So you want to be an artist?

I missed last week! Things have been busy on my end as we spent half the week recovering from a very busy holiday weekend and then ended with accepted student day at F&M. I participated in a networking evening which is a stretch for me as I prefer more organic networking events and generally hate large social gatherings BUT I'm glad I stepped out of my comfort zone! The motivating factor for me was the fact that we often don't have creative professionals present at these kinds of events. My siblings are starting their own college journeys soon and junior/senior year me has been on my mind a lot lately. I remember how I felt simultaneously like I had it all figured out and also I had no clue what I was doing with my life. So in an effort to add some good karmic beans on my scale, I signed up to represent the arts and share my journey with current students at my alma mater. 

It was a great experience! Was my social battery spent by the end? Hell yeah. Was I nervous as heck the whole time? YUPPP. But I had some good conversations with a variety of students all on their own journeys trying to figure it all out. Something that stuck with me is how little students know about Arts Administration as a pathway!

I also knew very little about Arts Admin as a viable career path. Learning about it unlocked a world of career possibilities for me so I want to share/reshare my journey. I might have shared this in different iteration through the years here, but here's the gist: 

I started at F&M as a Pre-Med student convinced that I would be a doctor. Then I quickly realized I prefer writing and analysis and pivoted to English Literature and then added Studio Art as a double major. By senior year of college I had interned at a gallery, worked as a junior graphic designer, and project managed for the College Dispatch as Editor-in-Chief (a non-fiction lit magazine) and President of the Art Club. I looooove project management but didn't know that there was a word/career there until after I graduated and was hit with the feeling of "I have no clue what to do".

Between graduating and applying for the arts administration track at Drexel, I did a whole bunch more odd-jobs. The common thread being using my writing and organizational skills to facilitate workshops, programs, and fundraisers. I did a few public art projects and kept up my personal visual art practice the whole time. As I considered what my next move might be I considered going back to school.

An MFA just never felt quite right and I didn't have the language yet to know that what I was feeling pulled towards was social practice. Over time, I started to get to know artists doing social practice work and started to uncover the concept of arts administration. One evening I started looking up arts degrees and found Drexel's Arts Administration and Museum Leadership masters program and something just clicked. I applied and got in shortly after.

The program was amazing and mostly online which allowed me to grow my social practice work, study mural making under Michelle Angela Ortiz, and run for School Board. The common thread through these seemingly disparate adventures for me was my creative brain. I think the way I think is unique and deeply rooted in my arts practice. I also think that everything is political and that serving the community in any way is a political act. As I worked through my masters I started to hone in on the disparity between Latinx artists and our local "thriving" arts community. I completed my thesis which is a snapshot of Latinx creative placekeeping in Lancaster city in 2016-2017 and a proposal for what the future could look like. 

10 years and so many project later, I still find myself working within the same theme: making stuff that brings people together. My supervisor, friend and collaborator of many years, Natalie Lascek, now says of her work. "People are my favorite medium" and I am starting to realize that this is true for me too! Today, my 9-5 is as Assistant Director of the Center for Creative Exploration where I manage workshops and classes open to the community, supervise our certificate program, teach design thinking classes, and help facilitate community projects throughout the year. We are a continuing education department and so much more. I love my job! And it is soooo hard, especially in this political climate, to maintain hope when it feels like we as a culture do not value creativity. 

One of the things I shared with the students I met last week was that I knew early on that I just couldn't have a job that relied on my artwork. I needed to know that I can make weird stuff and that what I made did not have to depend on being sellable. Knowing this helped me pivot away from focusing so heavily on careers that might dictate my personal practice and towards things that were still arts related. I knew that I am happiest when I am able to influence and shape things and that I am a detail oriented person that likes organizing projects. I knew that I am also happiest if I could be doing all of that within a creative ecosystem. This helped me keep my eyes open for jobs like my current role in continuing education.

None of this is a straightforward when we think about a traditional "career path" but it worked for me! I think that's the most important thing to take away if you are in a position to consider career shifts/pivots or entering the field for the first time: it doesn't have to make sense to anyone else but you.

For me, I tried things and used a process of elimination: I tried working in a small gallery and found things I liked and carried that forward to trying a museum setting and then academic and then continued to bop around within academic settings until I found something that felt right. For now, continuing education gives me the best of both worlds: I get to be in a creative environment, I get to teach, I get to make stuff with the community in mind, I get to be involved in community projects, and I get to preserve my personal practice and do my own thing with public art and social practice when I can. 

If you're considering what a fulfilling creative career looks like for you, I think the biggest questions to answer for yourself are: 

• What do I love about being creative that I don't want to lose? 
• Do I feel okay making work with selling and maintaining an income on it in mind?
• Do I want my work to exist without the pressure of being sellable? 
• Am I up for the administrative tasks it takes to be a creative entreprenuer? If not, do I have the capacity to find supports here?
• Do I like reporting to a supervisor or boss? and do I like the. structure of working in an organization?
• Do I thrive on having more control of my time and where I work?

There's no right answer to these questions but it is important to consider them as you try to figure out what your creative career looks like. And of course, there are times you will have to take the gig or the job that doesn't perfectly align just to survive. The next step should be to game plan how you'll be able to move closer and closer to the work that aligns most with where you want to be. 

That's all for now!

This week's funspiration station is short but still fun and giving me hope: 

• The game Spiritfarer! Cathartic! Emotional! Why am I crying!
• The sun
• Warm breezes