Elaine Luttrull on financial empowerment for creative freedom

12/01/22 • 97 min

In our conversation today we talk about being financially empowered to be creatively free! Basically, we take a deep dive into her book Arts and numbers. We discuss subjects such as budgeting and how to create discipline around budgeting when you have a varying monthly income throughout the year. We discuss the emotional and psychological hurdles around gauging the worth of your work and building the confidence to ask for it. We also discuss the thrilling subject of negotiating through price anchoring, which I think all artists should learn to master! We even talk about the advantages of creating a business plan for solo entrepreneurial artists such as singers and so much more! This episode truly is a goldmine!

Elaine Grogan Luttrull, CPA-PFS, AFC® is the founder of Minerva Financial Arts, a company devoted to building financial literacy and empowerment in creative individuals and organizations. Her workshops and presentations have been featured nationally by groups that support the arts, including Creative Capital, the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, Sundance, Firelight Media, the National YoungArts Foundation, and a variety of state arts councils and commissions.

Elaine spent 10 years in academia, teaching at the Columbus College of Art & Design and serving as the Department Head for Business & Entrepreneurship from 2014-2018. She regularly provides guest lectures for colleges, universities, and conservatories that serve the arts, including the Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, the School of Visual Arts, and the Cleveland Institute of Arts. Before that, Elaine served as the Director of Financial Analysis for The Juilliard School and in the Transaction Advisory Services practice of Ernst & Young in New York.

Elaine is the author of Arts & Numbers and has regularly contributed to industry guides, including Professional Artist magazine, Business of Art from the Center for Cultural Innovation, and Create a Living Legacy from the Joan Mitchell Foundation. She is based in Dublin, Ohio (Kaskaskia and Hopewell indigenous and cultural lands) where she serves on the boards of the Short North Alliance and Healing Broken Circles. Previous board service includes Social Ventures, the Financial Therapy Association, and the Lark Play Development Center.

Connect with Elaine Grogan Luttrull

Website | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn

Books Mentioned:

Arts & Numbers: A Financial Guide for Artists, Writers, Performers, and Other Members of the Creative Class by Elaine Grogan Luttrull
The Graphic Artist Guild Handbook: Pricing & Ethical Guidelines by The Graphic Artists Guild
A random walk down Wall Street by Burton G. Malkiel
The richest man in Babylon by George S. Clason
Creativity, Inc.: an inspiring look at how creativity can - and should - be harnessed for business success by the founder of Pixar by Ed Catmull
The Artist's Guide to Grant Writing: How to Find Funds and Write Foolproof Proposals for the Visual, Literary, and Performance Artist by Gigi Rosenberg
Dollars and Sense: Money Mishaps and How to Avoid Them by Dan Ariely
The Midnight Library by Ma...

Connect with Elaine Grogan Luttrull

Website | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn

Books Mentioned:

Arts & Numbers: A Financial Guide for Artists, Writers, Performers, and Other Members of the Creative Class by Elaine Grogan Luttrull
The Graphic Artist Guild Handbook: Pricing & Ethical Guidelines by The Graphic Artists Guild
A random walk down Wall Street by Burton G. Malkiel
The richest man in Babylon by George S. Clason
Creativity, Inc.: an inspiring look at how creativity can - and should - be harnessed for business success by the founder of Pixar by Ed Catmull
The Artist's Guide to Grant Writing: How to Find Funds and Write Foolproof Proposals for the Visual, Literary, and Performance Artist by Gigi Rosenberg
Dollars and Sense: Money Mishaps and How to Avoid Them by Dan Ariely
The Midnight Library by Ma...

Previous Episode

Marina Gilman on body awareness through the Feldenkrais method

In our conversation today we take a deep dive into the Feldenkrais method as a way to release tension in the body by developing a deep awareness of how the mechanisms of the body are constructed and how they work together as a whole, that is, how one movement affects another. And we discuss why it’s important to develop this vision of how the body works as a whole in order to really be in control of your development as a singer. F.ex if you don't know how your ribcage is supposed to move how are you ever going to do it correctly? We even cover topics like breath and weight lifting!

If you have struggled with tension in your body when you sing, then this episode is for you! Developing awareness of your body and how it wants to move is a life skill like no other! Marina also guides me through some short lessons that you can try alongside us and see if you discover something for yourself.

Marina Gilman holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from Indiana University, Master of Music degree from Ithaca College, and a Masters of Art in Communication Disorders from Northwestern University. She graduated from the Montreal Feldenkrais Training in 1996. She is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais® Practitioner, singing teacher, performer, and licensed speech pathologist with a specialization in voice. She has taught voice at Cornell University, Syracuse University, and in the Theater School at DePaul University Chicago. Marina has also taught at the School at the Steppenwolf Theater Company summer program. In her capacity as a licensed speech pathologist Marina has worked at major medical voice centers in Chicago and recently retired from working as part of the interdisciplinary team at the Emory Voice Center, Department of Otolaryngology, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Her interest in the somatic aspects of voice training began with her personal struggle with body tension. Over the years she has worked to bring the Feldenkrais work into her clinical, academic, and studio teaching.

Marina Gilman’s performing career includes recitals as well as leading operatic roles with regional opera companies. Marina regularly taught Feldenkrais workshops for actors, singers and voice therapists, as well as presented at professional voice and medical conferences. She has published research on voice in medical voice journals and is the author of Body and Voice: Somatic Re-education, available through Plural Publishing.

Connect with Marina Gilman

E-mail |

Resources Mentioned:

Body and Voice: Somatic Re-Eduation by Marina Gilman
Bodymapping
Interview on Voice Matters with Liz Johnson
Moshé Feldenkrais

Next Episode

Donna S. Reid on the functionality of the voice

In this episode we discuss Donna’s pedagogic approach which is based on the work of Cornelius L. Reid the late noted vocal pedagogue and author of six books on singing, among them the trilogy The Free Voice, Bel Canto: Principles and Practices and, Voice: Psyche and Soma

The method, in essence, is based on the fact that the muscles that bring the vocal folds into tension are involuntary, thus the entire mechanism must be treated as such.

The principle is that the vocal mechanism is regulated and controlled by changes in the environmental conditions to which it is being exposed. This means there has to be a setup of the right conditions for the voice to react in the correct way so, in fact, you can only ever work indirectly on the voice.

Todays episode is all about the functionality of the singing instrument, something we as singers should want to know all about!

Connect with Donna S. Reid:

Website | Youtube

Books Mentioned: