#SEACon2012 Live-Tweet Recap Part 1: Keynote with Beverly McIver

More than 350 participants from five states and students from 18 universities attended the third annual Southern Entrepreneurship in the Arts Conference 2012 this Saturday February 11th at University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s Elliot Student Center, hosted by the Entrepreneurship Center at UNCG.

I had the pleasure of live-tweeting the conference. I engaged in dialogue with both attendees and non-attendees from Australia and across the U.S. through 300+ tweets logged to the #SEACon2012 conversation! Thanks to Bryan Toney, Diane H.B. Welsch, Jan Szelkowski and Marshall Rollings of the Entrepreneurship Center for working with me! 

See also Recap Part 2 and Recap Part 3. Did you attend the conference? What did you think? Comment below!

 

 

Beverly said that as a young person growing up in the projects in Greensboro,  she didn’t feel worthy of winning. Now she is an award-winning artist recently featured in the New York Times.

Beverly said the first step to achieving your dreams is to know yourself. The better you know yourself, the better equipped you are to love yourself. If you love yourself, you can fully inhabit your dreams and ambitions. In addition, Beverly offered a few more tips –

 On time-management:

It’s important to time-track, Beverly said. We spend a lot of time doing nothing — and that is OK. But we must be aware. Beverly, for instance, does nothing all day on Mondays. She stays in bed all day. Tuesdays, she pays her bills. Beverly schedules studio time from 8pm to 2am and treats it like office hours. It’s a job. “I show up on time,” Beverly said.

On funding and grants:

Do you feel worthy of applying for a grant? You should, Beverly said. Apply for a local grant before you apply for a national grant. ”North Carolina is a good state in which we support the arts,” Beverly said.

Often, you must be nominated to receive national grants, Beverly said. You’ve got to know your community. Your fellow artists and colleagues–particularly those who’ve already won the awards–are often the ones who nominate you for such awards.

On goal setting and achieving your dreams:

“We need some goals,” Beverly advised. Being an artist is like running a business. You need to have a plan, she said.

Some of Beverly’s goals? To live near her best friends, who will remind her that she is worthy. To be debt free (“Oh, LORD”). For students to say about her later, “She was generous.” To own a Porsche hybrid. To have someone else scoop her cat’s litter box. To be featured on the cover of Art in America.

Keep your goals to yourself initially, Beverly said. Many people will tell you, “you shouldn’t do this.”

Beverly shared some final words for us: “You are worthy.” Develop a mantra and tell yourself this everyday, she said.

“This is a journey, and it’s not about rushing to the end of it.” Indeed, Beverly is an accomplished artist with big dreams who seems happy creating right now — ever on her way to achieving the next goal: never again having to scoop her cat’s litter box.

#SEACon2012 Live-Tweet Recap Part 2: Jim Dodson

More than 350 participants from five states and students from 18 universities attended the third annual Southern Entrepreneurship in the Arts Conference 2012 this Saturday February 11th at University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s Elliot Student Center, hosted by the Entrepreneurship Center at UNCG.

I had the pleasure of live-tweeting the conference. I engaged in dialogue on Twitter with both attendees and non-attendees from Australia and across the U.S. through 300+ tweets logged to the #SEACon2012 conversation! 

See also Recap Part 1 and Recap Part 3.

 

  – Plenary with Jim Dodson

Lunch speaker Jim Dodson began his travels in darkness. “All creativity begins in darkness,” he reminded us with Julia Cameron’s words. Having traveled through darkness, Jim is now an award-winning author, golf journalist and magazine editor.

Jim’s winding story begins in Greensboro and leads to early dreams of becoming the next Hemingway, writing for the News and Record and later Yankee Magazine, golfing adventures in Scotland, publishing several best-selling books, accidentally insulting famous golfers’ wives and, most recently, establishing two successful arts and culture niche magazines in North Carolina.

Jim had this to say: discover your unshakable dream, work to make an authentic contribution to your craft and doors will open. If you take after Jim, you’ll have a blast along the way.

A crowd favorite, Jim offered a wealth of tweet-ready pearls to #SEACon2012 attendees:

Develop a spiritual practice to root your creative process.

On monetizing your craft:

Industries change and new opportunities emerge. Innovate and keep moving. Take for example entrepreneur clubs that raise capital for local start-ups. The publishing industry is in upheaval too. Jim predicts independent bookstores will soon make a come back!

Advice along the way:

Jim is at a turning point himself. He is taking his own advice to pursue his passion authentically and courageously. No longer interested in sports writing, he plans to take the plunge into writing about his old love: Southern gospel and folk music –

Jim moves forward through the darkness, alongside all artist-entrepreneurs, with courage and creativity. We trust that light will continue to emerge. Hear hear!

 

#SEACon2012 Live-Tweet Recap Part 3: Breakout Sessions

More than 350 participants from five states and students from 18 universities attended the third annual Southern Entrepreneurship in the Arts Conference 2012 this Saturday February 11th at University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s Elliot Student Center, hosted by the Entrepreneurship Center at UNCG.

I had the pleasure of live-tweeting the conference. I engaged in dialogue on Twitter with both attendees and non-attendees from Australia and across the U.S. through 300+ tweets logged to the #SEACon2012 conversation!

See also Recap Part 1 and Recap Part 2.

 

 – Plenary with Jim Gallucci and Pat Gray

Sculptor Jim Gallucci and BioMusic Specialist Pat Gray discussed the value and practice of collaboration: 

Pat and Jim both agreed that with collaborative endeavors, the project is more important than any one person.

The most important quality in collaboration, Pat said, is the ability to weave participants in a way in which they can “own” the project.

Pat ended by challenging us to join the collaborative movement:

 

George Scheer, Co-Founder of Elsewhere Artists Collaborative, wants to engage the greater community and people on the fringe–those unsure even if they want to go to “a living art museum”–in public art-making. Tune in to the conversation to learn more about some of Elsewhere’s community art projects:

George’s work has also played an important role in revitalizing downtown Greensboro. Now, 300-400 people visit Elsewhere on a typical First Friday night.

George is also involved in reclaiming a fenced-in former Soviet-era amusement park in Berlin now called Kulturpark.

Elsewherians started a community garden, a store-front window theater and have plans to open a library this year to further engage the public.

 

– with Jimmy Hunt of Yellow Dog Entertainment, Ryan Barringer of Technic Productions, Marshall Rollings, Rasheem Pugh and  Moderator Joe Erba

Some highlights from young artist-entrepreneur panel discussion:

Though only one of the four entrepreneurs began a formal business plan, all began with passion, drive and helpful mentors.

Each entrepreneur emphasized the importance of surrounding oneself with a team of people who understand the vision and take it seriously.

Jimmy advised entrepreneurs to utilize the strategic planning tool, SWOT, and to gather as much data as possible before launching.

Entrepreneur Marshall Rollings emphasized the importance of time management and staying on top of your schedule, as did Beverly McIver in the keynote. He also suggested performance artists check out Yap Tracker for resources and audition notifications.

 

 

 

Margaret Collins, Executive Director of Center for Creative Economy (CCE), “North Carolina’s Network for Innovation,” spoke about momentum around the creative economy in the NC Triad area:

More than 30,000 people in the Triad area are employed in the creative economy, which includes industries such as game and software design, entertainment and arts. The creative economy is the ninth largest sector in this area.

Tools: CCE is developing the Idea Index (launching late 2012), an initiative to build creative economy infrastructure. The Idea Index is an online platform offering services to creatives such as portfolio-sharing, forum, RFP and job listings.

Tools: New CCE website (launching later this week!) will include helpful resources and links including a job preparation/search tool for creative economy subsectors.

Tools: Industry partner, EverWondr, offers a comprehensive web listing of arts and culture events taking place in cities throughout the Triad. See: Explore Greensboro

Triad area CCE programs: Triad Design Leadershop (design thinking training for local leaders), Creatini events (networking and idea sharing), Innovation Summit workshops and Triad Creative Showcase tours

CCE works with local companies such as Hanes and RJ Reynolds to help cultivate corporate innovation.

 

 

Check out the #SEACon2012 hashtag archive for more conversation about these presentations.

Session 1: Running a Creative Business: How to Avoid Hitting the Panic Button with Jo Solér – Your Novel: From Yellow Pad to Published Book with Michael Parker, Kathy Pories, Megan Fishmann and Moderator Terry Kennedy – 400 Seconds: 4 Visual Artists Share Their Success Stories with Jim Paulsen, Dave Thomas, Leigh Maddox, Jim Barnhill and Coordinator Mario Gallucci

Session 2: Building a Professional Practice with Gwen Rukenbrod - Making a Living as an Actor through a Non-Profit with Charlie & Ruth Jones - Making Music for a Lifetime with Woody Faulkner

Session 3: Getting Known: Creating Promotion and Awareness for the Visual Artist with Xandra Eden – It’s My Pitch Party with Darell Hunt – Marketing, Financing and Legal Advice for Creative Business with Adam Tarleton, Sue Sassman, Ryan Whitehurst and Moderator Bryan Toney

Tuning into Arts + Entrepreneurship: #SEACon2012

Let’s talk about building sustainable income and careers as creatives and arts-entrepreneurs! Let’s talk with highly gifted artists and entrepreneurs about their vision and some of the “a-ha” moments in the careers! Let’s talk about the leaders, networks and initiatives that comprise our region’s creative economy!

Are you registered for Southern Entrepreneurship in the Arts Conference, this Saturday February 11 at University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s Elliot Student Center?

If not, I suggest you register now! And if you can’t come, I have good news for you: I’ll be live-tweeting the entire conference (including the Iron Pour Friday with Sculptor Jim Gallucci).

 

Follow our hashtag,

 

• #SEACon2012 

Saturday 9am – 6pm to catch snippets, quotes, links and resources from the conference. Use the hashtag to chime in with your comments too! Then, check back here Monday the 13th for a series of posts about the conference sessions.

So, what’s on Saturday?

Well,

Beverly McIver, Greensboro-born award winning artist featured in the new documentary, Raising Renee — on being “Worthy of Winning” (featured in the NY Times yesterday)

and

Jim Dodson, critically-acclaimed author, golf journalist and Editor of award-winning PineStraw Arts & Culture Magazine  – on “The Art and Soul of Creating a Good Magazine”

among other sessions.

See the conference schedule and tune in on Twitter #SEACon2012 this Saturday 9am-6pm!

 

NCSU Center Stage Mixes it Up With Prophets of Funk for 40th Anniversary

Clad in platform shoes, a suede-fringe jacket and three-inch afro, the performer asks the 500+ audience in NCSU’s Stewart Theater to raise each hand in a peace sign as Sly & the Family Stone’s “Higher” plays.

Next, the audience is on its feet, peace signs floating in the air, singing in response to the performer’s prompt: “hiiii-gher — HIIII-GHER.” It’s all very fitting and un-cheesy at the end of an hour-long tribute to funk which lightly (dare I say playfully?) tangled the strife of the civil rights movement with colorful moments that suggest, yes, we can transcend our differences.

The performers invite audience members on stage to dance. After thirty seconds of chaos, a gush of women and men in dresses, jeans and skirts flood the stage. More audience members are dancing on the stage than are sitting in the audience, it appears.

Minutes later, David Dorfman (Artistic Director) and the Prophets of Funk company have joined the audience in the adjoining ballroom for after-party dancing to DJ Ras J‘s mixing, mock tails and eats.

Outside the dark theater, audience members get a close look at one another. People of all ages and races again join on the dance floor — retired and middle-aged patrons, students, funk-aficionados, faculty and staff members with their significant others — to celebrate the performance they just witnessed. They have also gathered to celebrate NCSU Center Stage‘s 40 years of presenting exceptional performance art experiences such as this.

As it turns out, David Dorfman Dance (DDD) and the Prophets of Funk company is in Raleigh for the final stop of a tour around the Southeast. The performance in Raleigh Saturday, February 4th, presented by Center Stage, is also the culmination of a community residency in Raleigh. Among other projects, the residency included a free live preview at Artspace for Downtown Raleigh’s ever-popular First Friday Gallery Walk.

With an interest in community-based projects and engaging audiences in challenging but hopeful dialogue about social change, DDD aims to encourage audiences that “in the face of the funk of life there is hope.”

Encore!

Read more about NCSU Center Stage, David Dorfman Dance and Prophets of Funk.

The Intersection of Social Media and Fundraising

Sure, your nonprofit organization has 5,489 “Likes” on Facebook and 1,710 followers on Twitter. Do these supporters give financially? How can you better engage them in giving?

I was fortunate to sit down with the NC Triangle Project LIFT community yesterday to hear a presentation by fabulous social media and marketing consultant Dawn Crawford of BC DC Ideas about this confounding topic. I’m grateful to Dawn for sharing her expertise with us for the #npintersect workshop.

The gist of the conversation was that most nonprofit organizations are still experimenting with social media and should continue to do so, closely analyzing the data and responses in order to build a customized strategy. No one-size-fits-all strategy exists, as various nonprofit supporter groups interact differently with social media, just as no one-size-fits-all development plan exists.

Dawn shared an instance in which a client built an engaged supporter base on Facebook, enabling the client to post multiple fundraising appeals a week to their Facebook page, a practice she doesn’t usually recommend.

Below, I’ve captured some of Dawn’s best practices:

Tools and Tips

Strategy through data analysis: Familiarize yourself with Hootsuite Pro ($5 per month) and Google Analytics (free) to track and analyze your data — number of click-thrus, donations resulted, loss of “likes”, etc.– in order to begin identifying where your social media “sweet spots” are and how your supporter base responds to various appeals and applications.

[Extra juicy tip:] Dawn strongly suggests utilizing peer-to-peer fundraising platform CauseVox — engage your supporters to ask their networks for donations on your behalf!

Converse; provide value: Don’t be afraid to ask for money from your supporter base via social media once you have dedicated time and resources to providing valuable information and conversation about a cause you both believe in.

Engage often: Find ways to further engage your most active users. Publicly acknowledge them, send them updates or exclusive information before it is released, or simply ask for a retweet or a repost. Consider transitioning to a face-to-face connection: invite them to coffee or a brown bag lunch to talk about their interests and involvement.

[Extra juicy tip:] Ask supporters and bloggers to write a blog post about your cause or next event to build momentum and drive visits to your site.

Diversify: Consider looking beyond Facebook and Twitter. Dawn shared that some organizations have seen a 20% increase in giving upon supplementing the existing appeal with video media. Youtube may be the next frontier in online fundraising. Additional applications to check out: Foursquare, blogging, Philanthroper.

Build a Campaign

Set your plan: Use your data analysis to build a time-limited (30 days maximum) campaign plan utilizing your social media avenues that is integrated with your existing communications. Start small and replicate successful aspects of your campaign.

General content: Consider the frequency of your posts. Dawn shared that a general practice is posting several Twitter updates per day and posting one Facebook update per day, though again, this varies. Use a cohesive creative theme to integrate various media into your content. For Facebook: personal, less-formal, visual-oriented material (photos, videos); for Twitter: information-sharing content about your cause.

Fundraising content: Include a clear call to action. Consider the ratio of fundraising appeals to other content posted on your social media . One best practice is a 20-to-1 ratio of regular content to fundraising content. Use your “laundry list” of donation returns to show impact (i.e. a Facebook post that reads: $20 buys three meals for homeless folks in our city. Donate here). Also, don’t ask for $500 on Facebook! Social media donation amounts tend be be in the range of $5 to $50.

[Extra juicy tip:] During the course of your social media fundraising campaign, you will see a spike at the beginning, a lull in the middle and another spike toward the end. Consider ways to generate interest and response toward the middle. Dawn shared an example of offering a contest during the mid-campaign lull in which every supporter who retweets or re-posts a portion of the appeal wins a free T-shirt.

Resources

See Dawn’s collection of case studies and follow the BC DC Ideas blog for tips. If you’re lucky, catch another of Dawn’s presentations!

See Beth Kanter’s social media best practices for nonprofits and case studies

Art and Social Change: The InterPlay Way

What does art matter when people on other continents–and in my hometown–are starving? I stumbled my way around, fumbled my way through, fidgeted and sputtered about this question for some time.

Now I’ve come to believe this is a false question. California will do that to you, I guess.

I had the very fortunate opportunity recently to participate in the NextGen Art and Social Change Residency with InterPlay, a collection of creative people all around the world who dance, tell stories and sing to reach a new level of understanding and communion with ourselves and others.

I gathered with a group of next generation (“now generation” as Rosetta Thurman prefers) artists and activists to dance, wander, tell stories and share at InterPlayce in Oakland. By dance, I do mean generally throw myself around breathlessly in a more flustered way, if you can believe it, than the boundless dancing to Thriller blaring on Youtube done in the privacy of my home.

Of many, many beautiful moments of sharing, connection and insight during the residency, one of my favorite things about this time was that the relation between art and social chance was never directly adressed. It was merely experienced.

Yes, the notes scrawled in my notebook address the relation between art and social change. In passing, we discussed Johanna Macy’s three manners of social change: holding action, shifting consciousness and creating new structures. Art does not prevent starvation, but art is an incredibly powerful consciousness-shifting process by which people can access deeper wells of compassion and authority to address social change concerns. I believe that art is a process, an interaction, rather than a static thing.

InterPlay Co-founder Phil Porter so beautifully defines art as an exchange of grace (read more in my post here). In dancing, in telling our stories, in singing our songs, we are making an offering. Though not an offering of food or physical nourishment, it is an offering of grace and sharing to others.

Within the InterPlay community, we invoke ease, joy, laughter; we share pain and love, we hold separation and collision, we dance through it with others who are dancing through it.

Take your mind out every now and then and dance on it.

– Mark Twain

In sharing our story, we participate in the exchange of grace — and therefore we also cultivate it within ourselves. Claiming, crafting and sharing our story is a profoundly transformative process.

This is radical in a world in which grace and the whispers of the soul are considered inconsequential, where we are asked to sacrifice every waking moment to getting ahead. We need to overwork so that our job is secure, then we need the raise so we can get the car so we can get the spouse so we can get the house so we can get the stocks so we can build the 401K.

How enlivening to take a deep breath, to play and be silly, to show up and dance our story with others.

Two months after this enlivening experience at the Art and Social Change Residency, I have a Melanie Chopko print hanging in my living room, my left big toenail remains painted partially green, flecked with emerald sparkles, I hold incredibly dear the days I spent with these gifted and generous friends from all over the world, who danced with me as I danced through this question of art and social change, as I danced and played and fumbled with questions and sought my voice.

As Alison Luterman, an InterPlayer and Poet I was fortunate enough to meet in Oakland, wrote in her poem, “Little True Poem,” in See How We Almost Fly,

we inherit our stories,

but choose how to tell them.

- Alison Luterman

In choosing to tell our stories and how to tell them, we might well be changing our own lives, the lives of others, and therefore, changing the world.

I’m happy to say that InterPlay Co-founder Phil Porter is in Raleigh this week for Million Connections Week-Raleigh! Check out the exciting list of opportunities for you to experience InterPlay for yourself and stay tuned for round two at the conclusion of Million Connections Week.

This post  is cross-posted at the InterPlay Art and Social Change blog.

Expat: A “Frank & Nonlinear” Discussion Hosted by Durham’s Design Kompany

Durham’s Design Kompany, a cutting-edge brand design firm, is hosting expat, the second roundtable discussion in a continuing (I hope!) series this Thursday June 23rd from 7pm to 9pm.

Organizer Dipika wants to discuss topics such as adventuring to new places and coming home, and if it’s anything like the first roundtable Design Komany held, it looks like it will be a great conversation!

I’m delighted to report Dipika invited me to participate in the roundtable and I’m even more excited to see Stuart Albert and Dr. John Florin of the UNC Geography Department will be participating as well. This should be a varied, inter-generational–and don’t forget frank and nonlinear–conversation!

Design Kompany published a guest blog post written from Copenhangen by Rolf Eric Anithason, a Swede Dipika met in Ireland, which stimulates thought on the topic. I came away from reading Rolf’s post pondering to what extent the expatriate is bound by or empowered by her home and past versus her destination and future. Fun!

You’ll be interested to learn more about Design Kompany–a two-person team made up of Dipika Kohli and Akira Morita, plus, on certain days, Kush, their toddler-aged son. I am particulary excited to get to know these creative, forward-thinking community builders and entrepreneurs at this event and in the future! See you tomorrow!

 

Contemporary Art Engages the Community at the Newly-Opened Contemporary Art Museum in Raleigh

I pushed open the inverted refrigerator door tucked into a crevice of the 20-foot high swooning inflatable white plastic-tentacled sculpture-creature and stepped into a whimsical bubble of exploration. Sound  ridiculous and a bit mind-blowing? It was! Welcome to the inaugural exhibition at the newly-opened Contemporary Museum of Art (CAM) in downtown Raleigh.

Entering artist Dan Steinhilber’s fascinating white industrial plastic creature through a refrigerator door creates the illusion of stepping through C.S. Lewis’ magical wardrobe into a whimsical Walmart stockroom–an explosion of colored plastic bag shreds and industrial plastic sheeting. See an image of the sculpture here.

There is a lot to like–other than the first exhibitions–about CAM. A “museum in progress,”  CAM was born of a partnership between the NCSU College of Design and Contemporary Art Foundation. Located in the Warehouse district, the building is a charming reused space: a former produce warehouse with impressive architectural features.

CAM has already hosted a number of lectures and community events–and I mean interesting, lively events rather than the stuffy, cloistered museum kind. The staff incorporated participatory art activities for CAM’s inaugural First Friday reception during which attendees (more than 900, according to the CAM website) created their own versions of Steinhilber’s winged mobile-like paper wire hanger sculptures, currently hanging in the Museum alongside the infamous sculpture-creature.

If that isn’t enough to pique your interest, then check this out: CAM’s docent team is comprised of seventh graders! The ambitious middle schoolers attend a series of after-school interactive training sessions. In fact, several staff members and gallery assistants told me the docents have more insights into contemporary art than they have. Clearly, CAM aims to inject the conversation about contemporary art (often authoritarian-tinged or yawn-inducing lectures) with new thinking.

The CAM website reflects this thinking. The home page reads: “The world is always changing. Shouldn’t the museum experience be always changing too?” CAM helps to demystify the making of contemporary art by sharing a rare behind-the-scenes look at the installation–be sure to check out the time-lapsed video of installation of the current exhibition in the gallery.

On any given afternoon, chatty CAM gallery assistants are peppered throughout the not-too-large space, waiting enthusiastically to engage museum goers. (Thank you, Lorie, for an excellent discussion about museum experience, CAM background and contemporary arts culture in the Triangle!) I wasn’t surprised–though still delighted–to find that CAM’s three part mission encompasses the objective to generate a sense of community.

I was impressed by one particular detail which demonstrates CAM’s interest in engaging the community in the contemporary art experience: interactive prompts embedded throughout the exhibition leaflets that provoke new insights and thinking among Museum goers. One prompt reads: “Steinhilber chooses not to title his works so he does not impress his ideas upon the viewer. If you were to title his work, what would you call each?”

The innagural exhibitions–Steinhilber’s Hold On, Loosely and Naoko Ito’s Urban Nature–both respond to the history of the angular, lofty building with industrial materials and themes. Steinhilber’s neutral, playful presentation of industrial materials often associated with mass production and mass consumption is light, fresh and unique. Ito’s installations are a thoughtful, though less neutral look at the connection or disconnection between nature and development.

So, has CAM succeeded in creating a museum in progress? From what I’ve seen so far, I’d say yes. I’m impressed by CAM’s initial surge of innovative programming and creative tactics to engage Museum goers and the larger community. I anticipate CAM’s continued evolution in the coming months and years.

Check out a podcast featuring perspectives on the building of CAM and the inaugural exhibitions.

Have you been to visit CAM yet? What did you think? Introduce yourself below, subscribe to my RSS feed and say Hi on Twitter.

Economics of Grace: Thoughts for Chronically Underpaid Do-Gooders and Artists

Some call my habit of attracting underpaid or unpaid positions and commitments masochism. I apparently can’t help but find myself working hours into the night, having attached myself to the latest compelling, stimulating cause.

I’ve written a lot on this blog about the quest to live an authentic, meaningful life, in part by finding work that is relevant and life-giving. This is no easy task, of course: to manage doing something good that you love while putting food on the table. Particularly those in arts and non profit work must often creatively juggle a medley of  professional ventures to pay the rent and do meaningful work.

I recently read an excellent essay which speaks beautifully to the conflicting tensions and impulses of financial stability and “do-gooding” entitled Economics of Grace: Art, Money and Salvation, written by Phil Porter, co-founder of InterPlay. Though he uses spiritual and art terminology, he explores the circumstance of chronically underpaid do-gooders, artists and entrepreneurs everywhere. I’d love to share a few of Phil’s points:

To be an artist is a process of discovering, developing and giving one’s particular personal gift.  -Phil Porter

In seeking to do positive work that stems from our greatest passions and most potent strengths, we are all artists. This is a privilege. Also, some might say, it is financially irresponsible. It is a rugged path less traveled, it can be rewarding and even stable with some work. A little encouragement is always nice, too!

As artists, (as we understand it in it’s broadest sense), we give and receive gifts, we receive and dispense grace.    -Phil Porter

Phil shares that do-gooders, artists and entrepreneurs sharing their gifts are part of a grace economy, which operates differently than traditional market economy. Of course, we do have to pay many of our bills within the market economy. However, if you find yourself in a financial pinch, think creatively about how you fit into the grace economy — and about alternative economics in general. Get friendly with Craigslist for any large purchases you need to make. Check out your local freecycling groups. Do you have items or skills you can barter, lend, trade? More and more people–probably some in your network–are interested in collaborative consumption movement. Give it a shot and perhaps you can creatively lighten your load!

Also, check out Phil’s nine points and exercises for balancing market economics-induced money worries with the richness of grace economics toward the end of the article.

Stay in touch! How do you navigate the tensions between do-gooding and financial need? Introduce yourself below, subscribe to my RSS feed and say Hi on Twitter.