Q & A WITH MEREDITH POTTER

Listen to the podcast to hear the entire interview.

How many years have you worked in Arts Management?

Why did you make the change to become freelance arts manager?

It was a combination of desire and practicality. I have been working as a freelance manager with Peggy Baker since 2002 and I wanted to continue that but I found it difficult to find a full time position that allowed me to work with Peggy on a part time basis. So I jerry-rigged a group of clients together over a space of 6 months to be able to still earn a decent salary and maintain Peggy in my client base. So I rearranged my management life to continue working with Peggy, change the pattern of my life and at that point I start working from home, which I love.

How do you feel the face of arts management has changed over the years and where would you like to see it go in the future?

I can only really answer that question from the perspective of how arts management during my career changed and that’s really based on my work situation. When I moved to Canada I started working with much smaller scale artists and artist driven orgs, I now specialize in a sub-segment of subsidized artists and work with founding artistic directors. I went from being in highly structured environments and went into much more organic, (shall I say chaotic) smaller environments. 

In terms of the field, I don’t know that things have changed enough. I feel like that there aren’t enough young people coming into the sector. When I was first starting up there were plenty of people in their 20s but I look around now and I see very few. Maybe we haven’t changed our practices or our models enough to seriously develop our audiences and really develop a base from which to work. A lot of companies are facing huge hurdles in terms of dwindling audience numbers and I think that’s because of a reliance on some old ideas.

How do you think that we can attract younger professionals to the field and keep them here?

Another toughy…I think it’s a question of what turns individuals on. We have to be able to communicate the unique characteristics of what it is to be an arts manager and hopefully that will appeals to certain individuals. They have got to have a predisposition to like the arts, to want to work with artists, feel that arts in society is important and to want to be a part of that.

At the end of the day, those are things that give me satisfaction. You look back and say, I made a big contribution to bringing that work to that community or to allowing that artist to share that vision with that group of people. If you’re not turned on by that sort of stuff, then arts management isn’t for you. If we can communicate to young people the satisfaction and deep level of appreciation that you can get from your working life and working with artists I think that very real experience is going to be attractive to some people.

What is that thing that keeps you going?

My friend Nova Bhattacharya, who is also a freelance manager and a dancer and I have an expression, we call it ‘the back of the theatre moment.’ It’s when the performance is wrapping up and the audience has been enraptured for a duration of the show, they’re on their feet cheering and the artists are taking their bows. It’s a moment where a huge communication has taken place plus a huge appreciation has been shown and you absolutely take pride in being a part of making that process happen. It’s a not a selfish moment or an ego moment where you’re like “If it weren’t for me this would never happened,” it’s not like that at all. It’s really a feeling about being part of something big and significant and I find it really moving.

What advice would you give an emerging arts professional coming into the field and how do they continue to grow and gain skills that will help them and the field?

If I look back, I haven’t had many formal professional development experiences but I have worked with specific individuals who have been absolutely monumental in my appreciation for how you can go about your work, for how you can carry yourself in your working life, for idea generation and that sort of thing. I can think of three or four people who really made a huge impression on me and I can hear their language in my written expression.

My advice to EAPs would be to make every effort to get into organizations whether your volunteering or try to organize an internship, it’s working with seasoned professionals that is so valuable in terms of learning and you can just be a sponge and absorb all types of skills and experiences.

The other thing to say about mentorship is that it doesn’t end once you hit 30. Life long learning is really what it’s all about. I’m 36 and by no means do I think I have this thing sussed. There are some senior arts managers who I have met over the last few years who I turn to ask questions and get advice from on a fairly regular basis who are really influential in my thinking.

It’s just a principal to have with you through your career to use your colleagues as resources and the flip side of that is that you have to give back. As you’re going through your career you do have to do talks at the Indie Trade Forum about what it is to be an arts manager, and all that kind of stuff, because you are part of a larger community. You are part of larger knowledge base and you can draw upon it and put back into it.