Survival Within The Arts
Hello Blog Readers,
A topic that often rears it's head for me and I'm sure many other creative people is 'survival'. Will I continue to be able to keep on doing what I love and be actively involved in the creative side of the arts in the future? Over the years I have seen so many people move away from music and into more stable careers. For example I am the only person from my GCSE music class who is still actively pursuing their performance career. On my jazz degree course we started with 24 students and ended with 14, despite having gained extra students over the four years. Of the fourteen graduates I know of at least three who have embarked on non-musical paths. I would be interested to know if the stats are similar across the board with other creative disciplines.
It doesn't take a genius to come up with many of the reasons why people chose not to pursue their talents. The job description for a musician is arguably one of the most off putting and it is surely similar with other creative subjects. Firstly you have to work incredibly hard for very little monetary compensation, you also need to be able to motivate yourself and be good at finding jobs/projects/funding, having excellent people skills is also very helpful along with reliability and punctuality, you probably also need to be able to drive/do admin/haggle/chase up money/teach/lead groups/run promotional campaigns/work with children/use computers and not to mention- be superb on your instrument and have the ability to walk into a situation with people you have never met and make music.
What I am really interested in is what sets those who continue with their art apart from those who don't?
