Making the decision to be a professional artist is a huge choice.
I define a professional artist as someone that is trying to make some part of his/her living through participating in or producing art.
Being a professional artist isn't for everybody. It's a decision to be made very carefully.
But if you decide to go for it you have officially entered the marketplace.
The marketplace can be an incredibly cruel, unfair, environment. But that is our place. Even as we try to make it better, it is what it is.
I believe that one of the biggest flaws that we have in the system of educating artists and possible arts administrators is we don't prepare them for that world.
We don't teach them about how to position themselves and their work in a competitive and cluttered marketplace.
We don't show them how things like marketing, branding, organizational design, etc. can be used in ways that are both effective and authentic.
So it's no wonder they struggle.
But there is something else I want you to consider.
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If you believe you have the multitude of skills necessary to be a dancer or a painter then you might as well give it a try.
If you want to build an organization that produces incredible plays, go for it.
What else are you going to do?
Get a "regular job?"
Look around. There are no jobs. There is no stable business environment where you can lay back for a few decades, get to retirement age and quit.
Those days are behind us. Probably gone forever.
So you might as well do what you love.
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Time for another brief hiatus. New post on Monday. Happy holiday's.
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