art or teaching art or selling tools like kilns. My business started with small art shows and festivals. As I grew into my style, the quality of shows I was doing increased. Growing my business this way, slowly and naturally, set me up for success when I decided to open a brick and mortar retail space in 2018. I had gone to school for advertising and marketing. By the time we opened I had built a number of websites and was fluent at social media, as it came and evolved. I gained retail experience along the way, including a working at a couple of galleries and by doing art shows around the South. Artists can make a living doing craft and art shows but it is hard work. Setting up and breaking down and selling all take time away from creating. So I started doing less shows but bigger shows. One local show was my best show each year, accounting for 15-25% of my yearly income. I put this money aside and eventually into Pollack Glass Studio and Gallery. It was a big risk because building a glass studio, in a commercial area, to code, was very costly. I was taking energy away from what I knew about making a living as an artists. The shows just seemed like a short term gain and not every show was a good one, often times we were at the whim of the elements and even the threat of wind and rain could ruin a good show. I needed to think about the long-term. Also, my home studios were never conducive to meeting clients in a professional manner. So, we opened in 2018, not long before mandated shut downs and quarentines. It was a tough few years, but government assistance and owner (my own) contributions got us through. We went online with virtual classes and increased attention to sales on our website. This is all something we could not have foreseen or planned for. Only now have we had a full year, plus, to be able to look at and adjust our business. The risk is still being taken but things are looking up. We can now adjust what we’re doing to adapt to what’s doing well and what is not.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a glass artist, I started with glass over 25 years ago, when I was just a teenager. My parents were involved in the arts and my mother was a professional artist and art teacher for the Atlanta Public School system. She was a potter but also dabbled in jewelry and glassmaking. Specifically beads were my first introduction to glass. Beads have a long history as they are the first glass objects to be made by hand – very similarly to how we still make them today. Beadmaking is the first class I recommend taking to lean glass working techniques at our studio. Everything we know today about glass started there. So, this is the beginning. Really, it is just our first canvas to exploring glass-making techniques. When I moved to New Orleans in 2001 to attend college, I took some of my first formal classes at the New Orleans School of Glassworks and then Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. I eventually became a faculty member at the New Orleans School of Glassworks and taught there and at studios around the south.

I worked for a number of different artists and galleries and eventually started my own business, Andrew Jackson Pollack Designs in 2005. I began to do wholesale shows where I sold directly to galleries. I came up with a few lines and it was my Judaica that I found a niche in. I still sell some of those items to the same galleries and museum shops, today. Eventually I got into retail craft shows and liked meeting my customers and getting full retail price for my work. I was doing over 30 shows each year. Over time even this became grueling work and once I had kids decided to scale back my traveling and show schedule. This is where the idea for Pollack Glass Studio + Gallery came from. No traveling, no load-in and load-out every weekend, no livelihood depending on the weather.

Now I have a place where I can show and teach and host openings and events and workshops with visiting artists. We have a few advanced workshops each year with people coming in from all over the world to attend classes – in New Orleans at a nice studio with top-notch glass artists. We have a full curriculum for beginners, as well, with classes twice each week. We have a number of full-time glass artist who work in our space and also help with things as we may need them for the gallery or studio. The Gallery hosts a collection of about 30 local glass artists and a few other friends of ours who may have taught in the studio. We give the majority of the sale to the artists and help them with things like pricing and marketing their work.

I have a good team in place which allows me to continue to show up and create art each day. It is not all easy being an artist and business owner, but it is defiantly a labor of love.

Does your business have multiple or supplementary revenue streams (like a ATM machine at a barbershop, etc)?

I have a number of revenue streams through my business. My business as a glass artist and teacher has been around for over 20 years. I still make my own work even though I am busy running a studio with renters and classes and also a gallery with over 30 artists. I do have one employee who helps but I teach our apprentices the value of diversifying. Ideally within your field. Every artist and musician that I know does some sort of side-work. As I stated before, ideally those side hustles are related to your craft. I still occasionally travel to teach workshops and do craft shows. I just did the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

I now have some real estate as a secondary revenue stream. We eventually bought our first house which now has a rental component to help offset our home expenses. Even the studio has a unit attached to it now for additional revenue. I try to keep these separate from my art businesses, for accounting purposes. But, when it comes down to it, they are all sole-proprietorships, so it doesn’t really matter.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Initially, I had to save money to fund my business. My first torch’s name is Rita, same name as my grandmother. When I was a teenager she told me to save up for half of it and she’d help with the rest. In the end she bought me the torch and I put the rest into some glass and tools. I started making and selling glass beads and other functional glass craft items and slowly began to sell my work at shops and small art shows. I have always put some money aside when I had a good show. And usually I put that money back into my business. As I got into bigger and better shows, I put more aside.

It slowly went from a hobby to a business between finishing college in 2001 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. After that there were many opportunities for artists affected by the Hurricane. I began to do a serious wholesale show that was attended by the best art galleries in the country. This allowed me to fill my calendar with orders but, more importantly, it forced me to seriously dial in my style and technique and create a “line” of work for the first time.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.pollackglassnola.com
• Instagram: @pollackglass
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/andrewjpollack
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@pollackglass

Image Credits
photo credit Andrew Pollack