Make more mistakes - and talk about them!
The week in Creative Money 23 October, 2020
Financial guidance for creative professionals
Creative Money aims to have an open conversation about finances in the creative industries.
It was founded in July, 2020 in an attempt to address a frustrating lack of sound financial guidance for creative workers and is written by me, Matt Parker, a music journalist and lecturer.
This week I made my first guest appearance under my Creative Money guise with a piece on 6 money mistakes made by musicians, over on MusicRadar.com.
I have personally made almost every one of the mistakes referenced in that article in my own work (although, sadly, I have not yet been offered a bad production contract from a major star, let alone turned one down). I certainly have not got it all figured out, but I think sharing this stuff is important, nonetheless.
Last week I spoke to the UK band Tunng for a forthcoming piece in Electronic Sound. They've made an album and podcast series, Dead Club, which explores death and grief in some depth and yet is somehow incredibly uplifting. The band were telling me how they've come to realise that when discussing something as complex as grief, it's usually better to risk saying something clumsily than to say nothing at all.
I think the same is true of most of the taboo topics in our lives, including money. Pretending difficult things don't exist – whether it's someone's grief, your own mounting debts or even the really huge stuff, like social inequality – doesn't solve the problem. We learn by messing things up, talking about it and trying again. If we can't admit when we've messed up or need help, we can't reflect and we can't figure out solutions.
There's so much to talk about in terms of how our money, work and creative lives intersect and so much we can learn from each other, too (I love doing the How I Make It Work pieces for exactly this reason)). It really feels like the right time to push some of these ideas a bit further.
I hope you enjoy the piece on MusicRadar and if you're new to Creative Money, welcome - it's very nice to have you onboard. Please feel free to drop me a line and say hello!
Until next week,
Matt
CreativeMoney.co.uk
On the site this week:
6 money mistakes made by musicians
Pitfalls for pickers. My guest post on MusicRadar.com
How I Make It Work: Chris Frantz (Talking Heads)
The principles that have helped him to survive 45 years in music
What do you need to know this week?
Arts figures on what the government needs to do for freelancers (Evening Standard)
Self-employed income support scheme grant will be doubled to £3,750 from November (Which?)
A professional violinist on the limitations of the bailout package (Private Eye)
These Women Paid An Instagram Influencer To Help Them Manifest Money. Now They’re Not Happy (Refinery 29)
MPs to investigate whether artists are paid fairly for streaming music (a big step forward for the #BrokenRecord campaign) (BBC)
Grants and funding opportunities
Unlimited launches new commission round for disabled artists
Unlimited is an arts commissioning programme that enables new work by disabled artists to reach UK and international audiences. They will have £500,000 to commission work from disabled artists and companies in three strands: Main Commission awards, Research and Development awards and Emerging Artists awards. Applications don't open until October, but they're getting the word out nice and early. Deadline: 27 October, 2020
Brighter Sound Leaders Network call-out
Brighter Sound is inviting women and non-binary people from the North of England to take part in their new leadership development programme led by Remi Harris MBE. For people who may or may not consider themselves as ‘leaders’ but are creating, managing, doing, organising and running things in some capacity.
Deadline: 30 October, 2020
HelpMusicians Financial Hardship Funding Phase 2
Support for music professionals facing hardship due to COVID-19 and excluded from the government's furlough and SEISS schemes. Deadline: 31 October, 2020
Brighter Sound Both Sides Now commission
Looking for two artists (one from Northern England and one from outside of England) to collaborate and write new music that explores what it means to be connected, disconnected and reconnected in today’s world. Fee of £2,000 per artist. Deadline: 3 November, 2020
Alfred Bradley Bursary Award
The Alfred Bradley Bursary Award is a £5,000 writing bursary to Northern writers new to radio and the chance of a Radio 4 drama commission. Deadline: 6 November, 2020
NEW: Arts Council Developing Your Creative Practice fund
Offers grants of between £2.000 and £10,000. The fund supports creative practitioners thinking of taking their practice to the next stage to research, have time to create new work, travel, training, develop ideas, network or find mentoring. Deadline: 9 November, 2020
British Music Collection Climate. Sound. Change. grants
Three £500 grants for artists working with sound and music to create new works that respond to the climate emergency with a minimum of one of those grants reserved for a young person aged 16-21. Deadline: 15 November, 2020
Drake Music Emergent Commissions 2020/21
For early career disabled musicians. Seeks proposals from Disabled musicians to create new work relating to the theme of ‘Risk’. All styles and genres are welcome. £750 commission fee on offer and mentoring from a disabled musician who is part of the DM collective. Deadline: 15 November, 2020
Hope Mill Theatre Through The Mill Playwrighting Prize
Opportunity for writers to have their work fully produced by and at Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester. Winner will receive a monetary prize of £5,000 plus one-to-one mentoring with award winning writer Jonathan Harvey (Beautiful Thing, Hushabye Mountain). Deadline: 27 November, 2020.
Royal Variety Charity Financial Assistance grants
The Royal Variety Charity is uniquely positioned to provide financial assistance to anyone who serves any facet of the Entertainment Industry. Deadline: ongoing
The White Pube Writers Grant funded by Creative Debuts
£500 given out monthly to a working class writer based in the UK. This grant has been set up to support writers of all ages who are early in their careers and would benefit from this no-strings attached financial support to help them in whatever they like. Deadline: ongoing
Welsh Cultural Recovery Fund Freelancer Grant
Well done to Wales for recognising the need for tailored support for freelancers in the creative industries. If you need it, move quick as phase one is approaching capacity. There will be another phase in due course. Offers £2,500 grant. Deadline: ongoing