It’s really hard for me to sit down and get creative. I don’t necessarily feel like I’m that artsy of a person. I’m more about the end goal, logistics, and taking care of things behind the scenes so that others can have a great experience.
Back when I used to teach, I strongly believe I developed the skills to be what I’d call a creative coordinator. This is someone who’s able to accomplish the pain in the ass details in a way that’s not expected.
When I was a teacher, I had to make sure my students could demonstrate a skill, and in order for them to learn it and to want to demonstrate it, I had to get creative. I couldn’t just be boring about it. All of the students would have failed because they didn’t care. So every year, I managed to get 130 sixteen year olds to give a shit about The Crucible, and to enjoy writing a paper about it; so I guess I was doing a good job.
Unfortunately, being a creative coordinator is not the norm for what society thinks of as artistic; but I think just as much practice, failure, determination, and energy go into this underrated art form. Instead of thinking about an artist only as the makers, performers, artists, and writers, pretty much anyone who gets into the spotlight for the art they put out into the world, we need to see and recognize all types of artists, including my fellow creative coordinators.
It’s not just the showcase creatives (aka the artists who are in the spotlight) who put their art out there for the world to see, judge, praise, and adore. The creative coordinators are out there every day putting plans into place, making moves, and constantly evaluating what’s being received and what’s not.
Creative coordinators like me face constant rejection—and sometimes it feels like I get rejected more than the showcase artists I support. For example, a showcase artist complains about low TikTok engagement around their latest drop. Meanwhile, I just told my next outline needs a LOT of work, and a photo shoot I’ve been coordinating for weeks just got canceled.
Rejection hurts everyone's ego, but we creative coordinators have to bounce back immediately—there's no time to dwell.
Creative coordinators experience the imposter syndrome just like showcase creatives do. Half the time we can’t even believe we’re in the position we find ourselves in. I know that for me, I experience imposter syndrome probably once a month. When something goes right, like I successfully booked an event I didn’t think we could get into, I’m always like, who the fuck even am I? I think we all have a view of ourselves that doesn’t always match what we are truly capable of. And imposter syndrome is just us being surprised at what we’ve actually done.
Finally, all of us creatives, both the coordinator and the showcase, are always chasing that elusive perfection. Showcase artists are always sharing their thoughts on their earlier work, how they wish they could go back and do it a million times better; or how at some point they just have to stop trying to achieve perfection, otherwise they’d never share their art. Showcase creatives always see the flaws in their art, even if no one else does.
I truly think creative coordinators are the same, but instead of trying to achieve perfection art, we’re trying to achieve perfection in checking our to-do lists. There’s always one more thing that gets added to our list. I’m pretty sure I’ll die and still have one dumb thing, like follow up to yesterday’s email, not checked off.
For me, if I get all the items checked off my list for a day, it’s a really good day. I’ve earned that really decadent dessert. But there’s always something else to get done to make the experience better for someone else.
Honestly, I will never be able to understand how a showcase creative knows where to apply the next line on the canvas, or what the next verse should sound like. Showcase creatives are special and important in our world. We need them to balance out the creative coordinators.
If it weren’t for those in the showcase, we wouldn’t have anyone interesting to work around. It would be a bunch of organized nerds checking things off lists, and probably getting on each other’s nerves very easily.
But I do know that without us creative coordinators, the showcase creatives wouldn’t have as many people to share their art with. We make it so other people actually want to participate in the spotlight with them. Here’s to all the creative coordinators out there! You’re getting shit done, and it shows!
Drink Maestro to keep getting shit done! (I know it’s a shameless plug, but I don’t care.)
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