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?

Nina’s version of Here Comes the Sun seemed fitting to this morning’s posting. Daybreak!

It’s the first Monday of April (TAMA’s TA Cafe day!) during the week of the first-ever national Teaching Artist Conference! My soul is happy! Knowing you are part of a community is essential.

Another community that is important to me is my family!

Their love holds me, and it’s continually expanding. It’s a dynamic place to enter for me. It’s my growing place, a nurturing environment where we co-exist as teachers and learners.

With the pandemic, so much has happened both personally and professionally – and then, in November, my family experienced an emergency, forcing us to stop everything and re-evaluate our relationship with each other. I’ve been overwhelmed, tired, discouraged, scared, angry, and lost. Now more than ever, we’ve needed each other. It’s not been easy. Through it all, we’ve been teaching and learning. We’ve adapted. Grown. We are resilient together. They amaze me.

Another community that amazes me is TAMA! Today is the first Monday of the month when the TA Cafe meets at 9:30 AM. I imagine we will recap last Tuesday’s Maryland Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts session. If you can, drop by!

Here comes the sun, little darling!

As I explain tip one, I’m listening to Nina sing. I sing along. I hope her words resonate with you. I hope we sing together, “it’s alright, little darling.”

1. Join an accountability network.

Gather with a professional circle of colleagues and discuss all the things. A nurturing environment where members co-exist as teachers and learners. We’ve got a lot of growing to do as a field. We are still so young as a profession!

So, find your people. Have a standing appointment with them. Network, propose ideas and brainstorm solutions.

Live in the mid-Atlantic states? You know where I think you belong. Join and list yourself in the TAMA TA Directory, and get access to the zoom link! It’s free and takes 15 seconds to join. You have 14 days to complete your profile and make yourself look super slick and flashy. There is no reason why you wouldn’t join today!

Need more inspiration to join a network? Check out my previous post: Come home to TAMA. If you’re not ready to take the plunge, at the very least, put yourself on the Teaching Artist Asset Map! Are you hesitant to even do that? Seriously, I get it. Don’t believe me? I wasn’t always behind TAMA! I was a naysayer. Check this out! Lastly, as I mentioned yesterday, the first-ever National Teaching Artist conference is happening this week. Attend. Part or all of it. There is no cost to you. Embrace this phenomenal opportunity and register today!

There is a hesitancy to come together in our field. There are so many reasons. Lack of time. Lack of pressure. Lack of interest. Lack of trust. Fear.

I can’t convince you. I know there’s lots to gain and nothing to lose.

Here comes the sun, little darling.

Come back tomorrow for tip #2, where I’ll give you suggestions on what to do in your network. Till then, ponder this quote from of my favorite books for Teaching Artists!

I remained hopeful and employed my imagination – true to the nature of an artist. And so, I sought out teaching artist networks and eventually cofounded TAMA, the Teaching Artists of the Mid-Atlantic.

And then 2020’s two historic crises: public health and racial justice hit and my thinking shifted, and continues to shift.

The quirks of the business aren’t things I can privately or in small groups imagine change around. I must actively seek out and instigate change.

Earlier in the year, I asked you to put yourself on the Teaching Artists Guild’s Asset Map. (Did you do that? If not, do that now. Then continue reading!)

Then last month you may have seen the “Break Up letter” that Miko Lee of the Teaching Artists Guild and I wrote. Published in the National Guild for Community Arts Education’s GuildNotes, this letter was a collage of the stories teaching artists had shared with us about their experience during this challenging year. The Guild gave Miko and I an opportunity to present a checklist that offered suggestions to arts organizations to improve their connection with teaching artists.

Yes!

A step in the right direction.

But only a step.

Hidden in the article was a sentence that moves me to sing:

TAs need these private spaces to build unity and cohesion in a growing worldwide field, reaching across all artistic mediums and its many and varied sectors.

That sentence I think is overlooked and I want to share what inspired it for me. Since the top of the pandemic, TAMA has regularly hosted Monday morning zoom meetings. The TA Cafe is a place for teaching artists to support each other and work through the challenges we faced individually and collectively.

In one of those initial weeks, I began developing a pitch or story about the importance of teaching artist networks. That summer, the talented entrepreneur Kayla Harley hosted me for a FB live session to raise awareness about TAMA’s meetings. I pulled out props so that I could visually tell the story. I told my TA colleagues who have become friends during this year that I was going to record it and share it on social media.

For a year, I procrastinated on recording this video.

The time was never right.

The video always needed revisions.

Well, guess what, perfection isn’t real. Besides this blog is supposed to be about process. I sincerely want to process all that has happened, is happening and can happen with you, colleagues.

So here it is…. Consider my invitation to “Find Your TA Home.”

I do believe there is value in networks that are by, for and about Teaching Artists.

But what about you, dearest colleague? I want to hear from you.

Do you have a teaching artist home? Why or why not? If you do, where?

Can we take a moment to shine a spotlight on all the teaching artist collectives across the nation? By doing so we increase our connectivity and continue to make ourselves visible!

Share a story about your colleagueship, and how it has given you strength, power and wisdom.

Let me hear from Teaching Artists from all of the States and the District!

Send me stories from the most curious, wondrous, delightful gatherings out there. Hearing from you will inspire and ignite us all.