Artists and Money – An Alternative Approach (Part 1: The Gift Economy)

Is tight-fisted the only way?

Screenshot of Josh Coffy's Gift Prolific website
All artwork © Joshua Coffy

Money. For most artists it is our least favourite topic; something we wish someone else would handle on our behalf. For all the courses that promise that we can become comfortable with our right to be well-paid for what we do, for many of us this remains the most thorniest area of our lives. 
But what if there were another way? 

• What if instead of having to focus on gathering green-backs and maxing our 'moolah' we could start running the economic side of our art business in a way that sat more comfortably with our spiritual side? 
  
• What if all the dots of our Art-Life, that intuitively we know are linked, could be demonstrably connected?
  
• What if, instead of trying to fit our idealistic personalities into the mould of hard-nosed business people, we could express our idealist side even MORE? 
  
• What if instead of something that hampers us, this side of our personality could become one of the main driving forces of our Art Business? Part of our mission, our Life Purpose?
  

Lately, along with a stimulating and supportive group of other creatives over on my favourite online creative community, I've been deeply pondering over these questions and this week it the universe decided to bombard me with food for thought.

Sacred Economics?

Sacred Economics 
by Charles Eisenstein

The Ascent of Humanity
by Charles Eisenstein

First landed in my inbox,  Aletta de Wal’s wonderful interview with Joshua Coffy – animal artist with a twist – in which Coffy talks about the very central role that gifting his work has played in developing his art business. 

Then there was an email containing some enlightening information about Shamanism from another discussion group I belong to. I know nothing about Shamanism, and might have imagined I wouldn't want to until I read the email. I certainly didn't know about it's basis in the spiritual connection between every aspect of physical manifestation.

Finally there was a link in my Twitter stream to a Huffington Post article about a graphic designer who had started 'giving away' his work. This led me to the work of Charles Eisenstein, the author of several books including The Ascent of Humanity and Sacred Economics.

Vision of a 'Gift Economy'

When I watched the 10 minute video created for free for Eisenstein by Ian MacKenzie in the spirit of the 'gift economy', these seemingly disparate pieces began to fall into place with almost alarming alacrity.

I was suddenly able to envisage a world where the kind of values I am naturally aligned to, could actually be the norm – as indeed they have been in many communities in the past and continue to be so to a greater or lesser degree in certain communities today including those of small Spanish towns like the one where I live; a world not driven by fierce competition but a belief in cooperation; a society where earning respect means being the person always ready to hold out a helping hand rather than keep a tightly clasped fist full of dollars; a world where we don't permanently need to be saving for the future at the expense of today because everyone's future needs being covered is built into the system. A world which, I am happy to say I have, to some extent, always inhabited and which has meant that I have benefitted from an extraordinary amount of bounty with very little financial liquidity to back it up.

How Can Artists Pursue an Alternative Economic Model?

How, as artists or creatives of any kind, can we begin to make this a reality in out own Art-Lives? In the next post I'll be looking at Pay What You Want schemes.

• Read: Sacred Economics – available to download FREE as an epub or PDF from Charles Eisenstein’s Sacred Economics website. You can of course give him a 'gift' donation in return.
  
• Visit: Josh Coffy's blog The Gift Prolific
  
• Get my RSS Feed: So you don't miss out on the second half of this article.
  
• Comment: Are there any systems or schemes you know of or have experience of that might contribute to a different kind of vision for our Art-Lives?