Artists U introducing new working groups for artists
Addressing shifts by shifting together
Artists U is launching a new platform for artists during this ongoing crisis: SHIFT Working Groups.
These launch first in South Carolina with two SHIFT Intros this week. During a one-hour Zoom conversation, Artists U will introduce the program and answer questions. First, here’s a bit more from Artists U about this new initiative and how it can help artists.
SHIFT Working Groups: artists working together in a time of crisis
Our world is shifting rapidly. We need to shift.
We at Artists U want to work through these shifts together. We want to build positive, rigorous conversations about surviving and thriving during—and beyond—this time of uncertainty. Standing together allows us to share resources and ideas, but is not merely transactional; it is transformational. It is a model for how to live once this pandemic passes.
Artists have so much to contribute at this moment of crisis. By stabilizing our lives, we can activate our skills as artists to create things in our community and our world: new art, structures, connections, and futures.
Let us do what artists have always done: use what we have to build what we need.
What is a SHIFT Working Group?
A SHIFT working group is a group of 2-12 artists who commit to meeting online once a week and attending weekly online SHIFT workshops. You organize your group; Artists U provides the structure, prompts, and workshops. Together, we build solutions and support to stabilize the present and create what is next. We will:
- Stabilize our physical health, mental health, and financial health, and the health of those around us. This is our first priority. We cannot create or contribute well until we are stable.
- Clarify and strengthen our roles in our communities and culture. Once we are secure, we can make things, build things. In this crisis, that could take many forms: art that comforts or heals or pushes or fights, collective structures for resource and care, practices to grieve and mourn, tools for staying connected and nourished.
- Imagine, plan, and build the new and needed structures, ways of working, economies, and paradigms. This moment is full of possibility. Artists can help conceptualize and create what is next in our communities, art worlds, and economies.
What is the commitment?
- form a group of 2-12 artists
- meet weekly online with your group
- attend online one-hour workshops once a week with the larger SHIFT community (you can attend these live or recorded)
- do the writing prompts
- listen generously and sharing openly
Register here to learn more
Interested? Here are the dates and times of the information sessions (on Zoom):
- Tuesday, March 31, 5 p.m. (click link to register)
- Wednesday, April 1, 12 p.m. (click link to register)