What happens when a creative professional is simultaneously an artist, a skilled craftsperson and an entrepreneur? Research by Ellen Loots, Associate Professor at ESHCC, and Anne-Sophie Radermecker, Associate Professor at Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and a former ESHCC colleague, explores how creative professionals navigate these overlapping – and sometimes conflicting – identities. Their article has received the 2025 Best Paper Award from Creativity and Innovation Management.
We already know that creative professionals frequently combine multiple jobs and income-generating activities. Less is known, however, about how they experience and negotiate the multiple professional identities that come with these activities.
“We wanted to move beyond the idea that someone is simply an artist or an entrepreneur,” explains Loots. “For creative professionals, being an artist, a craftsperson and an entrepreneur can all be important parts of who they are – but they do not necessarily fit together easily.”
When artistic identity meets craftsmanship and entrepreneurship
The tension between being an artist and being a skilled craftsperson is particularly interesting. Craft professionals may take great pride in technical skill, material knowledge and craftsmanship, while also wanting their work to be recognised as artistic rather than primarily as skilled production. At the same time, they may need to operate as entrepreneurs: finding customers, pricing and selling their work, and generating an income.
“These identities can reinforce each other, but they can also pull in different directions,” says Radermecker. “The interesting question is how creative professionals negotiate between them.”
The authors therefore use the notion of “identity struggles and juggles” to capture how creative professionals combine, prioritise and sometimes separate these different identities.
Recognised for originality, methods and theoretical contribution
The Best Paper Award recognises an article that the journal's editors and reviewers consider particularly strong in terms of its originality and novelty, methodological quality and theoretical contribution. The recognition is particularly meaningful to Loots because Creativity and Innovation Management is an international, peer-reviewed journal that brings creativity and innovation into conversation with organisational and management research — much like the paper itself, which connects questions about artists and craftspeople to broader debates about identity, creativity and entrepreneurship.
“We are very pleased that the paper was recognised by a journal that brings creativity and innovation into conversation with management research,” she says. “It shows that questions emerging from the cultural and creative industries can also contribute to broader theoretical debates.”
From ESHCC to an international collaboration
The award is a recognition of a collaboration that has its roots at ESHCC. Radermecker, now based at ULB, was previously a colleague at ESHCC, where the two researchers developed shared interests in the economic and organisational realities of creative work.
For Loots, this makes the award particularly rewarding: “It is wonderful to see research that grew out of our discussions and collaboration at ESHCC receive this international recognition. Anne-Sophie and I share an interest in understanding not only creative production itself, but also the economic and organisational realities that shape creative careers.”
Ultimately, the paper shows that creative professionals do not necessarily have to choose between being an artist, craftsperson or entrepreneur. Their professional identities may encompass all three – but navigating between them can itself be an important part of building a sustainable creative career.
Read the full open-access article: “Visual Artist, Craftsperson, Entrepreneur or … All in One? Identity Struggles and Juggles in Creative Crafts” published in Creativity and Innovation Management, 34(4), 806–834.
The research originated in a study conducted for BeCraft, the Belgian association for creative crafts professionals, whose work supports and represents the creative crafts sector in Belgium.
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