Self-care: A guide for artists in cultural mediation

By Pierre Ran­court, artist-mediator.

Just read­ing the title of this arti­cle may have pro­voked a nod of under­stand­ing. As an artist work­ing in the vast field of social action through the arts, self-care is not always at the top of your list! This inevitably leads to reflec­tion on what we give and what we receive in this work, on the moti­va­tions that dri­ve us, and on what we need to do to keep the pas­sion alive. It’s with great humil­i­ty that I share with you, in this short arti­cle, some guide­lines for self-care as an artist in cul­tur­al medi­a­tion. I’ll be draw­ing on my own expe­ri­ence as a prac­ti­tion­er, as well as sug­gest­ing some exter­nal resources. I hope you’ll be able to trans­pose and adapt this to your own expe­ri­ence, and con­tin­ue to reflect on how to improve your per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al well-being.

Why is a specific health guide needed for music mediators?

Cul­tur­al medi­a­tion is a rel­a­tive­ly new pro­fes­sion. Whether free­lance or salaried, it is not yet gov­erned by any offi­cial asso­ci­a­tion, and work­places are extreme­ly var­ied. This is reflect­ed in work­ing con­di­tions, which are often nego­ti­at­ed on a free­lance basis; job sta­bil­i­ty and work­ing hours can be a chal­lenge. All this con­trasts with the demands of a career path that’s often some­what dar­ing, that often involves work­ing alone. And the icing on the cake, which is com­mon to all sit­u­a­tions: the core of this work con­cerns inter­per­son­al rela­tion­ships and, as such, the results of our actions are often sub­jec­tive, qual­i­ta­tive and intangible.

These are all fac­tors that can under­mine the per­cep­tion of the intrin­sic val­ue of work, the feel­ing of com­pe­tence and secu­ri­ty, and, by the same token, men­tal health. It’s impor­tant to lay the foun­da­tions for ongo­ing train­ing that can alle­vi­ate these difficulties.

Feeling recognized

The basis of a feel­ing of recog­ni­tion is, of course, remu­ner­a­tion, which needs to be nego­ti­at­ed fair­ly. Here are a few ques­tions to ask your­self when nego­ti­at­ing a fee:

• Is the work required in my field of exper­tise, or will I need to seek addi­tion­al train­ing? For exam­ple, am I famil­iar with the type of work involved? Have I already worked in this envi­ron­ment or with this spe­cif­ic audience?
• Is time for prepa­ra­tion, design and trans­porta­tion tak­en into account? This is very impor­tant, since prepa­ra­tion — and the research or design of activ­i­ties — usu­al­ly rep­re­sents the bulk of the time investment.
• Does the rate take my lev­el of expe­ri­ence into account?
• What is the schedule?
• Is the activ­i­ty a one-off or a recur­ring event? In oth­er words, can my prepa­ra­tion be reinvested?
• In the case of a posi­tion, what ben­e­fits are offered?

How­ev­er, a not incon­sid­er­able part of the “remu­ner­a­tion” often lies in the signs of appre­ci­a­tion that gives mean­ing to the work, nur­tures self-con­fi­dence as well as those ges­tures that sup­port the process of pro­fes­sion­al­iza­tion and enable us to improve. For exam­ple, you might ask yourself:

• How will I know if I’ve made a difference?
• Will I be able to get some feed­back from the peo­ple who took part in the activity?
• Will I have access to com­ments from an even­tu­al review?
• Will I have access to videos and pho­tos that can doc­u­ment my inter­ven­tion and help me build my pro­fes­sion­al identity?

Not every­one has the same recog­ni­tion needs. It’s impor­tant to know who you are and have the courage to ask for what you need.

Know When to Say Yes, Know When to Say No

The suc­cess of a cul­tur­al medi­a­tion inter­ven­tion depends on spe­cif­ic tech­ni­cal and human qual­i­ties. By devel­op­ing these qual­i­ties, and espe­cial­ly if you spe­cial­ize in work­ing with spe­cif­ic, mar­gin­al­ized or spe­cial-needs pop­u­la­tions, you will inevitably be more and more sought-after and drawn into this world of social action through art, where the needs are great and the oppor­tu­ni­ties more excit­ing than ever. Often, I find myself in the sit­u­a­tion where my pas­sion for a cause is greater than the finan­cial resources at my dis­pos­al… For exam­ple, I may dwell on the design of an activ­i­ty because I want to make sure I’m offer­ing an opti­mal expe­ri­ence, tai­lor-made for a group or an occa­sion. This leads me to devote more hours to it than the bud­get allows, which trans­lates into extra work — some of it unpaid. Of course, the plea­sure I derive from imple­ment­ing the project will often reward the effort, but the fact remains that this way of doing things can lead to exhaus­tion. This brings us back to our basic advice: you have to be selec­tive. It’s the price you pay for feel­ing your best and for pre­serv­ing your health.

Continuing to practice our art

Aren’t we called ‘artistes-médi­a­teurs’, ‘artistes-médi­atri­ces’ in French, and Teach­ing Artists in Eng­lish? I must say that I par­tic­u­lar­ly appre­ci­ate these titles. It reminds me not to for­get that I am first and fore­most an artist, despite the fact that my role as medi­a­tor can be par­tic­u­lar­ly demand­ing at times.

A few of the ques­tions I’ve been ask­ing myself: how do I man­age the dia­logue between these two facets of my work: the medi­a­tor and the artist? What is the link between the two? Are these two aspects of my work in com­pe­ti­tion with each oth­er, or are they com­ple­men­tary? Does being a medi­a­tor make me a less accom­plished artist? Is it a sign that I don’t have “what it takes” to be “just an artist”? These are ques­tions that some­times reflect cer­tain prej­u­dices, but which are fun­da­men­tal because they touch on the artist’s self-esteem and sense of legitimacy.

I can say from expe­ri­ence that my work as a medi­a­tor has great­ly enriched my artis­tic prac­tice. It has giv­en my artis­tic prac­tice mean­ing. It has put me in touch with the lives, con­cerns and dreams of many peo­ple. It has “de-cen­tered me from myself”, an immense ben­e­fit in con­trast to the trap of ego­cen­tric­i­ty. It has been the source of inspi­ra­tion for many artis­tic projects. Final­ly, by restor­ing the bal­ance between my sense of self and soci­ety, it has made me bet­ter at com­mu­ni­cat­ing with audi­ences in per­for­mance situations.

To main­tain this bal­ance, how­ev­er, it’s essen­tial to take time to refo­cus, time for your­self; to reg­u­lar­ly be “self­ish”, in a way. In oth­er words, it’s essen­tial to prac­tice your art! We know — and research con­firms — that artis­tic prac­tice has ben­e­fi­cial effects for indi­vid­u­als in the pop­u­la­tion at large. Let’s not for­get that these effects are no less pro­nounced for artists who prac­tice mediation!

Re-centering: a few essentials

Re-cen­tring your­self often starts with tak­ing care of your body. Per­haps, like the major­i­ty of adults in Cana­da, you’re one of those who don’t devote enough time to phys­i­cal activ­i­ty (a min­i­mum of two and a half hours a week, accord­ing to the Pub­lic Health Agency of Cana­da). In my opin­ion, for musi­cians, these min­i­mums should be increased, since our work depends so inti­mate­ly on our phys­i­cal con­di­tion: think of all the injuries linked to pos­ture at the instru­ment, not to men­tion those linked to the use of the voice in some­times unfavourable contexts.

For­tu­nate­ly, there are a mul­ti­tude of ways to fit phys­i­cal activ­i­ty into a busy sched­ule. The recent pop­u­lar­i­ty of fit­ness apps has tak­en the monop­oly of phys­i­cal activ­i­ty away from gyms and train­ing rooms, mak­ing it acces­si­ble and moti­vat­ing for any­one with an inter­net con­nec­tion and a min­i­mum of equip­ment at home.

To this must be added the wealth of exer­cis­es based on med­i­ta­tion, and more specif­i­cal­ly on breath­ing. These are very use­ful prac­tices for us who some­times work under pres­sure and have to man­age group dynam­ics in unset­tling envi­ron­ments. After all, music has the pow­er to open the door to the world of emo­tions. It’s essen­tial to have the men­tal space to wel­come and man­age the emo­tion­al con­tent we come into con­tact with through our work.

Countering isolation

As an artist work­ing in medi­a­tion, you can some­times feel iso­lat­ed, espe­cial­ly if you’re self-employed, even when work­ing in well-estab­lished cul­tur­al medi­a­tion depart­ments in large-scale orga­ni­za­tions. In such cas­es, it’s a good idea to estab­lish links with oth­ers in the same pro­fes­sion. This is the prin­ci­ple of the “com­mu­ni­ty of prac­tice”, a form of net­work­ing spe­cif­ic to a par­tic­u­lar pro­fes­sion and based on shar­ing, mutu­al sup­port and the com­mit­ment to find­ing solu­tions to com­mon prob­lems. Whether con­tacts are made in per­son or via vir­tu­al plat­forms, these com­mu­ni­ties have proven their worth; why not find out about the ones that already exist near­by, or per­haps start a new one?

For­tu­nate­ly, orga­ni­za­tions such as Arten­so and the Regroupe­ment des médi­atri­ces et médi­a­teurs cul­turels-les du Québec have recent­ly sprung up to bring cul­tur­al medi­a­tors togeth­er. The spaces they cre­ate fos­ter dia­logue and decom­part­men­tal­iza­tion by pro­vid­ing train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties and fos­ter­ing dis­cus­sions on best prac­tices. I encour­age you to get in touch with these groups.

In conclusion: why do I do what I do?

When it comes to assess­ing one’s own over­all health, it’s impos­si­ble to deny the impor­tance of sat­is­fac­tion in the pro­fes­sion­al sphere. In turn, this sat­is­fac­tion is large­ly linked to the feel­ing of con­sis­ten­cy with one’s per­son­al val­ues and the mean­ing asso­ci­at­ed with one’s work. We often come back to the ques­tion: “Why do I do what I do?

It’s up to each and every one of us to answer this ques­tion and peri­od­i­cal­ly recon­nect with the dynamism that our answer will inspire.

As far as I’m con­cerned, medi­a­tion and the stage have become two insep­a­ra­ble sides of my work as an artist, just as giv­ing and receiv­ing can be. How can I make a dif­fer­ence in soci­ety, be the spark that I want to be through my work as a medi­a­tor and facil­i­ta­tor? And how can I give if I’m not equal­ly con­cerned about my own per­son­al, over­all and long-term health?

With an eye set on this goal, each and every one of us will be able to make good head­way in our per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al lives.

Links and descriptions

Phys­i­cal activ­i­ty: Pub­lic Health Agency of Cana­da
When it comes to inte­grat­ing phys­i­cal activ­i­ty into your dai­ly rou­tine, we some­times for­get that the Pub­lic Health Agency of Cana­da is there to sup­port those who want to take charge of their health. The advice on this page, while broad in scope, is judi­cious and well-cho­sen.
https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/publications/healthy-living/physical-activity-tips-adults-18–64-years.html

Fit­ness appli­ca­tions
There’s a fit­ness app for every­one, but it’s a good idea to start by read­ing this arti­cle, which lists some of the most pop­u­lar apps.
https://www.forbes.com/health/fitness/best-fitness-apps/

Med­i­ta­tion
When it comes to med­i­ta­tion, the fol­low­ing arti­cle lists some pop­u­lar apps.
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-meditation-apps/

Car­diac coher­ence
This approach, devel­oped in the USA in the 1990s, has the advan­tage of offer­ing breath­ing pat­terns with real calm­ing prop­er­ties. This page lists a host of exer­cis­es you can explore and see for your­self (in French)
https://www.coherenceinfo.com/guides-respiratoires/

Com­mu­ni­ties of prac­tice
The Regroupe­ment des médi­a­teurs et médi­atri­ces cul­turels-les du Québec can help you find or set up a com­mu­ni­ty of prac­tice relat­ed to your field of activ­i­ty. The Regroupe­ment sug­gests com­mu­ni­cat­ing prefer­ably via the Face­book group, which is very easy to join (in French)
https://rmcq.info/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/196113430973123

Psy­cho­log­i­cal sup­port resources, by province/territory
Psy­cho­log­i­cal sup­port can some­times be dif­fi­cult to access, but this page, devel­oped by the Gov­ern­ment of Cana­da, is an excel­lent start­ing point.
https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/mental-health-services/mental-health-get-help.html

Psy­cho­log­i­cal cen­ter for artists (Que­bec)
In addi­tion to the Info-social ser­vice, which is well estab­lished in Que­bec, the Cen­tre psy­chologique pour artistes has recent­ly been launched in Que­bec. You need to be a mem­ber to use it, but the site offers rates based on your income (in French)
Info-Social: tele­phone 811 (in Que­bec)
Cen­ter psy­chologique pour artistes: https://www.cppartistes.com/

Time man­age­ment
A wide vari­ety of time man­age­ment coach­ing sites are avail­able online, but some offer free, well-researched arti­cles with advice that can be applied direct­ly to every­day life.
Mark McGui­ness: http://researchswinger.org/others/creativetime.pdf
Asana: https://asana.com/resources/time-management-tips

Estill Voice Train­ing
Whether you sing or not, the use of the voice is essen­tial for any artist-medi­a­tor in a cul­tur­al envi­ron­ment. Estill Voice Train­ing is a par­tic­u­lar­ly pop­u­lar approach to devel­op­ing vocal con­fi­dence. The site makes it easy to find a train­ing course, with fil­ters for coun­try, lan­guage and oth­er cri­te­ria.
https://estillvoice.com/find-a-course/

Imme­di­ate sup­port
Tele­phone 911 (gen­er­al assis­tance)
Tele­phone 988 (sui­cide hotline)