Although it’s certainly a creative and fulfilling outlet, at the end of the day, art is how many artists make their living. Which means that money has to play a role. And it’s the same for art consultants! This is their business, and they have to make a profit in order to sustain themselves. At this point, you may be wondering how the business side of art consulting could possibly impact you. As long as they’re willing to pay your rates, it shouldn’t really matter about the rest of their business operations, right? While that’s true to an extent, the fact is that here—as with any profession—knowledge is power. The more you know about the business of art consulting, the more you can use that knowledge to grow your own business as an artist.

“To work with textiles is to work with patterns,” says Denmark-based designer Astrid Krogh, whose sculptures transform everyday spaces into glowing, dynamic environments. Fascinated by the interplay of textile and light, Krogh has modernized the centuries-old technique of tapestry weaving with the use of thoroughly modern materials including neon, reflective metals, and optic fiber.

Today, with a repertoire of materials that includes stainless steel, corten steel, granite, concrete, cast glass, and his own invention of laminated structurally dynamic artist glass, Walter Gordinier’s capacity to pair his creations with their environs is nearly limitless. Drawn to designs that are “pure in form, distilled to their most essential gesture,” his sleek, streamlined works are designed to inspire imagination and allure to the urban plazas, healing gardens, and other sites he is commissioned to design and enhance with his site-specific sculptures.

If you are fortunate enough to find yourself stuck in traffic with Gordon Huether, your very perception of time and space may just be altered. “Everyone has sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic,” the sculptor says by way of explaining his fascination with nature’s effect on man-made objects. “Maybe at some point you’re behind a beat-up old truck. And maybe it has stains and rust patterns on it.” Or take for example the weeds pushing up a poured sidewalk, he continues, or bird droppings splattered along an exterior wall. “Humanity is so preoccupied with making things, manipulating things,” he says. “But nature has a way of taking things back.”