Speaking

Phase 2 in the development of The Arbor Fellowship sends me out on the road!

Beginning in spring semester 2023, I’ll be visiting Christian colleges and universities to talk with visual and performing arts students about what to expect from, and how to prepare for, the beginning of their creative careers.

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Book me to visit your classes or student groups with one or more of these presentations:

5 Things To Do Today To Prepare for Your Arts Career Tomorrow – While living and working in New York City, I watched many fresh, young artists move to the city with nothing in their pockets (literally and metaphorically), watched them get ground down within a few years, and watched them give up and go back home. The artists who made it through those first difficult years usually were either independently wealthy (not something you can plan for…) or prepared. There are five things that young artists can do before beginning their careers that will help them beat the odds. What are they? Hire me and find out. 🙂

Pick Yourself: How Entrepreneurship Has Changed The Way Artists Work – In a famous blog post, digital marketing guru Seth Godin empowered creatives to stop waiting for “gatekeepers” to pick them and, instead, to pick themselves. “Once you…realize that no one is going to select you–that Prince Charming has chosen another house–then you can actually get to work.” It’s a “tough love” reality for artists, and a mindset shift, but the good news is that entrepreneurship is already in an artist’s DNA. The gatekeepers are still out there, but now they’re picking from the entrepreneurial artists who have done the work.

No More Starving – In Luann’s 3-Point Arts Business Paradigm, #1 is Art is not free. Neither is food, unless you happen to be living in your parents’ basement, which no one (least of all the parents) want to have as a long-term strategy. Today artists are making the numbers work through a “portfolio career” of “gigs” that provide balance and opportunity in a strategic approach to building a whole life that works. Basic skills in financial management and time management will help the artist juggle the multiple income streams that can provide creative fulfillment and financial security.

Where Your Treasure Is: The Value of the Arts and Your Career – Some theologians think Jesus was quoting a popular proverb of the day, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” when he applied it to investing in the eternal rather than in the temporal. In Greek, the sense is that the money and the passion are hand-in-hand rather than one following the other, making the saying a great illustration of the double meaning of the word “value.” Want to know what you really value? Check your bank statement. If artists want people to hand them money for their creative work, artists need to help those people see that their art is value-able (and artists need to believe it themselves).

Place Matters: How Location Affects Your Art and Art Affects Your Location – The old adage says, “There are only three important things in real estate: location, location, location.” The same could be said about the arts, depending on what you do. Major arts market, large-to-medium-sized cities, and small towns and rural areas all have opportunities and limitations in how artists work and live. But instead of only asking “What can this place do for me?,” artists can also ask “What can I do for this place?” Artists and the arts have powerful ways of reviving – bringing life to – places and communities, no matter what size.

There is some overlap in the topics, and I can design the specific content for the mix of topics and audiences you choose for your school. In longer sessions (60-90 minutes) I’d include more discussion and some exercises; shorter sessions (40-55 minutes) would be mostly lecture with Q&A.

These topics are also covered in my book, which I hope will be published by fall 2023. But I don’t want to wait for book to start visiting schools, so I’m offering a discounted rate to schools that schedule for spring semester 2023.

The discounted rate is $500/day and $850 for two days, plus travel and hotel when necessary. A “day” includes up to five hours of speaking, teaching, and meeting with students or faculty. If you help me book additional days at other schools within easy driving distance, I’ll reduce the daily rate and travel costs further. For locations within two hours’ drive of Waco, Texas (where I live), half-day rates are available.

I encourage inter-departmental cooperation and sessions. In the arts marketplace an oboist has more in common with a dancer than with a composer, and it’s important that young artists see themselves as part of a larger arts ecosystem that includes other disciplines besides their own.

If your program and students would benefit from a visit, but you don’t have enough budget available, as a non-profit/ministry I can help find donors to underwrite some of the costs.

I’d love to learn more about how your department is currently preparing your students for the marketplace and how I can come alongside you. Please email me at luann@arborfellowship.org to schedule a chat.

Blessings,

Luann