You remember that book Random Acts of Kindness, don’t you? It’s based on the idea that life is better when you pay it forward: pay someone’s toll behind you, or offer the dollar to the guy who’s just “.50 cents short” for the cookie or coffee he just ordered in front of you.
Well, I think artists are well positioned to orchestrate random acts of connectivity. We can sprout up all over and touch people INSTANTLY. All we need to know is HOW to set the table to do it and not have it leaving us broke.
When I started creating small random acts of kindness, just like in the book, a whole new world opened up to me. One that showed me INSTANTLY what a BIG impact something so small can bring to a TOTAL STRANGER. What cool energy to be able to share with someone you don’t even know. That’s what’s suppose to happen when money flows through our hands into anothers. We exchange energy. And positivity.
It doesn’t have to be so foreign to us artists. We really can embrace prosperity–if we can learn how to model a behavior that demonstrates our ability to manage it.
Joyce Thomas from University of Illinois sent me this video clip and, being the emotional one that I am, it reduced me almost instantly to tears. It made me realize how much I want to continue to push my own boundaries around the intersection between my art form and my (ad)venture. What about you?
I am taking my clarinet to Algeria with me. I never leave home without it. I wonder if I can create a connecting random creative act while I am there of my very own? As a classically trained clarinetist, I have taken to improvisation. I have never taken the time to learn jazz, I dabble at klezmer, but its simply fun to “let go” and see what kind of music I can create from my classical training. And becoming an entrepreneur requires skilled improvisation–so the words artist and entrepreneur really do fit nicely together. It takes a lot of flexibility to launch a career in the arts and you have to have the skills and the know-how.
www.CreativeMinorityReport. com( There is a good clip on Macy’s floor here. Sorry I could not find the direct link.)
In early November, shoppers at the the Macy’s in Philadelphia were surprised when over 600 choristers who were there mingling with regular shoppers suddenly burst into Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus.
The Opera Company of Philadelphia was instrumental in bringing it together to perform one of the Knight Foundation’s “1000 Random Acts of Culture” which they’ll be doing over the next three years across the country. Accompanied by the Wanamaker Organ – the world’s largest pipe organ – the singers burst into song at exactly noon.
