How to Maintain Your Artistic Practice After Graduation

Summary

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you’re not an island, and neither are we. So, we are reaching across our own contacts – and beyond - to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Want to hear a particular expert or topic? Find us on Twitter @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear: author Beth Pickens discuss Your Art Will Save Your Life, and wisdom on why you need to preserve your artistic practice, and what to do with what blocks you.

Our guest is: Beth Pickens, a Los Angeles-based consultant for artists and arts organizations and the author of Your Art Will Save Your Life. She has a Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology, and provides career consultation, grant writing, fundraising, and financial, project, and strategic planning services for artists and arts organizations in the U.S. She teaches at the California Institute of the Arts School of Theater, and specializes in supporting queer and trans artists, women, and artists of color.

Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender. She specializes in decoding diaries written by rural women in the 19th century. She credits her ability to read nearly-illegible things to a childhood spent trying read her dad’s handwriting. She reinterprets traditional narratives in her blogs, podcasts, essays, photography, and poetry. Christina supports her artistic practice by taking daily photos in nature, which she posts at: https://www.facebook.com/themeditationwalks/

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

  • Big Friendship by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman
  • Art INC. by Lisa Congdon
  • Find Your Artistic Voice: The Essential Guide to Working Your Creative Magic by Lisa Congdon
  • How To Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell
  • Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles and Ted Orland
  • How to Break Up with Your Phone by Catherine Price
  • Make Your Art No Matter What: Moving Beyond Creative Hurdles by Beth Pickens (out April 6 on Chronicle Books)

Your Host

Christina Gessler

Dr. Christina Gessler is the creator, show host, and producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in U.S. history.
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