Brushstrokes & Barrels: Exploring Artistic Entrepreneurship and Whisky Quality

From hobbyists to side-hustlers and “professionals”, artists come in all shapes and forms. But what changes when you decide to make money out of your art or music? Why do some people choose to keep their craft an uncommercialised passion while others decide to make a living out of it? I ask all kinds of creative people (product designers, painters, opera singers, you name it!) at all different stages of the process to find out what makes an artist entrepreneur, what tensions arise when they have to become their own salesman and how they deal with it.

In the realm of Scotch whiskies, the ‘age statement’ is revered as a hallmark of quality. Conventional wisdom dictates that older whiskies are inherently superior, with each additional year in the cask adding depth, complexity, and rarity. On the one hand, age and ‘age statements’ have created exclusivity – but on the other hand, it has also opened-up the industry to competition and substitutes. In this talk, we will discuss how the industry has responded to the opportunities and challenges of using age as a signal of quality – and what could be the implications?