EXPLORING SAFETY: A CONVERSATION BETWEEN DARYA EFRAT AND OSIAN MEILIR

Safety as an independent artist:
Be the centre of your own safety. (osian meilir)

Although essential, ensuring and practising safety can often be challenging as a freelance artist. Not due to a lack of interest in the subject of safety, or a careless attitude towards the importance of working safely, but due to a lack of support that independent artists often face and a failure to remember to prioritise your own safety in the process. The barriers that face independent artists who create their own work are plenty. We often wear multiple hats (metaphorically, not literally) at once whilst running projects - producer, director, choreographer, wellbeing officer, tour manager, marketing officer… and the list goes on. We are often responsible for finding all the resources necessary to be able to work and to secure funding to pay our collaborators equitably. All this happens before being able to set foot into a studio or professional workspace. Somewhere in the complexity of all these titles and processes, finding time to take care of yourself, professionally and personally, often becomes the last thing we think about. We tend to forget to prioritise our own safety and lose ourselves in an attempt to ensure the care and safety of others. Often, care and safety for yourself, as the ‘lead artist’ or ‘project leader’ can also be neglected in pursuit of opportunities to further your career and celebrate your art. In these instances, what we also fail to notice is that the neglect and sacrifice of our own wellbeing and safety quickly becomes the neglect and sacrifice of everyone’s safety. Without establishing a support system for yourself that offers you the care and support that you need, you can no longer offer a space for others to feel supported. Therefore, safety and care for the Self must always be prioritised, starting from within, and from your own care towards yourself. Only then can you begin to create a safer space for others to exist and work alongside you. In a world where safety is increasingly becoming something we can no longer take for granted, be the centre of your own safety, for the benefit of all.

Daily Reflections on Safety
By darya efrat and osian meilir

What makes you feel safe today?
Proximity to loved ones
Working alongside trusted friends

What makes you feel safe today?
Knowing someone has your back
Knowing you’re not alone in the effort
The ability to have a nap between doing
freelance admin

What makes you feel safe today?
Time to rest.
Time to prepare.
Time in between.

Space to rest
Space to put things
Space to leave things

What makes you feel safe today?
Working in a team in which you know you share the
workload, and you don’t have to calculate who is doing
more or less.
Knowing that things are balanced in terms of taking
responsibility.

What makes you feel safe today?
Warming-up. Checking-in. Allowing time.
Having agency. Giving space. Being kind.
A good lunch. Checking-in again. Dancing
together, as a group.

My scheduling flexibility/adjustability,
yet knowing people will respect my time.

What makes you feel safe today?
Verbal agreement / contracts be respected and kept or
at least taken seriously and discussed.
Giving myself space for errors, mistakes and growth.
Kindness towards yourself. We can’t always get it right.

What makes you feel safe today?
Today, I have a studio space that has
functioning air conditioning and/or heating.
There are toilets and kitchen facilities in
the building, with a space for me to eat
lunch outside the workspace. I also have a
sound system to play music. I’m a dancer and
choreographer. This is rare.

Walking into a rehearsal slightly late and still being
warmly welcomed.

What makes you feel safe today?
Honest and open conversations with people who care.
Feeling physically good so I can do my work.

What makes you feel safe today?
The ability to share my opinion / thoughts
freely without feeling like I’m putting a
work relationship at risk.
Being responsible for the safety of others.
How to navigate different needs when
you’re the one responsible for holding that
space. How do I also not neglect my own
needs in this process?

What makes you feel safe today?
Having a roof over my head.
Being able to go home tonight.
 

My Thoughts These Days as We Walk on Thin Ice
a letter to a friend
(darya efrat)

December 2023
As I go back and reflect on our talk on safety, I realise my understanding of it has taken on an entirely new form. Much has changed in my world, and what was an already precarious freelance artist’s future, has become even more uncertain. The lack of safety feels more physical and visceral now; around me, I witness crumbling systems, breached agreements, unsupportive communities, and decreases in funding ( just to list a few). As freelance artists, we somehow get used to this reality or learn how to navigate it. We become adept at adapting, taking on numerous roles, accommodating others’ needs, working extra hours, and, in general, being increasingly “flexible”. But recently I’ve noticed that we have also become very good at forgetting ourselves within the whirlwind of the field - just to secure some safe sensation that our work will come to life. Yet that doesn’t seem very safe… at least not a safety I desire for the artistic field. In our talk, we discussed what makes us - you and me - feel safe, and it included familiarising ourselves with spaces and those around us. That belief hasn’t changed, but now I would add not losing oneself while doing it. As we also mentioned in our talk, safety doesn’t always imply comfort, and therefore we must continue to push boundaries and call for increasing the opportunities and changing the conditions for creatives to be able to persist. There is an ever-greater need for radical artistic approaches these days, and new insights about relating to one another and ourselves (especially in the public sphere) - because things must change.

Walking on thin ice is perilous, and now that the ice is getting thinner, we need to find ways to do so - safely.

June 2024
It is important to note that I revisit the above text with great discomfort. To reflect on safety when so many live under unsafe conditions seems unjust. I recognise I bear an underlying sense of security that despite increasing global destabilisation and risk, I still have safe havens to fall back on. This is a great gift, one that I cherish deeply, cannot forget, and wish will be more commonly shared.