All I want for Christmas...

(Spoiler: it's you!)

In 2023, I will be reducing my client workload in order to write - with a dual focus on my debut poetry collection being published by Fremantle Press mid-year and my Rethinking Arts Governance research.

If this enews has been of value to you, I'd appreciate it if you’re in a position to become an advocate, ally or accomplice for my work or writing (from just $2.50/month on Patreon).

In addition to the usual benefits, if you become a patron before the end of 2022 – at any tier – I will prescribe you a personal Summer Reading List based on the genres and/or topics of your choice.

Starting the new year strong

Returning by popular demand, join me and Clare Travis in February for an extended webinar on Starting the New Year Strong: coaching ourselves and our teams through ‘post’-pandemic exhaustion.

Feedback from our November session includes:

“Nourishing!” “Such generosity from the hosts.” “I wasn't 100% sure on what to expect, but felt very supported in my vulnerability.” “The focus not just on self, but visualising your reach, your own impact was powerful.” “Much needed, thank you!”

You'll come away with thought-provoking ideas to consider and practical strategies to navigating the challenges of this 'post'-COVID era. The February session will also include a new 60-minute guided coaching exercise for you to work on a current challenge. A number of free places are available for independent practitioners, unwaged or low-waged participants.

But enough about me: let's be allies for a universal basic income

Arts-adjacent activities like crowd funding and webinars are just some of the strategies writers, artists and thinkers employ to support our work. It can be an awkward, exciting and overwhelming adventure that we wouldn't need to attempt if Australia had a Liveable Income Guarantee or Universal Basic Income that addressed practitioners’ precarious and subsistence living conditions and recognised arts and cultural workers as essential workers, with the same rights as those in other industries.

In 2023, we need to take every opportunity to lobby for a minimum basic income scheme, wage standards, job guarantees, fellowships, public employment opportunities, other forms of income support, or for Australia to follow international examples to support those who are out of work without current ‘mutual obligation’ requirements. 

We also need policy settings around arts education and training, protection of copyright and intellectual property, support for mobility and export, innovative business models, fit-for-purpose legislative, regulatory, tax and investment incentives, expanded collective bargaining rights, removal of tax on prizes and grants, and changes to superannuation and tax legislation to ensure artists receive superannuation on all client income. Read Jennifer Mills' powerful and practical submission to the National Cultural Policy consultation for more.

Time to rest and reset (don’t forget, #LessIsNecessary)

To say the last few years have been a LOT is an understatement. While some of us have been impacted more than others, we’re all more than three years’ more exhausted, and precious few of us have had a chance to rest or reset.

Meanwhile, we’re being globally gaslit that the pandemic is over and we should all be over it – expected not only to get ‘back to normal’ but to be more ambitious than ever to survive our increasingly austere and competitive landscape.

Arts participation is often talked about as a human right, but less is said about the rights of the people making that art. Ours is an industry that is used to doing more-with-less (because we’ve had to). After a long period of not-delivering, we don’t want to let anyone down. And while we put ourselves into this space because we care – we can’t neglect to take care of ourselves.

So let’s use the new year as a turning point to rest, reset and remind ourselves why self-care, duty-of-care and doing #LessIsNecessary for our sector and our organisations, as well as for ourselves.

Take care out there. I wish you all a gentler and kinder new year.