Okay, party people, time to get this newsletter started! I’m antsy to get to work on season 2—it’s gonna happen!—but while I get through the next couple of busy months before I have time to start recording interviews again, I wanted to spend some time building out this newsletter. I always imagined I’d write more about the sort of bibliography I’ve compiled over the years of writing and such on this topic of artists and their paid gigs. To start, a little more background information about the podcast (you can read more about the nuts & bolts of creating a podcast from scratch here and a bit more about the substance of the podcast here, both of which originally appeared on my personal blog):
If you don’t already know, Artists in Offices is a podcast that explores, through interviews with working artists, the idea that the work you do for pay supports the work you do for love...or does it? Created, produced, edited, and hosted by yours truly, each episode of the podcast explores the perspective of an individual artist juggling their creative practice with their day job. Most of the artists in season one I knew from grad school or my previous day job.
The title of the podcast is inspired by Judith Adler’s book of the same name, originally published in 1979. The podcast, like the book, aims to explore the nature of work experience in, or at least in support of, the arts. The idea that “the work you do for pay supports the work you do for love, and you should be grateful for both,” comes from a 2014 Forbes article by J. Maureen Henderson titled Your Unfulfilling Day Job Might Be The Best Thing That Has Ever Happened To You. Basically, the argument is that financial stability can provide for creative freedom. In a very practical sense, a steady paycheck might mean you can rent a studio and buy art supplies. Additionally, constraints can yield some unexpected benefits. But if you work full-time, or cobble together multiple part-time gigs, and you have any number of other obligations, how do you carve out enough time to maintain your creative practice?
Over the course of ten interviews, plus a couple of bonus episodes, I spoke with artists with day jobs in fields both related to and completely separate from their creative practices. The artists interviewed responded to questions such as, “how do you describe yourself when people ask what do you do?” and addressed the importance of showing up, making the work, and connecting with and contributing to their creative communities both online and in real life. At the end of every interview, each artist considered whether or not what they’re doing now is sustainable: “Would you quit your day job if you could?”
Season one launched on May 1, 2019. Artists interviewed included Elizabeth Amento, Laura Torres, Lisa Jonas Taylor, Helena Hsieh, Janine Biunno, Christopher Thomas Ford, Gabriel Martinez, Em Meine, Nicole Kita, and Mike Rothfeld. Artists in Offices is produced and edited by Rebecca Bird Grigsby, with music provided by Mr. Neat Beats. Learn more at artistsinoffices.com. Follow along on Instagram and Twitter.
And stay tuned for more related thoughts right here. Tuesday seems like a good day for updates so I’m aim for that…