I posted tip 7 on Sunday morning. While it was the night before tax day and seemingly a good day to talk about money, Easter Sunday may not have been the best day to open that discussion. Should I have waited until Monday morning?

As soon as my post went live, I went to my parents where I engaged in some rowdy debates. When you are a Ridgway, you enjoy good-natured clashes. It’s a fact. Everyone who knows a Ridgway knows this to be true. On the drive home, my life partner teased how my family once again talked over each other loudly. How do you ever hear each other? I don’t know. We do. He also noticed how we pivot to a new position to continue arguing with each other. He frequently wonders, Do you all like living in a state of agitation all the time? I don’t feel I live in agitation. He also regularly notes that there is so much love in my family. So much love! It’s a safe place to disagree with someone. In my childhood home, all are welcome to get comfortable with discomfort, probe our assumptions, and challenge each other’s thinking. It’s incredible to be loved that much! It’s where I develop my strength and hone my perspective to advocate for the field of teaching artistry.

Towards the end of our heated afternoon discussion, my mom reminded me of a book she and my brother had recently read together (and then argued about). She gave me her copy. I look forward to reading Angela Y. Davis’ “Women Race & Class” and learning from this brilliant philosopher, activist, and author. Davis inspires me to challenge even my own wondering that maybe my post on Easter Sunday wasn’t such a bad idea after all…

Two of my brothers work for a leading national union. The discussion of unionizing the field of teaching artistry often comes up with them and could be an entire blog of its own. I’m definitely behind workers organizing, but I also recognize that unions are systems of people who fail each other. Even the United States government, serving people, frequently undermines unions.

There are examples of this all over the place. Recently a school principal requested teachers to watch an instructional training webinar during their planning time. The union contract entitled teachers to this unassigned time. The principal breached the contract with their request. Yet teachers cooperated with the principal, ultimately weakening their collective power. Why? Because not a single one was brave enough to speak up and rock the boat. They were negligent in their role as self-advocates. Even when a legal document stated they had the right to disrupt, they remained silent. When our hearts tell us, “this is not right…. this is inequitable… this is unjust…” why do we go along with it?

I frequently listen to protest songs, listening for inspiration, seeking motivation. Joe Hill wrote the orginial to the version Billy Bragg song.

There is pow’r there is pow’r in a band of workingmen,
When they stand hand in hand,
That’s a pow’r, that’s a pow’r
That must rule in every land—

Joe Hill

How do we get Teaching Artists to stand hand in hand?

Listen to Billy as he sings:

Power in the hand of the worker
But it all amounts to nothing
If together we don’t stand.

Stephen William Bragg

I hear many folks speak about needing a union in the field of teaching artistry.

A union would help but like Billy sing, it all amounts to nothing if together we don’t stand.

Unions thrive from self-advocacy and togetherness.

Self-advocacy requires you to know what you want, need, and your legal rights and calls you to speak up when necessary.

By uniting, we can be a formidable force to ensure better working conditions for teaching artists.

I have organized myself to create an equitable and vibrant arts ecosystem. I’m committed to improving the working conditions of the profession and field. 

I speak for myself.

I speak for (and with) others.

Can you take my hand? 

8. Get yourself out there and advocate collectively.

Early on in my co-founding of the Teaching Artists of the Mid-Atlantic, I made this commitment:

Truth is I don’t always know what it means to be a leader, what my responsibility is or what needs my advocacy.

I want to revisit something I said when I introduced this series of tips:

It’s hard to admit (and agree) that the field might need to change. You might not feel safe headed into this conversation. You might steer far from it. I get it. You may love the freedom that the identity of an independent contractor avails you. You may like your direct administrators and not want to put them on the defensive or in a hot seat. I feel you. It can be uncomfortable. Overwhelming. Sad. Scary. That doesn’t mean change isn’t necessary or possible.

I am uncomfortable.

I am scared.

We will get through this together.

From time to time, colleagues privately share they aren’t ready to speak up yet. I understand. I know they’ll find their voice. They brilliantly advocate on so many other issues – the environment, human trafficking, poverty, and immigration. However, this issue is personal, and it can be challenging to advocate for self. It’s important to be there for each other. Last week, a colleague called for advice and support for a situation that required self-advocacy. Later in the week, I circled back to celebrate their efforts. It was a big step for us both. Ever since I read adrienne maree brown’s “Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds,” I’ve been exploring the concept of radical collaboration.

My dearest colleague, you might feel like you are out there on your own.

You’re not.

I’ve got your hand, and an equitable and vibrant arts ecosystem is within reach.

The clock on the wall read almost midnight, but the clock in our souls revealed that it was daybreak.

Martin Luther King, Jr., “Stride Toward Freedom,” page 48.

It’s daybreak where I am!

What time is it for you?

Ah – tax day!

As an independent contractor, it gets complicated but…

Let’s talk money!

Take a look at your 2021 tax filing. What was your annual income? Divide that by 52.

If you had a full-time salaried job this is what your employer would owe you (along with benefits) on a weekly basis. Usually, employers pay employees every other week.

Imagine the business of YOU paying you as an employee that amount every week. It may be difficult for you to think like this. Teaching artists often juggle weeks and even months of dry spells while other weeks are abundantly flowing. This challenges personal budgeting, leaving teaching artists to live gig to gig.

Paying yourself a weekly, bimonthly, or monthly paycheck helps stabilize your personal finances. It’s something I’ve been doing for quite a while. While it may be daunting to set this up, I know you can do it.

If you need help, reach out. Better yet, find yourself a financial advisor!

You deserve it.

7. Establish a business bank account and pay yourself a weekly or monthly salary.

The first step is to open up a business bank account to keep your business income and expenses separate from your personal costs and savings. Truthfully I learned this lesson during the pandemic. Pre-pandemic, I used a second savings account as my business account. It worked for me. But then the pandemic hit, and I missed out on a ton of free money because I lacked a business bank account.

It is essential as a business owner, which you are, to establish a relationship with a bank and a line of credit. Also, a business bank account protects your personal assets if you are sued or encounter other legal challenges.

Next, set up bill payments or transfers to pay yourself. Like I said, I have done this for a while using a second personal savings account. It stabilized my finances, especially when dry spells occurred. A dry bit always hits me in September through to November, when schools restart. I had a regular paycheck coming to me by paying myself a biweekly paycheck and never experienced those months as financial hardship.

Getting to that point does take time.

It is necessary and appropriate to start small. Pay yourself a fraction of the weekly salary you calculated using your annual income figure. A payment of even $20 or $50 goes a long way to improve your self-worth and increase your bottomline. As you pay yourself, put an equal amount into a business savings account so that you can work towards delivering yourself that full paycheck in the future.

Of course, your bank account should never define your worth. Paying yourself is about defining the boundaries of our work and how that work is valued. We live in a world that doesn’t fully appreciate our contributions as teaching artists, which informs us and subtly tells us we are unworthy.

You are.

If you hired someone for your business to be an administrative aid, would you pay them for the menial tasks they do to keep your business running smoothly and efficiently? Of course, you would. Why do you allow yourself to go unpaid?

This action of paying yourself is a positive cue about your contributions. Tell yourself you are worthy. Financially compensate yourself for all the things you do for your business. All tasks, regardless of if contracts mention them, must be done to complete projects, keep clients happy, and keep your business open. Tasks that I’ve heard colleagues mention are:

• Emailing teachers and participants
• Signing contracts and submitting invoices
• Filling up your gas tank two or three times a week because you drive a lot
• Sitting in traffic
• 8PM run to the Dollar Store to get something for tomorrow’s residency session
• Washing and storing materials/tools that participants in a residency used, for the next time
• Researching a new topic or participant group
• Getting a background check for a school or county that is new to your business
• Strategizing about your next marketing promotion
• Putting something up on social media to promote your business
• Pay your quarterly taxes

Annually Reassess and Give Yourself A Raise

When you file your taxes, take a look at your annual income and give yourself a raise every year. You deserve it! A 3% pay increase is pretty standard. Here are two examples of how you calculate a raise for someone who made $18,000 in 2021 and someone who made $55,000 that same year.

Annual raises may not seem that much, but your salary will grow over time. Looking at our income like this signals your self-worth. This cue empowers you to recognize your growing experience, expertise, and skillsets. It will raise the standards for how teaching artists conduct business, shift how we set our prices, the boundaries we put in place about client expectations, and so much more!

I’ll be dropping a post titled “Budgets Are Moral Documents” in about a week. The arts sector needs to ask better questions, especially those executive arts leaders. In April/May 2020, I was planning a workshop with Teaching Artists of the Mid-Atlantic on the ethics of teaching artistry. We postponed programming when the pandemic hit, but I want to return to it now. 

In the meantime, ask yourself questions to challenge current trends and standards for the business of teaching artistry, such as:

• Is there a moral question about how much (or how little) I set my fees for my practice?
• Is it okay and fair to depend on my partner to enable my teaching artistry?
• Are the field standards (locally and beyond) set at living wages?
• Is it okay for me to make this much money?

It is okay to make a living wage.

It is okay to thrive.

You deserve it.

You are worthy.

Have you looked at the 990s of arts organizations in your local area to know how much top executives are making? What ethical questions should they ask themselves?

To change the system, and receive what we are valued, is hard work.

Don’t give up.

This is an act of self-love.

6. Annually explore the 990s of arts organizations in your region.

A 990 isn’t a complete picture of an organization’s financial records, but it is a starting place in your assessment of what they value and prioritize.

• Where are they receiving income?
• What are the sources of that income?
• How do expenses between programming, management, and costs break down?
• Who are the top paid employees?
• What are their salaries and other compensation benefits?
• Have employees received consistent raises? Have you? (look at all three years)
• How does your compensation/raise compare with top paid employees’ salaries/raises?

I don’t question the top paid employee’s salary (Okay. When it’s astronomical, I do, but that’s another blog post). I recognize management and the entire administrative team work hard. Teaching Artists work hard too. We need their support to make a living wage, especially since we are often front-line employees for their organization.

Get informed about all the nonprofits in your local region! Things trickle down. Larger organizations have set standards in the field, creating an environment where few small businesses thrive, and most independent artists suffer. It doesn’t have to be this way. We have to get creative.

First, we have to get informed. Get your free account on Candid/Guidestar today and explore these critical tax documents!

It may be helpful for you to recognize that applying these tips, my creative colleagues, is an act of self-love.

You deserve to thrive.

• What questions do you ask clients and partners?
• If you haven’t asked a question, why not?
• How do you refer to the organizations that pay you as a 1099 contractor?
• How about the organizations that pay you as a W-2 employee?
• Is there a difference?
• How do you imagine this relationship?

During the pandemic, I’ve bought into a client management system. Shout out to Nadïne LaFond, a TAMA member, who suggested Honeybook to me. (If you don’t know her, follow her. Learn from her!) Honeybook has been a game-changer for me.

But what I want to talk about is the word “client.” Before having Honeybook in my life, I referred to all of the organizations I intersected with phrases such as:

“I work for (organization).”

“I’m an (organization’s) Teaching Artist.”

Curiously, I never referred to them as my clients.

They are.

Jennifer Ridgway is a business as much as their organization.

Jennifer Ridgway has liability insurance and pays taxes/FICA.

Jennifer Ridgway obtains fingerprints, completes ongoing professional development, and keeps certificates up-to-date.

Jennifer Ridgway has a human resources department, marketing, development, communications, and education/community engagement team, and an entire artistic production team that only she occupies.

Side note: This is hilarious how I’m talking about myself in the third person. How uncomfortable!

The point is – that recognizing and fully embracing this concept of being a business is critical for the individual Teaching Artist.

It forces us to examine the power dynamic in our client-to-client partnerships, enabling us to assess our business needs to ensure they are met. It changes the conversation we can and should have with our clients about the projects we endeavor to collaborate on together.

That said – tip 2!

2. Ask questions of your partners and clients.

I’ve heard from teaching artists who struggled to discuss their contracts with colleagues and negotiate with partners. I attended the TAMA session last week with Maryland Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. We need to get better practiced as a collective and stop acting as if we are independent. Every decision you make and every contract you willingly sign has implications on the entire field for decades to come! We need some collective agreements.

Things to think about as you ask questions of partners and clients are:

1. Don’t sign contracts before reading them and examining them with your accountability circle, especially if something in it bothers you. This may seem like a given, but I’ve heard from TAs who have done both – signed before reading and signed even when something bothered them. I get it. We have fear. Lack of time. Lack of need. Lack of pressure. Lack of interest. And truthfully, I can’t say that I’ve not done this. It’s got to stop! We are all leaving power and money on the table for others to have. Others are those in power, often with money. Let’s step up as business leaders! Talk to the client about your concerns in the contract and talk to your accountability circle. Let your accountability circle look at the contract. They will expand your thinking to things that may not concern you but bother them. Their concerns should be your concern so that we can have an equitable and just field. Our profession and the contracts we all see and sign should hold all of us. That should be the expectation.
2. Always have a pre-written version of your contract available and ready to go for the client to sign. It is the cultural norm of our field for arts organizations and others to write contracts. Let’s keep in mind that their lawyers are writing those contracts prioritizing their interests, not ours. While organizations have taken the lead in writing the arrangements in the past, let’s try to shift the power dynamic here!
3. Take Maryland Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts’ suggestion and ask your partners, “How did you decide that TAs are (Independent Contractors/Employees) in your (organization)?” Our partners need to be transparent about who made the decision and how and why. Remember, they are your business partner. They are a client. There should be mutual respect. Conflicts are inevitable in business. But also, difficult conversations can and should lead us to better and more sustainable outcomes for all of us.
4. When a partner cannot meet your pay rates, ask about other benefits that they could offer you. Do they have a studio or rehearsal hall that you could access for free? Could they make their medical or retirement plans available to you (you will have to pay out-of-pocket, but you will have member access)? Want a lunch date and one-on-one time with their artistic director? Do they have access to a library or other resources? Think creatively about benefits. What does your business need that they have and could make available to you? Our business partnerships must share the same values as our business, and one of those values should include your value and worth! Remember that pie I mentioned Sunday.

You deserve more than crumbs!

Too often, we accept initial offers without any interrogation.

Let’s stop doing that.

I marvel at our collection of work, colleagues. You inspire me. People I’ve known for decades, those I’ve met during the pandemic, and strangers I experience through social media. But who doesn’t feel exhausted by the work and the expectations asked of us these days? How is it that so many of us can’t carry health insurance? Why is it that most don’t have retirement plans?

I am done with the notion that artists need to be educated about budgeting. I’m a fan of lifelong learning but managing money is not our collective problem. I am sick of seeing overworked folks being pushed to have side hustles. As if, this is the answer. More work is not the answer to financial health and well-being.

I wonder how the field is defined, and by whom. Is it we who defines the profession of teaching artistry?

I struggle with how we’ve come to accept the significant gap of financial health and well-being between what so many administrators in all sectors have and that of you, brilliant and phenomenal artists. Early on in my career, I heard, “Everyone gets a piece of the pie.” A piece? I always struggled with that statement. Administrators who hire, train, and support TAs need to take a hard look at that pie.

It’s hard to admit (and agree) that the field might need to change. You might not feel safe headed into this conversation. You might steer far from it. I get it. You may love the freedom that the identity of an independent contractor avails you. You may like your direct administrators and not want to put them on the defensive or in a hot seat. I feel you. It can be uncomfortable. Overwhelming. Sad. Scary. That doesn’t mean change isn’t necessary or possible.

Let’s get creative, artists. Let’s dream together.

I don’t have any answers. I have lots of questions and concerns.

How are your finances? Have you ever imagined the finances of another TA? Someone in a different decade of their life? Someone with a different set of privileges, based on race, gender, and ability? What do you (and they) accept as norms that you (they) shouldn’t? Where are our missteps as leaders in our businesses? Whether we like it or not, we are business owners. How do you lead your business? How do we collectively advocate for the TA profession?

My Tips

Again, I don’t have answers, but I have gathered some tips.

• Join an accountability network.
• Ask questions of your partners and clients.
• Use the Teaching Artists Guild’s TA Pay Calculator to set your rates.
• Communicate your rates (based on the calculator) and offer a professional discount.
• Account for all work hours at one pay rate.
• Annually review the 990s of arts organizations in your region.
• Establish a business bank account and pay yourself a weekly or monthly salary.
• Get yourself out there and advocate collectively.

These tips are opportunities to enhance teaching artist business leadership and an invitation to stand up for social justice and equity in our field!

I’ll be sharing one tip’s explanation each day of the coming week. To prep you for what is to come, listen to Precious Blake interviewed on Teaching Artistry with Courtney J. Boddie (34 minutes in gets pretty phenomenal).

Also, if you haven’t, please register now for the first-ever Teaching Artist National Conference.

And continue to dream.

Change is coming.

The clock on the wall read almost midnight, but the clock in our souls revealed that it was daybreak.

Martin Luther King, Jr., “Stride Toward Freedom,” page 48.