Note From Tongal: “5 Ways to Support a Creative" is part of a series of Tongal Community-written blog posts that were originally sourced in the Tongal Blog Open Call Project. Read more Tongal Community-written posts here and then Pitch us a topic you'd like to write about for the Tongal Blog!
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Working as a creative is anything but stable. Financial income is sporadic, good news is sandwiched between rejections, it takes years to cultivate a professional network, and most of your friends probably still have no idea what it is you actually do. Luckily, the majority of us pursuing careers in the arts are not expecting to find stability right away. Photographers, artists, graphic designers, filmmakers, video editors, writers, musicians, etc. are all defying the odds to make it in our respective fields. If we didn’t all love what we do, there’s no reason we’d keep doing it. However, we can’t do it alone, and that is where the support from family, friends, colleagues, and strangers can make all of the difference.
If you have a creative person in your life, then chances are you are both proud and terrified for them as they continue to work towards their dreams. As friends and family of a creative, below are five impactful ways of showing support.
Share their latest work.
A little bit louder for everyone in the back: SHARE their latest work with your own network of friends, family, and colleagues. In today’s society, social media is an extremely effective tool for artists and creative professionals to get their work seen by larger audiences. It takes two seconds to retweet, post in your Instagram story, re-share on Facebook, or copy the link to message it to a friend who might be interested in the film, photo exhibit, concert, new album, etc.
Never underestimate the power of a social media share/shout out, because you never know who you might reach with your post or how that could have a ripple effect. As simple and trivial as it might sound, social media has made posting and sharing a form of currency, and to artists that means a lot.
Send a “U ok?” not a “U up?” text.
You know the people who send messages only when they need help, recommendations, free work, advice, etc. These people are the “U up?” players of the creative field. There will always be people who want to “pick your brain” and benefit from your knowledge and successes, but are nowhere to be found when you need support. If you have a creative in your life that you value and care about, check in every once in a while. I promise it makes a big difference -- even if it’s as simple as a “U ok?” text.
I really do enjoy connecting with other creatives in the industry who are looking for advice or wanting to collaborate on projects, but I just don’t tolerate the people who want free work, help, or advice under the guise of friendship.
If you utilize their skills, pay them.
Working or collaborating on a project with a friend or family member can be complicated, but if you value the work that someone has created for you and the time that it took for that person to do it, then always pay them. I choose to work on projects for free when it feels right to do so, but that is at my own discretion and should never be expected of someone in a creative profession.
This point is specifically for contracts or paid work. There should be an obvious difference between asking your photographer friend to take a photo of you on your iPhone versus asking them to photograph you in three outfit changes and edit the photos for free. Please don’t be the person who asks the latter.
Keep each other accountable.
If you work a full-time job and paint on the side, you are a creative. If you have two part-time jobs so you can make time for your writing, you are a creative. If you are a full-time film editor and get paid to do what you are passionate about, you are a creative. The role of a creative is not tied entirely to the amount of income generated by one’s art. Some of you reading this post might not be pursuing a creative field, and some of you probably are in a creative profession. If you are a creative too, then holding creative friends accountable is that much easier.
Checking in to see what your loved one is working on is a great way to keep them accountable and aware of their commitment to new projects. It gives tasks like finishing a grant proposal a lot more meaning, and allows for them to allocate time to those same tasks in the future.
Let them vent.
Every job provides its own set of struggles, so creatives are not the only ones with work difficulties. However, the problems that creatives face in the field are unique compared to an office job. For example, a good friend of mine was just starting out as a musician and decided to take a gig creating a commercial jingle for a restaurant. He didn’t sign a contract before sending in the final work, and was told his payment would consist of three free dinners at the restaurant instead of an actual check. To this day, he still brings it up to people who are just starting out as musicians as a warning to always sign a contract.
Letting the creatives in your life vent to you or use you as a sounding board for potential new projects goes a long way. You’re not expected to solve our problems, but sometimes it just helps to talk things through.
Maybe you already support the creatives in your life in the ways listed above. If so, we appreciate you and can’t imagine life without you. There are many ways to show support, and everyone’s needs are a little bit different. However, for a creative in today’s society there is one act of support that will continue to be important: SHARING their work on social media and/or by word of mouth.
