Stop Giving It Away for Free!

Collective Arts Think Tank (CATT) gets catty again with a rousing "Follow Up Letter to the field: small steps and current issues".

Some of my favorite blurbs are:

"Artists are stuck at the bottom of this food chain."

".. stop giving it away for free. THE ARTISTS need to recognize their own power, and use it. Control the supply; create demand; stop investing time, energy and money in pursuing empty opportunities. Art is a profession; and artists who do not get paid are not professionals. Period."

The letter includes steps we've each taken in our organizations and in our personal lives to change our relationship to money and power. It certainly isn't easy but if we really want the arts economy to be different, we gotta make it happen.

What steps are you taking to change your own economy and relationship to money?

Full disclosure: I am proud to be a part of this gaggle of artists, admins and presenters which includes:

Vallejo Gantner, Artistic Director, Performance Space 122
Aaron Landsman, Artist, Thinaar
Sheila Lewandowski, Artist & Executive Director, The Chocolate Factory
Carla Peterson, Artistic Director, Dance Theater Workshop
Brian Rogers, Artist & Artistic Director, The Chocolate Factory
Morgan von Prelle Pecelli PhD, Anthropologist, The Lost Notebook