Building The Forge

Here's what I do . . .

I help artists and arts organizations build their forge.

I'll explain.

-------------------------------

A while back, people discovered something.

If you take a piece of metal and add fire to it, it can become something much more useful then it was before.

Thus a dull, flat piece of metal + fire could = a sword or the foundation to a more secure home.

This was great news.

Then, also a while back, people discovered something else.

Fire could be a problem.

Sure it was useful, but you couldn't just throw a piece of metal into it and hope things worked themselves out.

For the fire to be useful, it had to be controlled.

Enter the forge.

Now you had a device you could use to regulate the heat the metal needed.  Sometimes more.  Sometimes less.  But always under some measure of control.

-------------------

We all have dreams.

Good artists tend to have grander dreams then most.  That's part of their charm.

When a dream is in its formative stages, it's a lot like that piece of metal.  Not much form yet, but definitely there!

The artist sees this metal, this dream, in her hands and she knows exactly what it needs.

A bit of fire.

In this case the fire is passion, the drive to create.

Just like the early days, the metal and the fire meet.

Then the artist discovers something.

Fire can be a problem.

The fire caused her to build a dance company, with no idea how it would run pass a show or two.

The fire cause him to spend a lot of time and money making a CD with no idea how to sell it, or even how the music biz worked.

The fire hit the metal and now it's shaping it into something the artist can't recognize, something he never intended.

But you see the problem now don't you?

The metal was there.

The fire was there.

But no forge.

--------------------------------

The marketing strategy talk.

The talk about organizational structure.

The talk about who should and shouldn't be on your Board.

The talk about whether you should even have a Board.

The talk about programming/artistic choices . . . ESPECIALLY the talk about programming/artistic choices.

All that is a part of the forge.

Not the decisions you make about those things . . . those are just decisions.  You'll make good ones.  Bad ones.  Plus you can always change them.

The forge is the process you go through to make those decisions.

It's the thinking, the pondering, the grappling that helps you to control the fire that is the essence of artistic passion.

-----------------------

So that's what I do.

I work with passionate artists and artistic orgs and I guide them through the questions.

In the process the forge is built.

Now here's what I want you to consider . . .

Who in your life helps you build your forge?

Who helps you control your passion?

The scary part from some is that the answer is . . . nobody.

Way too often, artists just hang out with other artists.

Collectively feeding their fire.

"Go to that seminar on Board development?  I'll go if I have to I guess, but I wish I didn't need to go, I just want to dance."

"Talk about whether or not people want to see my programming?  Please.  I just want to create"

Here's the secret.  The thing that separates professionals artists and artists org that make it from those who never pass the hobby stage . . .

Learning all that "business stuff" does impair your art.

It frees it. 

It helps you to build your forge.

It gives your art the chance it deserves.

If you're an artist, you need a forge.

Comments

[RVCBard]

Great post, Adam!

But I think you already know that.

[Lindsay Price]

I love that image.

I have friends, such creative friends, who are circling the drain with their careers because they can't grasp the need to address the business side, the marketing side to what they do.

It is amazing how freeing it is to take control of that aspect. It gives the creative side a future.