Appr 180 participants from 24 nations were present at this 38th International seminar. The organization: Christian Artists Europe celebrated as well its 40 years anniversary. Every year a seminar was organised with exception of 1980 and 2014.
Professional artists, teachers, upcoming young toptalent were gathered and went through this trainingsprogramm of meetings, groupdiscussion,workshops (66 different ones), masterclasses and fascinating plenairy meetings consisting of multi-art presentations of musicians, singers, songwriters, visual artists, media artists, performing artists and such.
The topic this year was motivation as inner energy source for the artistic career as key tool for survival and making work possible.
As we look back we have seen the following topic developments over the years:
In the first period of CA the discussed topics were: art and the church, artists and their faith, artists within the church and christian artists outside the church; artists church and money.
The second period at CA discussed many things that are happening in the world around us and having a deep impact on the life of artists. It was especially interesting to look at the consequencies when this context is changing rapidly.
In the third period at CA we discussed work-related topics, like health risks and health care; retirement and aging; the change from working for a boss/organization and such and compared to the massive trend that artists are selfemployed and should work like entrepeneurs (which they never learned at conservatoria, academia and such..). For the topics of the second and third period highly appreciated subsidies from EZA (European Centre for Workers Questions, Königswinter)/EU were received to cover the costs of outstanding contributions of key speakers, lectors and such.
The total sum of all those seminars revealed some staggering facts: 5 years after graduation (to be any kind of artist) only 50% is still actively following their creative career. 10 years after graduation 90% has left the arts and culture world, now doing other things. The ways to survive lies in mixed jobs (part time artists, part time another job) or really becoming a kind of entrepeneur (which requires management, promotion and marketing skills, so you need to learn that).
But at the end ,the real very strong driving force is the personal motivation of the artist. So what is your drive? Money? Fame? Recognition? Or the inner drive that your ARE an artist?
That is the reason that at CA 2019 the focus was on the personal motivation. What are you real sources of motivation? What and how can motivation be strengthened ? There is a motivation cycle, so how can artists escape the negative energy of demotivation, moving back into the positive energy of real motivation. Extreme demotivation can even lead to illness… Motivation is a form of energy. It can be enhanced when you can connect to the power of the divine Spirit, a promise and possibilty the Bible is mentioning, God is promising in the epistles of the apostles.
And in the day and evening performances great examples could be seen of this combination of human energy in combination with the spiritual energy.
Key speakers were Leen and Ria La Rivière, the founding ‘parents’ of CA, having given good leadership all those years and being examples of inspiration and great examples of real motivation.
We can only be very thankful for all those beautiful, great and promising contributions.
At the end of the seminar as part of the celebration of 40 years we had a moment of rememberance: mentioning the names of all the lectors, artists, teachers, speakers, pastors, staff who contributed to CA and have passed away. A very moving moment to remember: we are as CA united as a kind of family. And the end of the last evening presentation/concert Leen and Ria La Rivière got a flower ceremony as thanks for their 40 years of leadership. The final morning had a thank you-goodbye – blessing ceremony to help people on the road back to the realities of the real life.