Monika Neall on why working part time in the arts is harder than it seems
These will be familiar sentences to you: “Some evening and weekend work will be required” or “I don’t do it for the money, I do it because I love it / it’s important”. One of the things I have always loved about the arts sector is the level of enthusiasm and genuine love for the business. I also love that the sector places value on life as well as work. Spending time going to the theatre, or an art exhibition or a family friendly film festival, or having a dinner party with friends, is considered an excellent thing to do.
Having worked in the arts since my early 20s, I found that juggling my work and my interests was easy. Having consistently seen how flexible the sector is, I presumed that this would extend to the time when I became a mother and positively noted all the part time opportunities that the arts sector throws up.
I was unprepared for the reality. In fact it has taken a year of working freelance after my maternity year to realise there is a problem with making this work. I have been so focused on the dearth of opportunities due to the economy and the forced budget cuts, that I did not consider how difficult a sector it is to work in when juggling work with motherhood. [The issue of working mothers and all the difficulties this brings is not new, nor is it likely to go away any time soon, so this blog is not an article about feminism or the potential of equality and how near or far we are to that goal. If you’d like to read more on that discussion there is an interesting link here]
Time off in lieu is standard, part time working is common; yet the expectation on you to be flexible is one of the things that makes the arts world go round. After school youth engagement projects, evening events, launches and performances, weekend workshops and 10 day intensive festivals, to name a few scenarios means that having my daughter at nursery for 3 days a week and having to pick her up at 5pm often leaves me saying; “I can’t make that event”, “I’ll have to leave early”, “I can’t work 6 days a week in the run up to that” or worse still, having to deselect myself from work opportunities because the project’s requirements do not take kindly to part time working hours.
I like my work, and I am proud of what I do, what I achieve and the impact I have on the young people I work with. I also love being a mother. The realisation that it is harder than I had hoped to balance the two is disappointing and I’m not ashamed to admit that I had been unprepared for the knock in confidence saying ‘no’ a lot would have. Recognising the problem and finding a solution that works are two very different things indeed.