Artists U brings its career-boosting program to a free Germantown session

Don’t starve. Make art.

That’s the mantra of Artists U, a free open-source platform for groups of artists to come together and build actionable, sustainable careers around their skills. And the June 1 meeting of the Germantown Artists Roundtable is offering a free two-hour session with Artists U founder Andrew Simonet.

Simonet, who lives in West Philly, was a founding co-director and choreographer of Philly’s Headlong Dance Theater from 1993-2013, and is a boundary-pushing Philly Fringe creator. Now, he’s a fiction writer and documentary filmmaker. He offers his book, Making Your Life as an Artist, as a free download through the Artists U website (more than 76,600 downloads and counting). The paperback sells for $14.

“I started Artists U in Philadelphia in 2006 because I was tired of seeing brilliant artists leading punishing lives, perpetually exhausted, broke, and discouraged,” Simonet says on the Artists U website. He wanted a practical, accessible, actionable “movement” to break this cycle. With funding from a range of foundations, Artists U now operates in Philly, Baltimore, and South Carolina.

It provides the platform and free-to-download materials to launch “working groups” of five artists or more, who follow a specially developed workbook and curriculum through a series of at least five meetings, guiding them through “four key documents for building a sustainable life”: a plan, an artist mission statement, a budget, and a calendar.

According to the Roundtable, “Andrew will talk about practical tactics that can change an artist’s trajectory.” The session will address why artists aren’t destined to be poor, the tools they already have to get rolling in a realistic and fulfilling career, and tips on “how to build a life that is balanced, productive, and sustainable.” Attendees of this pot-luck gathering who want to begin their own working groups will have access to the Artists U tools.

Building a Sustainable Life as an Artist, a special session of the Germantown Artists Roundtable, co-sponsored by Germantown United CDC, is coming to Historic Germantown, 5501 Germantown Avenue, on Wednesday, June 1 from 7-9pm. Attendees should RSVP to [email protected] to reserve seats.