BTS x The Side Woo - Balancing the Spiritual and Practical Sides of a Creative Career

Hear more from Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter of Tiny Inventions on using grants and residencies in Europe to fund their animation practice, negotiating the slow, labor-intensive process of stop-motion animation with the demands of commercial clients, how even an Oscar nomination didn't prevent future failures or rejections, making the hard decision to shelve a feature film they'd worked on for years, and how they balance their time between family, teaching, and running a small business.

Hear more from Art.coop core organizer Sruti Suryanarayanan on how artists are building their own economies, ways artists are likely participating in the solidarity economy movement without even realizing it, how Art.coop is raising awareness while rejecting stereotypes like the "starving artist" and "sellout," ways artists can incorporate collectivist practices into their own work, and bringing creativity and imagination to the systems and structures around us while building toward a better future.

Hear more from Julia Halperin, arts and culture journalist, on why structural progress is so slow to manifest in the art world, the sobering realities about representation of female-identifying and Black American artists with new data to back it up from the Burns Halperin Report, how to actually create change from the inside out within museums, using data collection to shape decisions in our own personal lives, how frustratingly arbitrary legacy-defining moments in the arts can seem, and why she's interested in telling stories that haven't been told yet.

Hear more from Dexter Wimberly on persevering through personal challenges while embracing change, making an early career pivot into the art world from marketing & advertising, supporting artists in their professional development through his work as an independent curator, founder of Hayama Artist Residency, co-founder of CreativeStudy (formerly Art World Conference) and Senior Critic at New York Academy of Art, bringing an entrepreneurial mindset to every aspect of life, and giving ourselves permission to dream bigger.

Hear more from Sharon Louden on her new book "Last Artist Standing: Living and Sustaining a Creative Life Over 50," what we can learn about longevity and the real needs of artists from late-career stages, the importance of intergenerational bridges, leading from a place of gratitude and generosity, and how community makes it possible to move with strength and resiliency.