Who gets to say how non-essential you are?

How can we be wholehearted in our art when society seems to be half-hearted about artists?

In 2013 I had the delight of working with a lovely company of actors and theatre professionals in a production of King Lear at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. On one memorable night we were joined for a company photo by the Irish president Micheal D. Higgins. I expected to this to be a very brief affair. A quick snap for the papers before he’d be on his way to his next engagement. However he launched into a speech on the value of arts that made me feel proud in a way I’ve never quite felt before or since. It was less of a speech actually, and more of a thank you. The President was thanking us for our contribution. Not just for the parts we played in that evening’s performance but for our choice to serve our society by becoming actors, directors, stage managers, designers etc. I wish it could have been beamed to the living room of every artist in the country.

Jump to 2020 and as a sector we are confronted with headlines ousting us as the 'non-essential'. While the National Campaign for the Arts in Ireland and similar campaigns in England have pulled off miracles in raising awareness and support for the arts, there very much is a pervading feeling that the nature of being a freelance creative is that you will fall through the cracks. How essential are you? After all you’ve chosen a perilous career and that was your own choice, so deal with the consequences.

How can we be whole-hearted in our art when society seems to be half-hearted about artists?

I believe this question of value sits at the core of the challenges facing freelance creatives right now. Externally we are being invited to think less of ourselves. Internally there are others voices inviting us to do the same.

Since January this year I have been coaching creatives to navigate their work and careers in ways that are more satisfying, fulfilling and sustainable. It would be fair to say this can be complex and challenging work but rarely more so than over the past five months. After more than 100hrs of this work with creatives all over the UK and Ireland, I’ve seen how this question of value has been compounded by Covid-19 and the knock-on effects it has for creatives in how they live their lives, how they manage their work and how they view themselves. Our challenges are as much internal as they are external. 

So are the predominant internal challenges to our value?

Imposter syndrome.

Imagine meeting the artist you’ve always admired. Internationally successful, charismatic, principled and inspired. Now imagine five minutes into your conversation they tell you they’re not really sure what they are doing. Pointing to their contemporaries that are ‘real’ artists and referring to themselves as chancers; successful more through accident than design. Now imagine every artist you’ve ever admired or respected telling you the same thing. This is part of our psychological make up, it is as innate and human as our ego. We’ve all got one but it doesn’t have to define our experience. There are elements of this syndrome which are useful, it can moderate our behaviour with others, it can shine a light on our work in a way that is constructively critical, it can make us ask questions about ourselves and how we self-identify and value ourselves. Unattended it can become like an aggressive weed, running rampant obscuring all the beauty and potential of our careers and work. Much like our ego it needs management, acceptance and the understanding that everyone is faced with this challenge but that it can be tempered and tamed.  

Victimhood.

Simply put, a negative view of others in your industry (or your industry as a whole) puts you in the position of being ‘less than’. Being less than brings out the delightful little gremlin of victimhood who sneers at potential colleagues and collaborators. Whispering the most distorted of stories about you and them, like poison in your ear. All of these stories have the fundimental result of distancing you from connecting with the very people who could be the most influential for you. This ‘less than’ perspective is a choice you may not be fully aware you’ve adopted. You may only become conscious of it when you begin to notice the constant feelings of jealousy and dissatisfaction that have no clear origin. Like a fog that suddenly arrives to obsecure your favourite landscape.  The gremlin’s little lie is that you are ‘less than’; you’re not and you never were, but you need to actively shift your perspective here to one of equality. Even with those at the height of your industry. They may have more contacts, work, skills etc but these are seperate from inherent value. Level your own playing field first by acknowledging that in reality, it is level.

Selective Memory. 

One of the most influential coaching sessions I ever experienced was over in five minutes and only had two questions. Back in 2019 while considering whether to do a masters in Psychology or take a more alternative, piecemeal route via a diploma in coaching psychology, I attended an open day for a coaching school. We were put in pairs and my partner asked me what I wanted to be coached on. I explained the fork in the road I was at and the pros and cons of both routes. I was genuinely torn. ‘Which way has worked best for you in the past?'. The answer hit me instantly and profoundly. Piecemeal, I’d always leap frogged from interest to interest and built up a portfolio of experience in that way. It had always worked really well for me too. It was natural for me to develop in this way but I’d forgotten it… When we feel vulnerable we can become selective with the memory of our achievements, with what we’ve managed to create and overcome. Make a list of them for yourself. Don’t be selective. Be accurate, realistic and complete. Place it where you can find it easily. Review it when you feel the pangs of self doubt and remind yourself that not only have now the benefit of those achievements but also the learning required to make them happen. The ‘how’ of creating your next masterpiece can often be found in ‘how’ of your last one.

Irrational Drive or Passion?

When I reflect on the journey of the people I’ve been lucky enough to coach through the Covid-19 months, the connecting theme is passion. There are many things that are referred to as ‘drivers’ psychologically, they are things that prompt, direct and motivate our behaviours. We’re often unaware that our decisions and actions are being driven by unconscious factors. Our feelings, our beliefs, the learned behaviours we've adopted from parents and carers, the perspectives and prejudices we’ve been socialised towards etc. In the context of a pandemic that has closed every theatre in the land, the passion someone feels for their career in theatre could well be described as objectively irrational. Some would say this is true of a career in the arts at the best of times. However what has become very clear to me is how necessary, life-enhancing and subjectively rational following your passion is. 2020 has presented artists with challenges at every level. These are very real and need to be met head on, but if there’s a voice inside you that continues to shout for your art it might well sound irrational but it’s more than likely an important need asserting itself. There’s nothing shameful about being passionate and realistic about what drives you. It would be irrational and unrealistic to deny its existence.

So… who gets to say how non-essential you are?

We are being offered a narrative from society that says we are non-essential. From within our industries other narratives of demise are offered daily. Internally too, there are many saboteurs happy to add their voices to the choir. Psychologically narratives can be described as they ways in which we make meaning of our experiences. We see our ourselves as characters in a story, travelling through time. There’s a present and a past from which we imagine a future. This process is interpretive. The meanings we give to our experiences have a direct effect on our present actions and future course. Unsurprisingly, the narratives we choose to believe often become self fulfilling prophesies. 

The truth is we create our own stories and who better than artists to create stories that build and enhance rather then deplete and subjugate. You can find plenty of evidence to back up the story that artists are non-essential but if you want a career in the arts this might not be the most useful narrative to adopt. Why not run with a narrative where you are essential, where your work does matter. You might wake up one morning to tackle your work and find that society has adopted your narrative, or that it’s no longer of any relevance to you if they haven’t.

I’m running with a version of Micheal D. Higgin’s narrative for now. It works for me. It feels like it has a real future to it. One that inspires.

 “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves”

- Victor Frankyl

Here’s President Micheal D. Higgins exposing some American narratives and offering an alternative in his uniquely passionate and eloquent fashion.