How could institutions support artists making work about identity?
As noted in my article for Trinity Centre, artists who hold marginalised identities are often offered opportunities which relate to speaking about their personal experiences. This creates added pressures beyond the usual work/financial pressures, which tbh are already enough in this time when rent is more than 40% of our income!
Here are some ideas for how institutions creating ‘opportunities’ for artists who hold marginalised identities, could try to make those opportunities more realistic and beneficial for the artists.
Pastoral support
One major overlooked area, is the need for pastoral support around identity-linked opportunities. Speaking about personal issues in a professional context creates vulnerability, potentially anxiety, and could draw prejudice or criticism (which then would be hard to ignore, since its personal).
I think we are scared to draw from therapeutic models because we are terrified of saying art is therapy. Work exploring identity, is not therapy. But it makes sense that we would need to think about safety models and supervision in a similar way, since it draws on vulnerable themes - that would be due diligence on the part of the commissioner.
* if there is budget - provide a budget for the artist to access a therapeutic or coaching space to process what comes up around the work
* if there isn’t - offer to support the artist by providing a member of staff to talk through any anxieties and complexities arising from presenting the work
* regardless of pastoral support - the venue or commissioner should be engaging on a professional level with the complexities of presenting identity based work, and creating space for the artist to feed into this or share their own perspective if wanted
* write it into the contract, that in cases of online hate, you will support the artist
Practical support
What people don’t seem to see, is how the personal factors are linked to the economic. If you are commissioning an artist who holds a marginalised identity, they may be facing marginalisation in their access to economic resources. Therefore, if you are offering a low fee which doesn’t provide space for a team to support them, please consider how this could compound with the already mentioned personal and psychological pressures associated with making work about personal identity.
I have worked in institutions on the production and admin side, and I know that venues are understaffed, staff members are paid little and there is never enough time in the day. However, essentially this isn’t the visiting artist’s problem and I think we should try to create some kind of care, where possible, within the limitations of funding.
For instance, where there is a salaried team they could be:
* booking the travel
* supporting with writing the copy and choosing an image
This is much easier for someone who is already doing computer work a lot of the day, who knows the local area and the format of your programme. The artist may or may not be skilled in copy writing, and may or may not have barriers which make travel booking hard, such as neurodiversity. It would make sense to ask what admin support they need - a relatively small commitment, such as a 30min spent on a zoom call or a train booking, could take hours or days of work off the freelance artist’s plate.
*paying people on time - (freelancers are relying on your payment to pay rent, and delays cause major problems both for freelancer-led projects and the people they are directly supporting. if you are a salaried member of staff at a university or other institution with a complex payment process - thankyou for using your position to leverage funds for artists. however please also factor in, if your institution has complex payment systems, it shouldn’t be on the artist to navigate them and chase late payments)
* providing a taxi or meeting the artist to help carry their bags (which are often transporting the whole show)
* providing a warm space with some water and easy access to nourishing food
* adding more time to the schedule to allow for a break between arriving and performing / speaking
If you imagine the pressure, of one person travelling maybe 6hrs on a megabus with a huge heavy bag which contains everything in their show, and knowing that they have to arrive and be on form to deliver a great performance, it makes sense that small gestures of care or taking one thing off their plate could help. If you then imagine the added pressure of revealing personal stuff, and possibly facing prejudice in the room or online for doing it, then you can see how practical and pastoral care are linked. They are all feeding into the general wellbeing and ability to deliver the work, and reducing the likelihood of harm being caused by these pressurised situations.
Ideas for a trauma-informed performance practice
This was written after a session of ‘Bubble Baths for the Soul’, a group of queer artists using talking therapy to process issues around our practice, facilitated by Lou Platt, Artist Wellbeing; initiated by Tom Marshman; funded by Theatre Bristol and LGBTQ+ Voice & Influence.
The context of the discussion was about work in which the performer/s are dealing with themes that have a real emotional weight for them personally - which is often expected of live artists without necessarily any structure in place to deal with the aftermath.
Use the process to deal with emotions around the themes
Maybe theatre/art making processes already have a structure that we can use to somewhat-resolve our personal feelings about the material, before we put it on stage?
I think there is a pressure within the theatre/art making culture in the UK to push personal feelings aside and be ‘productive’ in the rehearsal room - also extreme time pressure and limited budgets make it hard to make space for each person’s emotions. So often instead of using this time to slowly process whatever comes up, I was pushing feelings aside and trying to ignore them, racing to the end goal of having ‘a finished show’ or something to put onstage.
Titration: gradually increasing dosage to allow you to get used to it and find the right dosage for you. In medicine this is used for drugs, in trauma therapy this is a technique used by therapists to help clients approach traumatic themes/memories in small chunks which can be tolerated, and then move away from them again. The idea is that this allows the body/mind to slowly increase the window of tolerance for dealing with this theme, without getting triggered/retraumatised and causing further harm.
Perhaps the theatre making process (ideas > discussions > improvisations > feedback > scratch performances > feedback > final performance) actually is already structured to allow quite a lot of titration. Maybe we can just change the focus, to use that space for the performer/s to process anything that comes up & consider how manageable the performance feels for them, so that by the time we get onstage we feel somewhat resolved and don’t have the fear of a surprise trigger and mental health risk.
Structure the performance to safely take you out of that space before the end
Jesse* said he often does this in his work - telling a story and then changing to a new scene, much lighter, and incorporating the perspective of ‘now’ as well as ‘then’.
What can we do in the structure of our writing / composing that creates a safe trajectory for the performer? On both a nervous system and conscious level. Do we need to regulate with the audience after visiting a challenging place?
This makes me reflect that I have often structured my work with only the audience in mind, and never thought about my own needs as a performer or how to write them in. Which seems silly when I am basically designing the work.
*Jesse Cooper, Bristol-based performance artist
‘Professionalism’ - what does it mean for a performer?
I think the reason I have often suppressed emotions in the past, is to ‘be professional’. But is that really what ‘professionalism’ is, in performance?
To me, professionalism would mean arriving onstage feeling somewhat resolved around the themes of the show, knowing that I can hold space for them and that I know how to regulate and give myself what I need, if it does get too much unexpectedly. That makes it safe(r) for me, and for my audience. And I believe that being at a slight distance, or knowing how to visit and connect to an emotional place and come back out of it, often creates work where the audience can go with the performer on their journey. Maybe that isn’t possible without having some space to deal with emotions around the topic and build skill around coping strategies.
So, maybe trying to share this idea of professionalism which actually includes emotions and discussion of what comes up in the rehearsal room, and necessitates that as part of the show-making process, could help to create better working conditions and safer, happier performers.