Four flowers from painting Don't Conform by Dr Jo Bowers

Big Picture Arts Therapy Business Niche - Value Mining & Investment

Image: Painting Don't Conform, Acrylic on Canvas, by Dr Jo Bowers

Heart Builds Business Acumen

Sometimes a niche value appears when we combine it with unique propositions. For example, therapy alone may have merits. But when you add therapy and fine art?

And by the way, as compared to art therapy, which is a very different area - we are talking about the natural organic therapeutic value of art and artful living. The difference is important!

As therapists - we do work with art therapy methods. But we also work primarily as Counsellors and Psychotherapists. This means our emphasis is on the therapeutic component of change. The work is emotive and relational. We do not identify as art therapists - we are psychotherapists who use art when it is a practical and useful tool to assist with therapeutic goals.

Art Builds Human Connections

In a similar way, our art in media focuses on the therapeutic nature of art appreciation. This is about the psychology and emotional intelligence of artful engagement - which is part of the heart of collector wisdom. The combined outcome of our approach is a strong business niche with potential for growth. The potential rests with the universal quality of art as part of human community, family and identity.

I am excited about the value proposition model that i am seeing with other creators and an inner circle with different value levels. I think that it is important to create a clear vision before entering platforms like our using Substack - to house our email lists for this arts project via a dynamic system to help build community - before getting mired in detail.

Keep the Big Picture - With Human Eyes

Many of us tend to fall into the rabbit hole with details. I am one of these! That is exhausting. Even more now with AI. There is just too much detail, and AI does not help here - it only seems to feed the treadmill of more detail.

The irony is that the human art and artful curator is even more necessary. To sort the detail means having human values and frameworks of what matters, what to sideline, and how to present a meaningful narrative.

You're absolutely right to focus on the big picture first! The combination of therapy and fine arts creates a compelling niche because it addresses both emotional wellbeing and creative expression - two areas where people deeply value expert guidance and community.

What is Your Unique Proposition?

The unique positioning as therapists who are also practicing artists gives credibility in both domains. This could attract readers seeking creative healing approaches, mental health support specifically for artists, or integration of therapeutic practices with creative processes.

The tiered value model we are seeing with other creators can work well for specialised expertise like professionals offer. You could offer free content that builds trust, paid subscriptions for deeper insights, and premium tiers for exclusive content.

What's powerful about this concept is that it serves a specific audience - creatives seeking both artistic and psychological growth. As one successful creator noted, focusing on what only you can do with your unique background and voice is key to building a dedicated readership.

Organic Growth of Community

But this model of synergy also speaks directly to lovers of art and collectors at a holistic level – offering them a new insight on the nature of art as a therapeutic value in identity formation, resolution of problems and issues, healing from past hurts, and gaining insights that lead toward gaining skills and capacities.

Then within each of these domains – art and therapeutic insights – there are a wide range of business leadership and relational values that emerge. The art of business and the business of art overlap and create synergies, just like therapy and business are woven together.

One Step, Resting - Then More

Having been a director of a therapy company for many years as well as a senior counsellor psychotherapist provide keen insight on how important these value propositions are in practice.

But you know what? To really help people, and to actually generate really powerful art, requires a great deal of energy and time. Not only time to produce change opportunities in others as well as in the production of artistic artefacts like sculpture or paintings. Time is also needed to rest, to lay fallow sometimes for months - to allow the creative energy to return and to continue the journey.

This journey as a therapist and an artists takes literally decades. Not just years, months, or days. We are talking about something that emerges in your soul. You grow into this at whatever stage of your life - and you become a channel for healing, growth, and artistic or musical insight for others. Your person and your art converge. You become an Artist. In the original and older cultural way, an Artist is a person who is called and possessed by the gods and goddesses to channel energy and power into the world.

About Us

Joseph (Jorandi or Jo) Randolph Kisiku Bowers PhD is a company director of a successful therapy operation in Australia and a fine artist on canvas and in ceramics. He works with co-therapist and artist Dwayne Wannamarra Kennedy PhD who co-founded Oz FineArt to share our legacy of artwork, culture and transformative stories.

This post appears in variation on our Substack publication. The stack is designed to manage our email list to stay in touch with our community - and we publish bi-monthly to your inbox. Sign up with the link below.

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