If there is anything that is true about life it is that it seems like everything in it wants to take you away from your art, the one thing that is you.
We have to earn a living, help our family and friends, jump through the social hoops of clubs, religions and causes plus attend all sorts of events from athletics to baby showers.
What happens to the thing that is just about us as people, as individuals, and as artists? Our own artistic mission is the first thing that gets cut due to the “higher priorities” of life. It is a microcosm of the situation we see happening in society. Everything is more important than the arts so the arts are the first thing cut from budgets.
In music, many learn to play the piano often to a very high level to finally be able to teach it to others. But so often, the teaching and life take precedence over their own skill and dedication to something they love to do for themselves. At the university level, teaching means filling in all the blanks when it comes to class prep and the bureaucracy of managing a university program. Walking down the hall of any university or school of music these days and you’d think you were in a computer department. Most of what people do is in front of a computer. Even the teaching of piano or theory…it is all done on computer. Just like writing this blog post.
How do we defend our own artistic mission in all of this?
I think for the performing artist, which is the only thing I know anything about, it is about creating programs for yourself and working towards that program.
Most of the solo song literature I learned was in preparation for a concert I had planned. It is amazing what a novelty that is these days. People don’t do song recitals anymore. You never see a vocal recital of any kind promoted outside the university setting unless you are looking at Lincoln Center.
If you want to make the most of your art, you must put a date and destination for your work. Without that, you just work on your art in a world that is so nebulous that your mind will simply ignore. You lose all drive and your art suffers.
I guess for static artists it is the same. Don’t they shoot for an exhibition or some sort of gallery tour? Even in the world of recorded music, don’t they always work towards a release date and a series of concerts promoting their recordings? Without the end date, the date of launch, there can be no mission, artistic or otherwise.
An artistic career is based mostly on a self starting mentality. It will always be this way. Artists cannot depend on some director or theater manager to come to them and ask them to do something. Artists must be self starting and go out and plan their own artistic success, even if it is doing weddings, funerals, social events and small concerts in and around the area.
Once you do your work of getting out there and producing your art, then the word will get around and you build your artistic reputation. This is how an artistic mission gets priority in your life. It must become a priority due to your own productions.
It is a business, really. But, you as an artist must produce the product in order to even have a business. So, first off you have to become a powerful artist, and during the process incorporate the business side along with it and that comes simply from planning and setting goals.
For instance…
A singer wants to work on their art of singing.
The first thing they have to do is set a concert date and fix a venue for it’s performance. Let’s say a local restaurant would like to boost their business on a Monday night. So you set a date with that restaurant 6 months in advance. Then you figure out the program and set it in stone and start to work on it. Meanwhile you are planning to fill the seats. So, you have a goal of how many people you want to attend. Lets say 50. Trust me, getting 50 to come to such an evening would get any restaurant on your side. Then you go about selling the tickets to the concert through marketing promotions you would do.
The above is a huge project, but at the core it is all about developing your art and making it a priority so you can. It is also about insuring that your concert is a success at the box office and that comes simply from creating buzz about it.
This is just an example. But, there are many things you can do to support this mission. Do the concert in nursing homes, in schools, for clubs, and every time you do those “minor” venues is a builder to get people to your “major” venue, your event. Plus, doing these “minor” venues you can practice sections of the program so you don’t go into the “major” event doing the pieces for the first time.
All in all, this is how you build your art and make it a priority in life. Set a date and work towards it.
Life will want to get in your way and you only have one life. So, get started now and put the one thing that is you high on your priority list where it belongs. Because the world needs you at your best and doing your unique gift.