I saved a research study from last fall that I stumbled upon again, that gave stats for overall employment rates in Arts graduates. The research was conducted by Sunil Iyengar, the Director of Research and Analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts. As I am both an artist and an advocate for other artists, I was interested in hearing the findings.
Unsurprisingly, the quick study found an overall loss of employment of artists. Interestingly, those having a college degree in an arts-related field were more likely to be employed in those fields than those who did not hold a BFA/MFA degree. Happy news as a person holding a BFA in Acting/Directing and an MFA in Dramaturgy! However, it also suggested to me that those artists who knew in their bones they were artists were able to sustain employment in the field over the long term. When your art is integral to your identity, you keep creating art.
Also interesting to me was that when the study segregated the results on artists’ participation in their art roughly by age (early career artists were those in their 20s, more established artists were in their 30s through 50s, and late career artists that were in their 60s or 70s) it highlighted the effects of the pandemic on artists.
In general, after the pandemic the study found that:
- early career artists had a hard time building new connections in their field and were struggling to even maintain those they previously had pre-pandemic.
- more established artists in their 30s through 50s were generally better connected, and were using those connections to gather in person or discuss art, network and socialize, but weren’t building new networks.
- late career artists felt largely isolated in their work and personal lives, even though they seemed adept at using social media during the pandemic; they were still “losing touch with existing professional connections that they had before the pandemic” more than the other age demographics.
In other words, despite the general experience of isolation that we all felt as a result of the pandemic, older artists were already working in the gig economy, and had weathered the last two economic recessions – but there was a “perceived loss of community and collegiality” that came with a “perceived loss of professional opportunity and collective artistic creativity in a digital professional landscape.”
Conclusions?
The study emphasized the importance of serendipity and regular encounters with others as critical to artistic career development, especially those that occur in person in their local professional communities, and encouraged all artists to “gather in person or discuss art, network and socialize.” *
Note the key words “in person.”
My take – artists of every age need to connect, especially to connect in person – but online communities can facilitate those connections, friendships and professional networking.
CreateTheater is a Community of TheatreMakers
From the very beginning CreateTheater has been an online community. I began the company to work with writers across three continents in 2015, on Zoom; soon they began helping each others in Zoom readings, which were almost unheard of at the time. Needless to say, were were ready to go when the world shut down in 2020. Each Monday throughout that year we had a developmental reading on. Zoom, given freely to many different writers just to keep them moving forward (and sane). It established CreateTheater as an online theatre develmental community.
People have told me that they miss the monthly online cocktail parties where people could meet in a fun format and talk about their work at the “cocktail tables” (known as Zoom rooms). We stopped doing these at the end of 2020 when our Zoom readings were Zoom-bombed at the end of 2020 (a traumatic experience if you’ve never experienced it), but I think as a space to network and meet people these cocktail parties were really helpful.
In January 2021 I began our resident writers’ company The Experts Theater Company, aka as ETC (a loving hat tip to Ellen Stewart, the original La MaMa, who has always served as my theatrical role model). Today ETC is a vibrant writers’ residency where writers get to know each other in writers groups, producing groups, and monthly developmental and networking opportunities. It is truly what I had hoped it would be: an “Artistic Home” that supports the creation of new work in a community of artists who encourage, instruct and inspire each other and form strong friendships and collaborations.
As a producer I’m 100% committed to creating producing opportunities for members to see their work on stage, which is why the New Works Festival is such a success.
Creating Theater is Creating Producing Opportunities
As I often say, everything I do is about developing and producing the new work created by these ETC artists. All of my programs – the New Work Festival, the Cabaret Festival, the producing partnerships – are centered around creating oppoortunities for these member artists. I do open up opportunities at times for non-ETC artists, but knowing my members’ work and being able to contribute dramaturgically to the creation of their scripts helps me to talk authentically and enthusiastically about them, all the time.
I’ve decided to open up the cocktail hours again to anyone who is a theatre maker, of any stripe, including directors and designers. We all learn from each other. It’s also in the summer that I open the doors to new members, and I’m reading new submissions now for the 2024-25 ETC membership and for our developmental partnerships. We’re also planning the 2024 CreateTheater Cabaret Festival, the 2025 CreateTheater New Works Festival, as well as our Smash It! Musical Workshops.
As to the in-person thing, I will continue the summer and Christmas parties that are open to members. but I also believe that we can still connect online, to network, create and collaborate. But look for new in-person opportunities to support you as well, in light of and in consideration of this study.
Have ideas? I’d love to hear them! Reach out to me at cate@createtheater.com
And don’t forget to submit your scripts to createtheater.com/submissions. I want to get to know both you and your work 🙂