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I haven't been updating the blog lately, but the conversation continues on Facebook, where I'm regularly sharing articles and opportunities around the theme of Artist Sustainability.  Join us!  https://www.facebook.com/artistsustainability

SHOULD Art be free? SHOULD Artists make money?

My brother shared a link to an excerpt from an interview with Francis Ford Coppola the other day that immediately caught my attention.  The great filmmaker and wine maker (or wine amusement park owner, one might say, but that's another story) recalls a passage from Balzac where he describes weeping tears of joy because a young writer has stolen his prose.  Rather than protest that his work has been ripped off, Balzac recognizes that it is part of the youth's learning process to borrow the words of his elders, and that through this sharing process a collective voice is woven that will live on much longer than one individual.  

Because that's what we want. We want you to take from us. We want you, at first, to steal from us, because you can't steal. You will take what we give you and you will put it in your own voice and that's how you will find your voice.

And that's how you begin. And then one day someone will steal from you. And Balzac said that in his book: It makes me so happy because it makes me immortal because I know that 200 years from now there will be people doing things that somehow I am part of. So the answer to your question is: Don't worry about whether it's appropriate to borrow or to take or do something like someone you admire because that's only the first step and you have to take the first step...

Bravo, Sir!  Welcome to the creative commons!  Halelujah!  I'm right there with you.


But then Coppola starts to talk about money and art-making, pointing out that:

You have to remember that it's only a few hundred years, if that much, that artists are working with money. Artists never got money. Artists had a patron, either the leader of the state or the duke of Weimar or somewhere, or the church, the pope. Or they had another job. I have another job. I make films. No one tells me what to do. But I make the money in the wine industry. You work another job and get up at five in the morning and write your script.

Red flag.


How many of us struggle to maintain not one career, but two: our (full time plus) career as an artist, and our day job?  Bully for you, Mr. Coppola, if you are able to parlay your early commercial success as a filmmaker and resulting celebrity (an important variable, and topic for a future blog post) into a successful wine/entertainment business that financially supports your recent art house films.  Well done, sir.  But is it not a bit disingenuous to posit, from your lofty seat:  "But who said art has to cost money? And therefore, who says artists have to make money?"  


The reality is, as you point out, Artists in the west used to rely on a system of patronage, which has disappeared rapidly, particularly in the past 100 years, at an alarmingly exponential rate.  (Since the Culture Wars of the 80's we continue to fight tooth-and-nail for any governmental support of the arts--let alone professional artists--in the U.S.)  And our economic system does not begin to make up for the loss of patronage with the social systems we need to survive.  (So long, health care reform, it was nice meeting you...)  So yes, we find creative ways to work for a living, whether teaching, doing admin work at some random business, or maybe utilizing our arts management skills to support another art organization.  Then if we're lucky we head to the studio to make our own work.  Then we go home and hit the computer, searching for grants, residencies, and sending appeals to producers and festivals all over the country.  If we're lucky maybe we get to squeeze in a pilates class so that we stay in adequate physical condition to make this work we're hawking all over the planet.


My question is, Dear Reader: is this sustainable?  Is your double-life, your double-career helping or hindering your "real" career as an artist?  If you're lucky, it helps.  Maybe teaching connects you to your community, trains dancers who you can bring into your company.  Maybe you're building networks through arts management or administration.  Or maybe filing at a law firm gives you the mental space, the break from your creative projects that you need to be able to focus and be more productive in the studio.  Maybe it also gives you the health insurance and vacation time you desperately need.  


Or, maybe it's soul crushing, exhausting, and killing your creative energies.  What about when your day job swallows up everything else?  Is it keeping you from taking the classes that you need to develop as an artist?  Is it keeping you in perpetual amateur status?  Are you using the safety of your day job to avoid the scary chasm that is the life of the "starving artist"?  


And by extension, what message is this sending to the GOP and others who want to cut arts funding because it's "unprofitable" or "useless" and no one really makes a living doing it anyway.  We should be very concerned about Art becoming demoted to Hobby in the national imagination.


These are the questions we're wrestling with every day.  These are the issues that keep us up every night.  So forgive me, Mr. Coppola, if I find your words a bit glib, given your particular situation.  "Try to disconnect the idea of cinema with the idea of making a living and money,” you advise us. "Because there are ways around it."  


There are creative ways around it, yes.  And we are nothing if not resourceful.  Artists specialize in making do with what we have, innovating new ideas from limitation, and collaborating with one another.  We have talent, vision, and unbelievable energy to make things happen.  But I maintain that we also deserve to make a living doing all of this.  Where our income comes from, that's an important, long, multivocal debate.  I for one just don't think it should come from a day job at Starbucks.


Read the original interview with Mr. Coppola here and tell me what you think.

Community spotlight: Help Desk/L.A.

[Followers of this blog have asked me to write up some "case studies" or profiles of projects and organizations that have come up with new, exciting ideas for supporting artist sustainability.  This is the first of what I'm calling "Community Spotlights."  Enjoy, and please leave your comments below!]

Felicia Rosenfeld, director of Pentacle's Help Desk/L.A., sat down with me on a busy Tuesday morning to talk about how the Los Angeles dance community could become more empowered and less fractured by (a) linking choreographers with experienced arts administrative professionals, and (b) promoting supportive peer groups among contemporary dance choreographers from throughout the city.   

"I think that professional community comes with effort, and peers have to start to really value being together as a group and finding their place as a group." 

Currently in its second cycle, Help Desk/L.A. partners working choreographers with dedicated professional mentors who not only help the choreographer achieve specific infrastructural business goals, but additionally make a point of getting to know the artist's work so that they can provide broader career guidance.  A mentor is different from a consultant, Ms. Rosenfeld explains.  With a consultant or a coach, the client defines the task or goal (produce professional marketing collateral, for example).  On the other hand, a mentor's engagement with the artistic work of the mentee combines with their unique perspective on both the field and professional climate, so that they can question the premise of the artist's goals, suggesting other avenues that might be more appropriate or useful.  (Perhaps you're not quite ready for marketing materials, yet.  Maybe you need to focus instead on project development or articulating a mission statement.)  

 "People are starting to realize that you need to understand the business part of what you do to free you up in a way to be able to do your creative work."

Help Desk/L.A. mentors are not art makers--a point which Ms. Rosenfeld feels is important to the success of the project.  Often it takes a non-artist, she says, to move a project forward.  Too often, especially in contemporary dance culture, artists do not allocate enough resources to managing the business side of their operation.  She explains this common problem:

Lack of support from individuals who are dedicated to arts administration and lack of funding to support the "behind the scenes" aspects of dance: infrastructure, "general operations," administrative support, etc. . . .  I think there is an industry culture of not valuing or paying for managerial support. . . .  The artistic director is usually the manager, booking agent, marketing specialist, chief fundraiser. The artistic director often doesn't pay him [or] herself, so why pay someone to help with all the "business aspects" of your profession? The desire, goal, passion is to create and perform work, and that is the focus of dance and that should be the focus of dance. The reality of supporting the creation of work is often viewed as an unwelcome intrusion. This mindset often gets in the way of an artist's ultimate success even if his [or] her work is absolutely wonderful.

Whether they're operating as a company with a staff or as an independent choreographer, the reality is that artists need to be business-savvy in order to be sustainable. "People are starting to realize that you need to understand the business part of what you do to free you up in a way to be able to do your creative work," Ms. Rosenfeld says, and there are dozens of workshops and classes we can take to build our skill sets. The advantage to taking part in a project like Help Desk is that you're not scrambling to learn it all on your own; you're part of a community of peers, and you have the focused support of a dedicated professional mentor to help you build a solid foundation to your business.

Help Desk artists and mentors work together, one-on-one, for a year.  Additionally, Help Desk artists meet once a month as a group, with Ms. Rosenfeld, to talk about what's up, what they're working on or wrestling with.  The artists get to know one another, share resources, and engage in selected workshop activities.  (For example, one group wanted to talk about dance criticism and journalism, so they invited Sasha Anawalt from USC's Annenberg arts journalism program to speak at one of their meetings.)  This is part of the project's goal of "growing a peer-supported professional community," as is a ticket reimbursement program, which encourages the artists to go see each other's work.  Ms. Rosenfeld points out that it is extremely difficult for choreographers to get peers to see their work in Los Angeles, partly because we don't have the common institutional centers for contemporary dance like New York has at DTW or the Joyce.  Los Angeles artist are largely self-producing across the sprawling metropolis.

At the moment, Help Desk/L.A. is limited to 10 artists per cycle (July through June), who submit a written application articulating their artistic mission and professional goals.  If accepted, each artist is responsible for a $600 fee, which in combination with grants covers program costs.  This fee also represents the artist's serious investment in the program, Ms. Rosenfeld explains, which is important to ensuring commitment to the project.  In its earlier New York incarnation, Pentacle found that many Help Desk artists, who were given infrastructure grants at the time, were "in it just for the money."  Selection for participation is not based on artistic merit or aesthetic appeal.  Rather, as their application states:

Pentacle will accept participants into Help Desk/L.A. based on clarity of expectations and goals to be obtained from the partnership and commitment by the prospective participant to being a pro‐active member of a professional peer community.

At the end of the year, artists may leave the program, or apply for a second round.  Returning artists, in addition to mentorship, get an additional 6 hours consulting with one or more professionals from outside the area of expertise of their mentor.  Artist cohorts have also elected to work on group projects together during their year together.  Last year, Help Desk artists produced a showcase at Highways Performance Space to share their work with one another and with Los Angeles audiences.  This year's project focuses on cultivating and strengthening relationships with individual donors.  As Help Desk/L.A. approaches its third year, Ms. Rosenfeld is thinking about how the program can continue to grow with participants, so that someone can continue to participate year after year, and the program will continue to be beneficial to them (not become repetitive).

The program aims to grow a peer-supported professional communtiy (a challenge in Los Angeles particularly) and Ms. Rosenfeld hopes that artists will start to see each other's work more and reach out to support one another after they leave the program. "I think that professional community comes with effort," she says, "and peers have to start to really value being together as a group and finding their place as a group."  Help Desk/L.A. is fertilizing the soil and planting the seeds.  Will Los Angeles show up to do the farming?



>> For further reading, check out Laura Bleiberg's excellent April 2010 interview with Felicia Rosenfeld, excerpted above, for ARTicles (the National Arts Journalism Program blog).

E-Harmony for professionals and non-profits?

Just heard this story on Marketplace about Catchafire, a New York based project that pairs skilled professionals with non-profits and charities in need of skilled volunteers.  It's making me think... what if we used a similar model to connect artists with administrators, mid-career mentors with emerging mentees, or even designers with projects.  You'd enter your skills and interests, as well as what you're seeking in a "mate" and the website would send you potential matches to pursue... Anyone like this idea?

"Like" the Artist Sustainability Project on Facebook!

More opportunities for discussion.  Post, share, and comment as much as you like!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Artist-Sustainability-Project/171168109583041

A case for inter-generational support, Part 2: Exchange

In last night's CHIME Live! showing and sharing, 2010 CHIME Southern California mentors and mentees talked about the discoveries they made and the intimate relationships they developed over the past 12 months.  One thing that immediately struck me was that the mentors claimed that their lives and practices had changed significantly as a result of the partnership.

Victoria Marks noted that underlying the concept of "mentor" there is an idea that this person, by virtue of the length of their career or standing in the community, holds some special knowledge, which the student or mentee desires.  The mentor in this scenario might then be imagined to dole out knowledge like alms for the poor.  It's a classic idea, evoking aloof, ancient masters in temples on high, part of the legacy idea that I discussed in Part 1 of this story.

And this is an idea that is materially reflected in the compensation disparity in these mentorship programs.  In the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, mentors are awarded $50K honoraria for the year, while protégés receive a $25K grant (plus travel expenses), and potentially another $25K after the mentorship period has ended, to create new work.  CHIME awards $7K stipends to mentors, and $3K (plus free or reimbursed studio time) to mentees.  Keep in mind that the mentees, particularly in CHIME, are the ones actually making work in this scenario.

In CHIME, mentors must be professionals with at least 10 years of experience producing work, while mentees are only required to have worked for 3 years.  Still, in the case of live artists/choreographers Julie Tolentino and Doran George (CHIME Southern California 2010), who are peers with similar degrees of experience, the only difference between mentor and mentee seems to be that their relationship is centered around Tolentino's work and not around George's.  Even with the given that we're agreeing to look at your work and not mine, according to the CHIME mentors, the exchange of knowledge, inspiration, support, and insight always goes both ways.  Indeed, mentorship partnerships are an exchange that we should view laterally rather than vertically--building bridges or crossing borders--rather than from the mountain top down.

Perhaps "peer exchange" might be a better name for this, except I believe this kind of exchange can take place between artists with different degrees of work experience, so not necessarily "peers" in the traditional sense.  You help the lady across the street by taking out her garbage and walking her dog, and in return she teaches you to speak Mandarin.  You create an archiving system with a choreographer who has been working for 30 years; they help you produce your first show.  You're good with numbers, so you help your friend clean up her books; in return she commits to 30 hours of studio time with you, where she will support you in the awkward early phase of a new project.  No money need be exchanged, you can start tomorrow, if you wish.  The idea is rhyzomic growth, a network organism, pulsing just below the surface, a strong foundation with enormous dynamic potential.

A case for inter-generational support, Part 1: Mentorship

Mentorship is not a new idea in the arts.  For years artists and craftspeople have apprenticed with masters, the older generations teach the younger, and cultural legacy is passed down.  Today several successful programs pair not only arts practitioners, but managers and administrators as well, in mutually supportive and generative exchanges.


Margaret Jenkins' CHIME (Choreographers in Mentorship Exchange) links LA and Bay Area choreographers in mutually beneficial mentor-mentee partnerships.  Some CHIME participants say that the intimacy of the relationship they are able to develop with their mentor or mentee provides a safe, respectful space for exchange of creative knowledge.


On a higher-profile, international level, the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative scouts the globe for the most promising emerging artists and partners them with superstar mentors (Robert Wilson, Martin Scorsese, Trisha Brown, Toni Morrison, Peter Sellars...) for one year of well-funded collaboration and project development. Protégés, who must be under 40 years old, are nominated by an anonymous scouting committee, and ultimately personally selected by their mentor who (because the program is meant to provide an opportunity the emerging artist would not otherwise have had) may not have any prior relationship with the protégé.


Help Desk LA, a project of the service and representation organization Pentacle, is an arts management mentorship program that partners performing artists (who are selected based on a written application and meetings with Pentacle Staff) with respected professional peers.

Artists and Mentors will work together over the course of twelve months to delineate the artists' infrastructure needs and create realistic achievable goals and strategies for filling those needs. Pentacle Program Staff will work with Artists and Mentors to ensure successful partnerships and to provide additional expertise.  The Artists, Mentor and Program Staff join together as a group to explore common interests, goals and aspirations for building a strong peer professional cohort within the larger Los Angeles area contemporary dance community.

The key to a successful mentorship exchange is that both mentor and mentee benefit and grow from the relationship.  In 'Part 2' of this blog post I will discuss this further.