“Toil awhile…endure awhile…believe always…and never turn back.”
That was in my fortune cookie when I cracked it open last night at dinner. Cool, right? After attending the second installment of The Artist as an Entrepreneur Institute workshop at the Arts & Science Council in Charlotte yesterday, it appropriately summed up our approach to our music.
We initially signed up for the workshop at the fantastic suggestion of our friends, The Cloers, who had taken it a couple of years ago. While not strictly geared to the performing songwriter, its modules are relevant for all artists. We’ve got a wonderful and diverse group of talented musicians, painters, photographers, graphic designers, and theatre folks in our class, to name a few, and we’re so excited to be getting to know them and what passion drives them. We meet one Saturday a month (all day) for three months, and we can’t tell you what it means to your art to be surrounded with so many like-minded people, driven to succeed.
We cover a lot of material during each session, some of it new, but so much of it also reinforces what we’re already trying to do. Who couldn’t benefit from learning more about improving time management? We do pretty well at times but then others, not so much. We can and will do better. Another great concept: “Share. Don’t sell.” And something so simple that maybe not enough artists think about: “Part of your communications strategy must be to make sure you’re remembered.”
One striking remark of the day came from a classmate who was encouraging another: “Find your stage,” she said.
Love it! Profound in its simplicity, it’s the kind of succinct statement that encompasses what I think each of us is trying to accomplish for whatever art we’re hardwired to do.
So, where’s your stage?
Amissville: Wide Open Heart 