Kaye Kelly — Building a Sustainable Creative Career Today

Send us Fan MailWhat if your performing arts career was built to last—not just to launch? 🎭In this episode, we sit down with Kaye Kelly—Berklee College of Music professor, singer-songwriter, and author of The Modern Creative: A Practical Guide for 21st Century Artists—to explore how today’s artists can build resilient, values-driven, and financially sustainable careers.Kaye’s book doubles as a field manual and workbook, and together we unpack her prompts and practices for defining your artistic narrative, mapping multiple income streams, and getting grants within reach.We trace how the creative landscape has evolved through streaming, the pandemic, and AI—and why artists now thrive by wearing many hats. Kaye shares what professionalism really looks like: reply fast, communicate clearly, show up prepared, and think strategically.From teaching, arranging, and session work to licensing and arts leadership, we dig into building a portfolio career with both active and passive income. Then we go straight to the money talk—budgeting for unpredictable income, planning for taxes, and starting retirement early.Community engagement emerges as both a compass and a growth engine. Kaye walks us through ways to connect with local cultural councils, public art initiatives, and small grant programs that align your work with community priorities while expanding your audience.We close with the habits that protect creativity—silence, privacy, and device discipline—and small rituals like journaling to shift into creative flow.Forget the starving artist myth. Choose alignment, guard your time, and let your creativity evolve across seasons.All episodes are also available in video form on our YouTube and Spotify Channels. All episodes are hosted by Elizabeth (Lizzie) Bowman. Don’t forget to subscribe, share the love, and leave us a review to show your support—it means a lot to us!Don't hesitate to reach out to us with guest ideas, information you'd like covered, or any ideas you might have—the hope is for this to be a continuous resource and dialogue with our listeners.Visit TheSceneRoom.com for more information.