The 2018 Artists’ Gratitude Project: A Weekly Practice

The potential for positivity, hope, change, and appreciation.

Do you feel the dichotomy? Many artists come from an upbringing of extensive support and opportunity – with training, classes, private lessons, workshops, mentors, supplies, and equipment. Many go onto colleges, conservatories, and masters programs. Yet, as artists in the U.S. today, many of us live with modest incomes to support our families and to keep making our work. Many times – we can end up feeling bitter, resentful, and negative.

Would a weekly gratitude practice inspire and promote personal change, hope, and contentment?

Whether you consider each weekly idea while on the subway commuting to work – or you decide to write in a personal journal – please join us on this journey in 2018. The 52 ideas were brainstormed and then placed in a random order. Thank you to colleagues Valerie Gutwirth, Juliana Monin, and Brian Smith for help launching this project.

Each week, one idea/intention/consideration will be shared.

Here we go……

 

Week 2: Audience

Today, I offer gratitude for: 

The audience for my work

Today I think deeply about the audience for my projects. Who attends? Who supports? What is the balance between close members of my community attending, and audiences I don't personally know?

I offer gratitude for their support, engagement, and participation. I offer gratitude for the intersubjective, live exchange when we can be in the room together.

As Salt Lake City choreographer Molly Heller shared in December 2017 in a post-performance discussion*,

An emotion is never one thing, and an emotion is never the same thing in the company of other people. What you saw tonight was because of you. This would not have been the same dance without you showing up, that energetic exchange. That is the beautiful part for me; tomorrow’s performance will be a different show. How I think about audience interaction and audience exchange – is that we orchestrate the experience together. That’s the part that has the heart opening component for me. It’s like a confession. For me, it has that exchange, because of you.

*This post-performance discussion transcript can be read on diydancer.com.
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