It's not enough for me to work "In the Arts" Let me explain...

There seems to be this pervasive attitude that creative practitioners should be satisfied with “working in the arts” because you get holidays/sick leave/stability, you get to be part of the team that makes creative things happen but mostly because “there’s simply not enough places for everyone to make a living as a creative practitioner”. After 10 years of working in an arts adjacent job (in my case, music education*) I can say with 100% certainty that it has been a poor substitute for a career as a full time creative practitioner.

*It’s important to note that my employment within music education does not come with holidays/sick leave/stability.

You may be wondering how arts work differs from working as an artist*. The simple explanation is all artists are arts workers, but not all arts workers are artists. Arts workers may have been trained in the arts, or feel very passionate about creating opportunities/allowing artists to work to their fullest potential, but at the end of the day, the art would still find a way to exist without them. There’s also a huge difference in pay/stability expectations. Arts workers often handle the “unfun jobs” which have to be paid fairly otherwise no one would do them.

*I’m using the word artist here to describe any discipline that produces creative output i.e music, dance, acting, film, visual arts etc.

Don’t get me wrong, arts workers are incredibly important. A good arts team will give the creative practitioner/s they’re looking after time and space to concentrate on art making (my personal experience of being management and artist for the emerald ruby left me only doing paperwork, and 0 time to actually create!). Orchestra’s, Theatre’s, Production Companies, Galleries, Festivals etc could not exist without the teams of people working behind the scenes to make them run smoothly and remain profitable. These arts adjacent jobs keep the show on the road, however at the end of the day, it’s not art making.

I grew up as a creative practitioner in an arts sector that see’s arts work (and as an extension arts education) as a viable career compromise. I believed in this compromise for a while, probably because it was the only viable way to keep myself fed and housed. I committed to the double life of educator/practitioner, two vastly different careers with incompatible schedules. Not going to lie, it’s taken a toll on my health, and I’ve reached a point where I can no longer work and maintain my creative practice.

That crossroads right there leads me to the point of this post. If arts work was enough for me deciding between my arts work and my work as an artist wouldn’t be so difficult.
I’d also like to add that if you’re a creative practitioner who’s found arts work fulfilling, I am so very happy for you! My life would be a lot easier if I found arts work as fulfilling as my own artistic practice.

About the look: This skirt is officially the first piece I’ve ever pattern matched. I couldn’t resist it, the landscape pattern is so rich and illustrative, to do anything else would have been a right shame. I love the way this shirt matches the autumn leaves in the skirt, and of course, with the colour blocking, I had to use my tried and true “colour sandwich” styling method ;). The belt I’m sporting here is a number I thrifted many moons ago.

If you didn’t already know, I’ve recently released an EP! You can watch me play one of the pieces live in the bush down below! If you really like it, you can purchase the Sheet Music, buy the tracks on Bandcamp or even listen to it on Spotify! Central Coast peeps can come see the EP live at the Rhythm Hut with Ren Stone on the 17th of April. TICKETS HERE