Avoiding Burnout with Katriina Campitelli
TRANSCRIPT:
“It's impossible to see every exhibition, attend every art fair, and read every critique. You will miss openings and you simply cannot support every artist, cause or project that you'd like to. The key is to not feel bad about missing out on things, if it means being able to take better care of yourself.”
Let's talk about avoiding burnout. I'm Heather Kelly, and I am here to bring you a High Five - five quick tips, actionable insights, sparks of inspiration for arts leaders and creative entrepreneurs in a quick and fun format. And with me today is Katriina Campitelli, who's a public art curator, and she has a few tips for us. Over to you, Katrina.
Thank you. Heather. I can personally confirm that the arts is an industry that definitely generates stress, overwork and everything that comes with wearing multiple hats on top of your work responsibilities. There's endless new exhibitions, art fairs, performances, and essays to keep up with. So to that end, here are five tips to avoid burnout in the arts.
Tip number one: take your vacation and personal days.
Beyond that, if you're planning to take a holiday or vacation away from home, make sure that trip isn't completely centered around art. As a curator of public art. I always pick a couple pieces and see that I definitely have to see. And it's certainly great to return to work with some new ideas, inspiration, and benchmarks. But this is also our opportunity to not think about the work we do at home. So try to ensure you limit the amount of time spent on the arts and enjoy aspects of your new environments. It's totally also okay to take vacation days even if you don't intend to go anywhere. Resting does not make you lazy, and nobody gets an award for best attendance.
Tip number two is to use technology to your advantage.
It's a tool that can be employed in many ways. I personally like to use my email to stop from ruminating. If I think of a work related task or idea outside my normal working hours, I know I can't log in to my computer because I'm sure I'll be met with something else that undoubtedly requires my attention. So instead, what I do is I send a message from my personal email to my work account.This way I won't ruminate any further, and I know that the next time I log in, I'll be met with that idea. Yeah, there's also apps that can set up your meetings for you, help you stay on top of project management, and transcribe your meeting minutes. Even more simply, you could set calendar reminders to notify you when it's time for a break.
Time to take a walk, or even a reminder of 15 minutes before it's time to log off. Tip number three is do your best to create a well-rounded life. This means having hobbies, interests, goals all outside your field. The truth is, only having one area of interest is kind of boring. So join a club, support a team, pick up a craft, learn a new skill. Something completely irrelevant to the work you do. Bonus points if it's something, stress relieving like cooking or fitness. It's also important to have friends outside of the arts. It's wonderful to have friends in your fields, but often enough, shoptalk will undoubtedly creep its way in. Having a couple friends outside your industry can help you take a step back and think about the rest of the world that's out there.
Tip number four is get creative and develop your own unique boundaries.
I've set some up for myself, one of which is that I don't attend any art events on weekends. If there's an opening on a Saturday, I will politely decline and go see the exhibition another time. If it's important to me. I've also had artists come up to me at restaurants or bars to request feedback or advice for me, and I will also politely tell them that weekends are for my family.
Feel free to email me. I'm happy to set up a time to talk about this during my working hours. Similarly, I don't respond to artist inquiries on social media. I do love to share my projects and accomplishments, but I don't. I've set a boundary that I won't chat with artists that I don't know on those platforms, but again, happy to provide my work email address to chat about something during my working hours.
Another example is from the former CEO of Netflix, Mark Randolph, who famously left work by 5 p.m. every single Tuesday to have a date night with his wife. So these examples might not work for your life, but it's okay to get creative and make your own boundaries that work specifically for you.
And tip number five prioritize the things that are important to you and for the rest.
Embrace the notion that you're not missing out. You're deliberately aligning your energy and focus with your priorities. It's impossible to see every exhibition, attend every art fair, and read every critique. You will miss openings, and you simply cannot support every artist, cause or project that you'd like to. The key is to not feel bad about missing out on things, if it means being able to take better care of yourself.
Amazing. All so good, so true. And I love how it's, whole life, that we need to address. And. Katrina. I know how you embody every one of those points. And, and I'm sure people can find their own ways to apply each of the key points to their lives. So I would love to hear from people how you avoid burnout, what you do to keep your life and your work balanced.
Katriina, where can people find you for more information or to connect with you? You can find me on Instagram @KatCampitelli and my website is katcampitelli.com if you want to see what projects I'm currently working on.
Perfect. Thank you for that. I hope everybody connects with you there and for everybody watching. Please tune in next week for another episode of High Five.