Curious and Generous
This time last week, the hub’s director Julia Payne, opened The One Dayer with a call for all of us working in independent music to be more curious and generous. Here she explains why she’s trying to kickstart a ‘community of the curious and the generous’…
When we started planning JTD we had two truths in our minds:
- The first was that we ALL need new models if we’re going to make a living from the music we love.
- The second was that we would all be much smarter if we shared more of what we know with each other.
Oh, and I suppose there was third truth – that I stand by – which is that on the whole, most people who work in music are really generous with what they know and with their time.
It’s these truths that brought us together at the #OneDayer. Everyone who came along to the event was there because they were curious about the future, and recognised that we all had something to learn from each other. Too often we dismiss what we know as ‘just’ common sense. But as someone once said to me there’s nothing common about sense! And knowledge is priceless.
A little over a year ago, with these truths in mind, we started thinking about how we could maybe help kickstart what we called ‘a community of the curious and the generous’ – a network of like-minded people working in music who share knowledge with each other for their own and the greater good. And that was what we wanted to do at The #OneDayer – kick start that community.
We’re already doing what we can to share what we know – producing events like the #OneDayer, curating lots of interesting online resources, talking at other people’s event …. but we can’t be a community on our own. We’re a tiny organisation. It’s only our ideas that are big.
So the question we asked everyone at The #OneDayer, and I’m asking everyone I meet, is ‘what could you do to share more?’ ‘What would help you get more from such a community?’
At the one dayer we handed out curious and generous pledge cards contiaining a list of ideas for how we could between us start sharing what we know. Here’s the list we asked people to choose from:
Tell us what you’d be up for doing!
Sharing blogs, videos or other content I’ve found useful
Writing the odd blog or article, or some top tips, about things I know how to do
Organising or being part of a local independent music ‘meetup’ or network
Being part of a voluntary mentoring scheme, as mentor/mentee/both
Being part of a bartering scheme: trading skills with people who know stuff I don’t
The response on the day was great, really enthusiastic, and we’ll be sifting through all the responses over the next couple of weeks to see what there’s most interest in, and what to move forward with first.
But, we want to hear from you too! If you’re up for sharing stuff you know or stuff you’ve found useful, and/or are interested in being involved in some or all of the things on the list, just drop us a line at community@thehubuk.com telling us what you’d be up for doing or would find useful, and we’ll add your thoughts to the mix and be back in touch shortly to follow up. Or join up via the site here.
Thanks all. Stay curious and generous.
