Developing mental strength in creative and performing artists: resilience, confidence and determination as essential for a sustainable career in the creative industries

It is well known in the literature that creative and performing artists face particular challenges when attempting to establish a viable and sustainable career in the creative industries. Despite this, enrolments in higher education programs in the creative and performing arts continue to increase in many parts of the world including Australia. While there is a developing body of literature that tracks the employment patterns of creative and performing artists, there is a vast gap in terms of research literature that explores the mental strengths or intrinsic personal qualities that are necessary to manage the complexities of this type of career. Given extant research points to the the precariousness of careers in the creative and performing arts, the capacity to be resilient, confident and determined appears to play a major influence on the extent to which graduates are successful. In the performing arts for example, stresses and challenges include coping with intensive critical feedback, performance anxiety, as well as frequent rejection when engaging in competitions and auditions for roles and employment. For those in commercially oriented areas such as photography and design, the artist-client relationship can be very difficult for those who feel they have to surrender their artistic identity or intent to satisfy a paying client. While the concept of resilience, for example, is well understood and taught in such areas as teacher training, it has received virtually no research attention or focus in the area of the creative and performing arts. This paper contextualises these various issues, argues the need for new research, and proposes that higher education providers should revisit their curricula in order to place a greater emphasis on the mental strength that graduates will require as they transition towards a career in the creative industries