Art is an ecosystem. Don’t kill it.

I sit at my kitchen table and think of people like you, all over the world.

Making Art.
Teaching Art.
Inspiring.
Transforming.
Believing.
Hoping.

All around the globe, Artists and Artist-Teachers doing what we do — trying to understand, explain and evolve this wounded world.

Just as, ten of thousands of years ago men and women sitting by fires in forests, caves and early types of housing did.

Some of us are working, some not. Some are in institutions, some freelance. Some of us still studying and training.

Just before I sat down to write to you, I fed the birds in my garden. They know my routine. First thing in the morning they wait and sing to me from the nearby trees. I pay with birdseed. I’ve scarcely turned back to the house before the small ones are at the bird feeder or swooping to the ground to pick up what I’ve scattered there.

As soon as I am far enough away, the Rooks (or are they Ravens? Or Crows?) swoop in from the trees a little way over the field. Corvids are smart. They wait and watch and swoop in only when it’s safe to do so.

When they come, they scare the small birds off. Suddenly there are huge hulking birds on the branches of the bush, or on the fence. Like death reminding us that life is short but full of beauty. Like a Bergman film.

The small birds scatter.

Big birds are skittish though. Perhaps because they can’t move as quickly as small birds, they take fright easily and early. The slightest noise or movement and they’re off. In the gap before they return, the small birds come back and eat as much and as quickly as they can.

So it goes — ebb and flow. Time for the small birds, time for the big birds. The big birds scatter seed on the ground for the small ones to forage. Sometimes a Sparrow-hawk flies overhead to remind everyone that there’s always someone bigger around looking for a chance to feed.

So it is for Artist-Teachers.

Freelancers are agile. When need presents itself, we meet it. We set up workshops. We open up new territories of inquiry. We innovate.

Then Institutions and Funded Companies come in to start operating in the space freelancers established. The freelancers survive on the crumbs scattered by the bigger players.

When big players take fright, they leave again and the field is clear for freelancers.

Sometimes a really big player comes and disrupts everything.

But here’s the thing. The Rooks — or Ravens — or Crows — , doing what they do, don’t stop small birds feeding. They just do what they do and the small birds find a way to fit round them.

My bird table is an interdependent, interconnected eco-system. The world of Teaching Performance can learn from it.

If you’re a small scale freelancer complaining that Institutions and Funded-companies are running workshops and stealing your living, (a complaint I’ve been known to make), then you’re wasting breath. Institutions and big organisations are really important. They serve a need. They do what they need to do.

If you’re part of an Institution offering ‘free’, ‘accessible’ workshops, remember that in doing so, you may be stopping freelancers from eating anything at all. That workshop you run, paid for by that salary you earn, is perhaps a week’s income lost to the sort of freelancer who first opened up the territory you now occupy. Your free offer is someone else’s career.

The model we work under is competitive.
It’s the wrong model.
We’re an ecosystem in which all must find how to survive without preventing others from doing the same.

Our Elders — those we know all the way back to those sitting telling tales in the dark of pre-history — taught us we survive by sharing, collaborating, and leaving space for each of us to eat.

Whatever your niche, community or intention, I hope your week finds moments of deep joy and connection.

Art Matters.

John

UPDATE

When I launched The Teach Performance Programme, I put it on app-based platform. It’s not working though, so I’ve moved it to a French-based set-up called ‘systeme’

Nothing’s changed except the location.

To celebrate — until April 4th — I am giving 15% off The Teach Performance Programme whether you buy all 6 modules or any of the modules individually. Go over to https://teachperformance.systeme.io/ttppcomplete for more information. To claim your discount, enter the code TTPP15 at checkout.

If you’d like to see a full outline of what Teach Performance does — Courses/Books/Mentorship — you can find it here: https://teachperformance.systeme.io/home

To join my email list — and receive my 16 Top Tips for Workshops Leaders, please sign-up here: https://teachperformance.systeme.io/toptips