EASTHAMPTON — Whether you’re booking music shows or planning theatrical performances it is easy for people building careers in the performing arts to feel “burnout.” But when creative minds come together, there are sustainable ways to keep the wheels turning.
Many local residents dub western Massachusetts as a growing center for the arts with a wide range of creative minds gravitating towards the area for the variety of performance venues and artistic opportunities.
Four of those creative minds served on a panel last week at CitySpace in Easthampton’s Old Town Hall, which is being transformed into its own venue, to discuss ways to build sustainability for artistic careers in a first of its kind event called “Next Stage.”
Each panelist is involved in a different organization or company in the performing arts. Whether they are a part of a board of directors, run their company themselves or with others, each panelist discussed avenues to success in western Massachusetts.
“Burnout is real in this industry,” said panelist Edo Mor, who runs a membership-based concert booking organization called Secret Planet. “I work with a lot of presenters around the country and we hold each other through those moments. We each can experience that at a particular time and be there for each other, remind each other why we’re doing what we do.”
Mor, of Williamsburg, runs Secret Planet on his own and collaborates with artists around the world. Returning to a metaphor that several panelists touched on, Mor talked about the way that building an artistic network is a lot like farming, having to put work in over time for the product to grow.
“You constantly have to put the work in, it doesn’t do it itself but it grows roots,” Mor said. “It’s under the ground and it grows through community and the development of trust with your community, people who come to your events.”
Mor sat alongside Ezekial Baskin, the president for the board of directors for Silverthorne Theater Company and Priscilla Maria Page, the vice president of Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares. The fourth panelist was Olana Flynn who is the codirector of the performing arts and dancing company, LOCULUS, and also works for Assets4Artists.
“Particularly for theater, Baskin said people often gravitate to the city.
“I am interested in what if we look towards here, where we are and what can we make here that is exciting for us,” Baskin said.
Each panelist said their network in the Pioneer Valley makes it easier to sell out shows in the area. Each have different ways to do that, whether its through connecting with other performers, using group messaging boards or having programs that offer artists opportunities to perform.
Working for nonprofit organizations, Page and Baskin said everyone in their organizations pitch in to create shows, usually on a volunteer basis, whether that’s someone on stage like a performer or behind the scenes running a ticket booth at a show — having different people, with different skills who all want to contribute.
“It’s really like this web of folks who want to be involved. It’s not a requirement to volunteer, but when folks make it known to us and when we put out the call it’s very easy for us to find folks to step in and to support us,” Page said.
“We have a volunteer board and that sort of administrative and leadership engine of the company is volunteers, and then that frees up money to pay artists who are working on our shows,” Baskin said.
Rather than having a board of directors, Flynn said she runs LOCULUS with one friend which gives them more control and creative freedom for their productions.
“Not having a board means we make all our own rules,” Flynn said. “We bring lots of people in to co-curate things with us but it is an extension of our work as makers and choreographers.”
Having previously toured solo, and organize shows across the country, Flynn said it is more difficult to expand the “web” of connections so to say, beyond the Pioneer Valley but it is achievable. Sometimes that may require cold-calling venues to make a show happen.
“We co-direct, the two of us, and we really treat it as our work as independent artists,” Flynn added.
Mor said as a concert and underground music organizer, he too hosts shows around the country. That allows him to bring in artists from as close as Delaware to other continents.
While each panelist has a strong network in western Massachusetts allowing them to put on performances, they also stressed it is important to not over-extend resources.
“If we stretch too thin it’s not good for us personally, it’s not good for the organization,” Page said.
Page said that managing resources comes back to planning shows months in advance and also being able to work with artists to find the right time for them to perform. “Finding the gracious way to say no or not this season is important.”
Feeling the drive to always continue creating, the panelists said there is always a push to continue to produce content and expand. But at the end of the day, Flynn said it is more about creating the types of opportunities they want to for artists.
“We treat it as our work, as independent artists and what that means is that there’s a real understanding that it might not be forever, and that’s OK,” Flynn said about her company. “In recognizing that, it’s really liberating and it creates a lot of space for it to feel like it could never end in a beautiful way.”
