Advocating for young Black musicians

Welcome to the ArtsBound Newsletter. Every Tuesday, I share three thoughts or insights meant to help performing arts students and young professionals flourish in their life and career. Today, in honor of my most recent guest on the ArtsBound Podcast, we are taking a fresh look at a recurring theme: aligning our values to those of our work and environment. I’m also announcing a free interactive webinar I’ll be leading next month for high school musicians and theatre artists. 

- 3-minute read -

(NOTE: I started ArtsBound because I believe the world would be a better place with more people living their true calling. If you know a student or young professional who is searching for their niche in the performing arts world, consider forwarding this email to them. If this email was forwarded to you, you can sign up to receive my newsletter every Tuesday. It's free, and I’ll never share or sell your data.)


1. Conversation with André Solomon. 

The newest episode of the ArtsBound Podcast is now available, featuring arts management professional, André Solomon.

When André was in music school, he was one of only five Black students in a department of over 400. That experience, combined with the financial hardships of his childhood, codified a passion for creating more equitable pathways (and more pathways in general!) for young Black musicians to enter into the field.

André also recognized the need for greater organizational savvy within arts organizations and his own need to diversify his skill set for greater marketability within the job market. He enrolled in Carnegie Mellon University’s Master of Arts Management program, and he now supports the programs of two arts organizations.

In our talk, André discusses how his desire to advocate for Black musicians shows up in his professional life, what his work as an ‘entry-level’ arts management professional looks like, and how he works to maintain his practice as a performer.

Listen to my talk with André.


2. Value alignment for public school arts teachers.

In a former newsletter, I featured my blog article, “Why Musicians Become Public School Music Teachers… And Why They Quit.” That article highlights the research of Doris Santoro, but the newsletter itself did not mention her work. I thought it would be fitting to do so now.

Santoro is Professor of Education at Bowdoin College. She prepares students for the teaching profession, as well as being a researcher and published author.

Alarmed by the growing attrition rate among public school teachers, Santoro began studying job dissatisfaction in the profession. In her book, Demoralized: Why Teachers Leave the Profession They Love and How They Can Stay, she coins the term teacher demoralization as distinctive from teacher burn-out (the latter having once been thought of as one of the key reasons for teacher attrition).

In a nutshell, teachers become demoralized when the policies under which they work prohibit them from doing what Harvard psychologist, Howard Gardner, and his colleagues call ‘Good Work’. In other words, the political, financial, bureaucratic, and legislative environments of the public school keep them from doing what they believe is best for their students and student learning.

As someone who experienced this first hand, coming across Santoro’s work helped me put a different frame around my experience as a teacher, alleviating the shame that came with thinking I had fallen into the stigmatized state of being burnt out.

Furthermore, Santoro’s thesis affirms that aligning values between ourselves and our work environment is crucial to experiencing fulfillment in our work.

If you feel your values might not align with your work environment, you might benefit from another article I’ve written, 5 Ways to Leave an Energy-Draining Environment at Work or School.


3. Free webinar for high school music and theatre students

In light of my experience of demoralization as a teacher in the public school, I’ve been ‘re-moralized’ by the chance to help performing arts students and young professionals design careers that align to their personal strengths and values, guiding them along their unique paths of fulfillment in their life and career.

As I work to share the career design process with more individuals, I’m conducting a free webinar on February 10 for high school music and theatre students. The webinar is very interactive, and participants will learn about the breadth of careers that are available in the performing arts industries, along with asking powerful questions to help guide decisions they will make about what to do after graduation.

If you or someone you know might be interested, learn more by visiting: 

artsboundcareerdesign.com/webinar


See you next week!

Lee

PS - I started ArtsBound because I believe the world would be a better place with more people living their true calling. If you know a student or young professional who is searching for their niche in the performing arts world, consider forwarding this email to them. If this email was forwarded to you, you can sign up to receive my newsletter every Tuesday. It's free, and I’ll never share or sell your data.

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