What I've Learned.

PPP - Personal Statement, Moving Forward

ME

Artistic Self Care
- Research Methods and Practices -

  • One huge thing that I've learned is how to properly research a topic. Learning, and getting feedback, about how specific a topic I needed to craft in order to find great sources of information was crazy helpful. I was able to be super precise about what I was researching so I could skip over lots of unimportant info, but dense enough so I wouldn't be scraping the barrel for anything. I'm definitely going to be using these skills to research more arts-related topics and other rabbit holes I fall into.

- Community Resources -

  • Zoo-Wee. It was great to learn about the local Austin theatrical companies and what they stood for. I've always thought that Austin was a huge world and I didn't know about a lot of theatre companies besides the few that I lived by. However, through the Mission/Values project it was incredibly insightful to learn about the variety of companies in Austin. It really made my perception of Austin become smaller and more familiar, and I learned about cool people I wanted to meet and opportunities that I wanted to take advantage of. (How cool is the RudeMechs residency!?)

- Professional Best Practices -

  • Finally, and what I found most insightful, was the realization that I can do whatever I set my mind to; I just need to set realistic goals. And, learning about artistic self-care and getting reassurance that working in the Arts is perfectly sustainable blew my mind. From the beginning of the semester, I got a bunch of self-confidence for being in my field and helpful tools and anecdotes on how to be an artist and thrive. These best practices are something I'm going to live by now and spread to others.

    Anyways, I feel empowered as an artist-citizen. hell yeah.

A fun quote I found:

"My generation of actors bought the “show must go on” bill of goods. We fell for it hook, line, and sinker. The younger generation isn't buying it. They boldly protect themselves from an industry that considers actors’ needs last."

-Tania Richard