Their gang colors were powder blue – not exactly fear-inducing garb. There were plenty of them, but we felt safe because this gang consisted of some of today’s best and brightest creatives.
At Columbia’s School of the Arts graduation Wednesday, the message delivered was this – stick with your gang. Jerry Saltz, art critic with New York Magazine and formerly with The Village Voice, told the graduates their best chance of success was in working, working (he really stressed that work begets work), and realizing your work has a value in the market. I’m paraphrasing what I think was a dynamic, accurate, and beautifully delivered message, but at the time, my first reaction was to cheer. I refrained out of decorum, but I will admit to many head bobs and a few muttered damn-rights.
Mr. Saltz confirmed what we’ve been trying to get through to our counterparts, friends. There’s safety in numbers, but there’s also strength and connections. Oh, and the more of you there are, the better you’ll feel about setting a realistic value on your talents.
Other speakers echoed the sentiment, one telling the students they were about to enter the toughest market in decades, then saying “But this speech isn’t for you – it’s for the MBA students.” Huge laughs when he said “Look who’s laughing now” referencing the students’ decision to choose arts instead of business.
It is a tough market. It’s not an impossible one. Paraphrasing Saltz, success is about being in the community of artists and the artists’ networks and not selling yourself short. Thank God someone told them for folks like us need all the help we can get. As each new crop of creatives hits the streets, eyes wide with dreams and possibilities, we watch them hit the wall that stands between most expectations and goals – that wall of reality. Prices in our market have gone Antarctic on us, and too many artists are taking too little money for too much work. While speeches and posts and Twitters may not stop all newcomers from the degradation of their talents and devaluing of their worth, it’s going to stick and eventually, sometime between starvation and career suicide (or as Saltz put it, somewhere between the horizontal and vertical positions of the Titanic), some of these new graduates will see the desperation in their own situations and will say with defiance “But I’m damn good!”
That’s what we did last week. We all saw the desperation of this market and amid our own suffering, we proclaimed our own worth. Don’t you feel better doing so?
What message would you give to new graduates? Well, besides “Hands off my clients!” LOL
For new grads: “Work hard so that your passion is also your vocation, but don’t expect any of it to come easily. Earn it, on every level.”
Amen, sister.