Katharine T. Carter & Associates

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Katharine T. Carter & Associates is an artist advisory and career development firm based in Kinderhook, New York. Founded in 1985, the company helps individual artists plan their careers, create promotional materials, and arrange exhibition opportunities. It also offers rent-free group and solo exhibitions to museums, nonprofit spaces, and private galleries across the United States.

Founder Katharine T. Carter is a Florida native who began as an artist, teacher, and public speaker. She earned a BA from the University of Florida in 1976 and studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York. She completed an MFA at the University of South Florida in 1980. Her paintings were shown in New York at the New Museum, P.S.1, and Hal Bromm Gallery, and in Philadelphia at the Jessica Berwind Gallery. She had numerous solo exhibitions and received reviews in Arts magazine and the New York Times. An automobile accident in the late 1980s limited her painting for a time, after which she focused on public speaking and teaching. She launched an annual educational slide-lecture tour, “Highlights of the New York Art Season,” and eventually became a full-time public speaker.

With encouragement from New York Times critic William Zimmer, Carter started Katharine T. Carter & Associates in 1985 to help artists professionalize career planning and self-presentation. She leads a network of about 21 associate critics, curators, gallerists, and designers in New York and Los Angeles. To date, the firm has organized roughly 1,000 exhibitions at about 300 U.S. institutions. In 2010 they published Accelerating on the Curves: The Artist’s Roadmap to Success (revised in 2016).

The firm operates on a simple idea: artists set their own business goals and largely direct the exhibition placements and marketing of their work. This reflects a shift toward shared responsibilities among artists, curators, publicists, and dealers.

How the program works
- Clients meet with Carter to assess their work, career level (emerging, midcareer, or senior), and target recognition (local to national).
- After agreeing on goals, clients sign a fixed-fee contract for a personalized action plan, with specific results (such as a minimum number of museum placements) stated up front.
- The company does not sell art or take commissions on sales.

Services for artists
- A strategic career plan
- Customized marketing materials (queries, press releases, artist statements, announcement cards)
- Curatorial guidance for exhibitions
- A full-color brochure with an essay by a KTC associate
- A guaranteed number of exhibition placements at agreed levels

Services for hosting organizations
- Pre-written publicity materials
- 200 color brochures with a critic’s essay
- 1,000 color announcement cards
- Museum wall text
- No rental fee for the show; the host handles shipping and insurance