CARE Commences
CARE is underway! The initial cohort of the Consortium of Arts Related Entrepreneurs (CARE) has been coming together for just over a month now, and I’m so impressed with and inspired by this group of people.
We’ve got folks who’ve been working independently for years, folks—like me—who’ve made the shift to independent work in the last few years, and some who are working on growing their side hustle into more of a main hustle.
We’ve got seasoned career leaders and emerging professionals who are making names for themselves in their fields.
We’ve got people joining from four time zones across two continents in four countries.
There are solopreneurs and employers; folks changing fields and others establising themselves in their expertise; coaches and educators and designers and artists and exhibit makers and evaluators and more… oh my!
This group is developing into just what I’d hoped to foster when I set out to make this community I wanted to see in the world. As you may or may not know, I love wordsmithing things, and as Patron Saint of Gathering, Priya Parker, says
“To name a gathering affects the way people perceive it… Names help [people] decide whether and how they fit into the world you’re creating.”
Care is certainly a value that informs and infuses my work, and it’s definitely part of the world I want to create. That said, I wasn’t going to make that acronym the name of this group if it was too much of a forced fit. When I came up with the Consortium of Arts Related Entrepreneurs, I had the warm zip-tingle in my chest and shoulders that is my best indicator of a Whole Body Yes. So here’s what those words mean to me.
CONSORTIUM
An association or a combination, as of businesses, financial institutions, or investors, for the purpose of engaging in a joint venture. / A cooperative arrangement among groups or institutions.
The C could stand for many things, but a consortium is pretty much all of them. It’s a gathering, a community, a collective endeavor that joins people together to cooperate. There are common goals, and they’re business related goals, but these are not necessarily people who are directly in business together. The consortium serves shared goals that all members carry as they each pursue their own unique purpose, helping each other out along the way.
ARTS
Imaginative, creative, and nonscientific branches of knowledge. / A group of activities done by people with skill and imagination
I’m a deeply curious human, and I love learning from new pockets of knowledge. I always want to be surrounded by people who bring their skill and imagination to creative pursuits. While the initial idea that grew into CARE came out of conversations about the museum field, I wanted to open the circle wider. I believe in the value of interdisciplinary exchange, and the museum sector is mired in its own struggles (hence my going independent in the first place), so I didn’t want to keep the group too myopic. Folks who’ve been making their living with creative skills have lots to teach us, and I love how many versions of creativity have already shown up in the CARE conversations.
RELATED
Standing in some affiliation or connection. / Similar or associated in quality or character.
See all that above about interdisciplinarity? I mean it. I’m a nerd for many things, and now that I don’t have to shave off those parts of my skill set and knowledge base to fit into one narrow job description, I want to make spaces that have room for my pirate self and my dancer self and my reader self and all the varied selves that might draw people into a group like CARE. I had several people reach out to me before joining, wondering if this place was the right fit for them. I’m so SO glad they did decide to join, and the conversations we’ve had have been richer for having folks who may not specifically identify as being “art workers”. We’re affiliated and connected by lots of different threads, not just the ones on our business cards.
ENTREPRENEURS
People who organize, operate, and assume the risk for a business venture. / People who organize risky activity of any kind and act substantially in the manner of a business entrepreneur.
[inserting a little rec for those interested in further discussion of this word that another wonderful group facilitator, Anne Ditmeyer, discusses it in this episode of the Navigating the French podcast]
There’s a reason I use the word adventurer to describe myself. My appetite for risk and my ability to organize and make it happen are two things that have always served me well. Now, I’m relying on them more heavily to earn a living. Yes, I miss the community of colleagues I used to share work time with, but now my work looks different, and I want to be in community with others who are organizing their own risks like I am. Just because we’re all able to launch into risky operations doesn’t mean we have to do it alone.
All of these things are what CARE has been since its inception. I look forward to all of our sessions, whether they’re ones I’m facilitating or the low-stakes, warmly-appreciated accountability moments of co-working time. Each of the facilitated sessions is organized around a “How might we…” question, and so far we’ve collected around How might we tell our professional stories? and How might we talk about the price and value of our work? Self-image and money… you know… some light little topics like that.
My blogging has slowed as my focus has turned toward this group and other entrepreneurial work projects, but in the spirit of the new astrological year and of the returning sunlight and warmth that spring has been bringing this week, I’m feeling very grateful and proud to have collected these people together. (Don’t worry, the blogging will pick up again… I’m dusting off the writing apparatus and glad to have it back in my regular routine.)
Look at this little Aries ram go! ♈️
Perhaps the thing I’m most grateful for about CARE is how supportive folks have been. I’ve received the kindest affirming messages from consortium members after our facilitated sessions, and I’ve witnessed them offering the same kindness and support to each other both in real time and asynchronously.
Especially given that this is the first cohort of CARE, I’m so glad people are feeling—and sharing— the love.
Positive reinforcement keeps people going. Especially in this time when so many of us are trying to do business in new ways or forge new paths, it can make all the difference to tell someone when you think they’re heading in the right direction.
Don’t mistake outward confidence for internal surety. I’ve been the grateful recipient of a bunch of folks telling me that it seems like I’m doing amazingly well and busy with all kinds of cool work. Which is true, yes, and easy for me to see and say when things are feeling good. But when I’m having an off day or a down moment or my anxiety is piping up loudly, it’s just as easy (frankly, this one comes even easier) for me to focus on the areas where I need to grow and to write off the good work I’m doing as not enough, as less than I could do, as sort of maybe kinda OK.
So I’ve started a new label for my emails that’s called “Cheers from the universe” (phrase unabashedly borrowed from the always-inspiring Tina Roth Eisenberg), and I’ve added it to a bunch of the emails I’ve received from CARE-ers. When I’m not sure I’m doing the right thing or worried about whether I’ll be able to financially sustain myself, it helps to re-read those notes
It makes my heart happy to be fostering a community that shares support openly in this way.
Creative Prompt Coda: Tell someone you think is doing something cool that you like their thing.
