Description
The Artist Partnerships & Portfolio Manager drives the growth, development, and commercial activation of the Studio E/L artist portfolio. The role leads artist recruitment and relationship management, identifies portfolio opportunities based on customer and market demand, coordinates collection launches, and increases adoption of Studio E/L artists across the business.
Serving as the primary liaison between artists and internal teams, this position partners with Art Consulting, Sales, Marketing, Wholesale, and Print-on-Demand to ensure artists are successfully onboarded, supported, promoted, and positioned for success. The role also develops a national artist pipeline, with intentional focus on regional representation, cultural relevance, and priority growth markets.
The ideal candidate is relationship-oriented, commercially minded, highly organized, and passionate about helping artists and collections succeed in the marketplace.
Key Responsibilities
1. Artist Partnerships
Artist Recruitment and Relationship Management
- Source, evaluate, recruit, and onboard artists aligned with Studio E/L’s portfolio strategy, customer demand, and business priorities.
- Develop and maintain a national pipeline of prospective artists across priority markets and identified portfolio gaps.
- Recruit artists who strengthen regional representation, cultural perspective, geographic diversity, and relevance to target customers.
- Serve as the primary point of contact for artists and cultivate strong, long-term relationships.
- Manage artist onboarding, agreements, licensing documentation, approvals, and portfolio records.
- Coordinate artist communications, business updates, collection launches, and performance discussions.
- Monitor artist engagement and identify opportunities to improve satisfaction, participation, and retention.
- Advocate for artists internally and ensure their work is accurately and appropriately represented across the organization.
2. Portfolio Growth and Activation
Portfolio Development and Collection Strategy
- Support portfolio planning based on market trends, customer needs, artist and collection performance, and business priorities.
- Evaluate portfolio performance and gaps across geographic region, customer segment, subject matter, style, and sales channel.
- Recommend new artists, collections, content categories, and portfolio enhancements that address identified opportunities.
- Lead collection launches, portfolio refreshes, and artist activation initiatives in partnership with internal stakeholders.
- Develop portfolio recommendations and curated content packages that support strategic business initiatives.
- Partner with Art Consulting, Wholesale, Print-on-Demand, and Business Development teams to create collections aligned with customer demand and growth opportunities.
- Monitor artist and collection performance and provide actionable recommendations to leadership.
Internal Portfolio Adoption
- Increase awareness and utilization of Studio E/L artists and collections across Healthcare, Workplace, Hospitality, Senior Living, Wholesale, and Print-on-Demand channels.
- Create artist presentations, portfolio resources, curated collections, and recommendation packages.
- Support internal education efforts that help teams understand, position, and confidently recommend Studio E/L artists and collections.
- Serve as an internal resource for artist recommendations, collection positioning, portfolio availability, and market insights.
- Identify opportunities to introduce priority artists and collections into new projects, markets, customer segments, and sales channels.
3. Commercial and Market Growth
Sales and Business Development Support
- Partner with Sales, Art Consulting, and leadership to identify opportunities to increase artist utilization and portfolio adoption.
- Support customer presentations, proposals, RFP responses, and strategic pursuits through targeted artist and collection recommendations.
- Monitor customer, competitor, design, and industry trends to identify emerging portfolio opportunities.
- Participate in customer presentations, portfolio showcases, trade events, and strategic initiatives as needed.
- Identify portfolio opportunities that support expansion into new geographic markets, customer segments, and sales channels.
- Recommend portfolio strategies that support revenue growth and long-term business objectives.
- Provide Sales and customer-facing teams with the portfolio resources and insights needed to position Studio E/L effectively.
4. Operational Excellence
Administration, Reporting, and Process Improvement
- Maintain accurate artist, agreement, licensing, approval, portfolio, and CRM records.
- Ensure artist agreements and required portfolio documentation remain current and compliant.
- Track artist activity, collection launches, portfolio performance, utilization, adoption, and geographic representation.
- Deliver monthly reporting and portfolio insights to leadership.
- Coordinate workflows related to artist recruitment, onboarding, collection development, approvals, activation, and launch.
- Ensure approved portfolio initiatives are completed on schedule and aligned with business priorities.
- Identify and implement process improvements that strengthen efficiency, visibility, data quality, internal adoption, and the artist experience.
- Partner with internal teams to resolve artist, licensing, documentation, and portfolio-related issues.
Requirements
Required
- Seven + years of experience in artist relations, portfolio management, licensing, account management, marketing, business development support, or a related field.
- Strong relationship-building and communication skills, with the ability to work effectively with both creative professionals and business stakeholders.
- Excellent organizational and project management capabilities.
- Ability to manage multiple priorities, projects, and deadlines in a fast-paced environment.
- Commercial judgment and the ability to connect portfolio decisions to customer and business needs.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
- Ability to interpret performance information and translate it into actionable portfolio recommendations.
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office, CRM systems, and project management platforms.
- Ability to work independently while coordinating effectively across teams in a remote environment.
Preferred
- Experience in art publishing, hospitality, healthcare, workplace design, licensing, or another related creative industry.
- Experience working directly with artists, creative professionals, or licensing programs.
- Experience collaborating with Sales, Marketing, Art Consulting, or other customer-facing teams.
- Experience evaluating market trends and identifying portfolio or product opportunities.
- Strong presentation, storytelling, and visual communication skills.
- Familiarity with Monday.com or similar project management tools.
- Abiliy to recruit exceptional artists, cultivate meaningful artist partnerships, grow and activate the Studio E/L portfolio, and increase the commercial impact of artists and collections across the business.
