Check out this new blog post on Substack.

https://open.substack.com/pub/zachfreidhof/p/out-of-town-artists-get-paid-and?r=18kjot&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

It’s an old tale. One I’ve seen in all the communities I’ve lived or worked in.

Organizations get big budgets to bring in outside experts, artists, bands. Their whole mission is to bring in talent from elsewhere. And that talent is costly. Yet, they seem to always find the money. There’s always money for this.

If you looked at this trend from the outside, you might think that these towns (ie nearly all towns) have no local artists, creatives, experts. Event after event highlights the wisdom, talent, and wellness brought in. Also, more often than not, these brought in folks bring no further value to the community. They share their wisdom or song, take their money, and leave.

And there is a place for knowledge and art to be spread around and brought in from elsewhere. No part of this writing is designed to say that folks from other places don’t bring valuable insight and inspiration. And don’t have a place in the ecosystem of a community.

The issue is that we tend to unanimously support this, while offering almost no support for the wisdom, art, and talent of folks who live and work in our town.

As an example of this, the Art Association of Jackson Hole is bringing in an author who wrote a book called Your Brain on Art, which looks at the science of how music and art has incredibly beneficial effects upon the brain and our health outcomes.

The information is something most folks who have interacted with the arts have felt. We know the arts help us physically, mentally, and communally. But it is good to have scientific data behind that feeling. In my experience, it is hard to get funding or financial support without data, no matter how much benefit people know the project or program brings.

It would be beneficial to bring in this author to speak to the funders, donors, governmental officials, etc to sell them on why funding local artists should be a priority.

BUT.

That is not what is happening.

Instead, this author is being paid to come to our community to share their findings to a room of people who will feel good about hearing about this science, and then leave.

It’s an event about someone telling us all things we mostly know, and highlighting the INDIVIDUAL benefits of music and art.

While there are indeed amazing individual benefits, they are often very temporary benefits without a discussion around community benefits, and how absolutely essential music and art is to community health, wellness, and overall success.

It all reminds me of when folks from BP tell us that to fight climate change we need to change our light bulbs to LED and recycle. All while a few companies and CEOs are pumping 97% of the pollution into the atmosphere. All of us changing our light bulbs will still result in devastation, without a change on the big levels.

This talk is something similar.

Painting at home boosts our happiness hormones. Singing can help us have a lower risk of dementia. All good things.

Meanwhile, our society makes life unlivable. We price out our local artists and creatives, so all that’s left are the extra rich, the lawyers, and wall street execs.

We also price out the community to access gatherings involving art and music. By relying on out of town bands to provide us musical communal experiences, we limit the benefits we can get to an occasional night - one that costs hundreds of dollars, not to mention parking prices and challenges, highly overprices food and drinks. It’s hard to truly engage in the community benefits of such an event after having to pay those costs.

The most uplifting events tend to be ones created and run by the community for the community.

Yet, we don’t fund these. It’s not that we fund these less than the big things, but we DON’T fund these, hardly at all.

Snow King is presenting 23 events EXCLUSIVIELY involving touring and out of town music.

That’s 100% funding leaving the valley. And 0% funding going to those of us who live and create here.

And most of the other events and organizations in the valley aren’t too much better.

The Tourism Board gives a minimum of half a million dollars to Rendezvous Fest, which allows typically, no space for local creativity. In the past they have allowed a local to open, but that is not anything close to a guarantee.

How many organizations are itching to spend a half million dollars on local artists and musicians?

I can’t name one.

I can’t name one in any town I’ve lived or worked in.

So, here’s my challenge to you.

My challenge to those of you with funds and resources. Those of you who run organizations and businesses.

Fund local art and creativity.

Make it a requirement to involve and PAY locals artists in your events and spaces.

Better yet, lets take that half a million given to a one day event, and give that level of money to our local musicians.

That would be a half a million dollar raise in support to local music.

Why do we allow folks to funnel our money out of community while turning our back on those of us living and working here?

If that seems like a wild idea, then ask yourself why it’s acceptable to spend millions of dollars on an unsustainable and ineffective practice of importing temporary wisdom, entertainment, and mental health, while exporting our economy and future?

Here are some thoughts on what truly supporting local music and local community looks like.

https://open.substack.com/pub/zachfreidhof/p/what-is-support-441?r=18kjot&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

For the last several years, I've been seeking opportunities for local original music in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. And there isn't a lot, sadly. Especially, nothing that actually celebrates the original music in these mountains. 

So, we're organizing an event to bring community together, to celebrate and support local creative expression and the local economy.

The Raven: A Local Music Celebration, is an opportunity to learn about, listen to, and support local music and musicians. 

Live music events are mental and physical health interventions. And so is creating community.

So far, we have a line-up including:

Zach Freidhof
Aaron Davis
Hilary Camino
Pat Chadwick
Bea Jones
Kennison Spiering
 

And more!

More info to be updated soon. 

Revol stands for many things.

Revol is a play on revel, which is to deeply enjoy oneself, to deeply immerse oneself in amazement and wonder. Can we cultivate a community that truly revels in local original music? Can we build revelry into spaces and events featuring local original music?

Revol can be short for revolution. Celebrating and supporting local music is a complete change of the current narrative, and it will require changing structures to build new supports.

Revolution can also imply a record, spinning. To get spins is a term for getting heard, which is one of the points of this effort.

The image of a circle reminds us of giving and receiving. Circles are also natural forms of community and organizing, and in many cultures represent unity or cohesion. 

Revol is LOVE spelled backwards. And Love is the core value of everything I do, and everything this project is rooted into.   

When we build support and celebration for our local creative community, we are creating something magical, and most importantly, essential for a flourishing humanity.

Trying to change a system that does not support a creative ecosystem requires a lot of moving pieces.

So where do we start?

The best place to begin is where you're at.

There are a lot of touch points to make change.

Immediate Areas of Influence:

If you create events, or run venues, you can engage with the local music community, and see how you can find ways to create more support. Anything from encouraging original music performances, booking local original artists for events, fundraisers, community events, parties and weddings.

You can reach out to local event planners and venues and engage in dialogue to encourage more local original music.

You can host house concerts. They can be in homes, parks, venues, block parties and can be organized to fit into many types and sizes of spaces.

Change the narrative. Have conversations in your circle about the power of local original music. Share the stories of impact you've experienced at local performances. 

A simple and basic support, thank venues that have local original music. 

Tip and applaud local musicians.

GO TO LOCAL ORIGINAL MUSIC EVENTS AND PERFORMANCES.

Next Levels:

You can fund / financially support local original artists. This can be from a large scale down to a small monthly Patreon-style support. 

Create petitions and larger-scale conversations with the town/ county and local funding and grant-giving entities.

Shift funding from national touring acts to local artists. This will take an organized effort and voice to change some of these funding structures. It also takes changing the narrative that national acts are better and a better investment. 

Boycott events and venues that don't support local original music.

Bigger Scope:

Create connection and support regionally across organizations and artists.

Engage in regional funding structures.

Create partnerships between regional venues, and state-wide partners. 

Push for more state and national funding for local artists. Ireland undertook a pilot program to give their artists a yearly basic income, and it is proving to be a successful change, bringing a higher return on the investment than many expected.

Run for offices, and vote for people who understand the importance of local artists to local community and economy.

These are only some of the actions we can take. Our creativity offers us nearly infinite options. What other actions would you suggest?