After Nivek Anderson's middle school orchestra teacher told her she had to switch from bass to cello, she told herself she'd inevitably go back to playing bass. Now, with several on-campus gigs and upcoming weddings, she plays regularly.
By AUTUMN ECKENBRECHT
Since high school, two University of Georgia students have been doing what they love — and getting paid for it.
Nivek Anderson said she remembers her first gig as a cellist. Her high school math teacher wanted her to form a quintet to play at her wedding.
Chelsea Darling’s experience began in the newsroom at Pope High School. As entertainment editor for The Greyhound Tracks, she discovered her love for design.
For Anderson, a child and family development major from College Park, sometimes freelancing means finishing homework first and staying up until 3 a.m. to practice for a wedding.
Balancing schoolwork and freelance design is not much different for Darling, a graphic design major from Marietta.
“Everybody, I think, works best when they’re highly caffeinated,” Darling said. “Usually with a job you have to fit it into your class schedule, but if you have a freelance job you can be working at 3 in the morning and fit it in whenever. Then you get a little extra money on the side.”
Darling, who also works part-time in Athens as a design intern at The Adsmith, said networking has been essential for finding paid jobs on the side such as designing resumes, brochures, websites and logos.
Now, she said, commissions are coming to her.
“I don’t really go out to try and find anybody; it just happens,” she said. “It’s always really exciting when somebody comes to you and wants your work. Any artist feels that way about having their work commissioned, and it’s a great learning experience.”
As a cellist, Anderson said she’s also experienced the business side of freelancing.
“You have to be creative,” Anderson said. “I have to be an artist, but at the same time I have to know how to market myself.”
After her first wedding performance in high school, Anderson played over 20 events in a two-year span. When she came to college she already had experience drafting contracts for her services, but her involvement in the music business certificate program at the University has given her additional practice.
Despite difficulties like a late wedding, a bride who backed out and a bride who got sick, Anderson said she enjoys sitting down with couples to discuss what they envision for their weddings.
“It’s great because they’re excited, and I’m excited,” Anderson said. “I like to be able to know that I can make their wedding even better with my music. That’s my purpose—the event itself is already great, so I just want the music to make it perfect.”
Elana Munroe, cafe manager at Big City Bread Cafe in Athens, said she sees how freelancing benefits both the client and the student. Each month a different artist hangs work in the cafe with no commission charge.
“We definitely understand where they’re coming from,” Munroe said. “Local businesses and local artists—everybody’s struggling to stay afloat and we just want to help everybody out so they can be as successful as they can.”
The cafe is a family-owned business with many employees who are also artists, and Munroe said everyone at the cafe values supporting the community.
“We like to keep the art community alive in Athens,” Munroe said. “It’s a really good city for that so we try to encourage that and help people out as much as we can.”
Mark Johnson, a photojournalism lecturer at the University, said he also considers himself to be a “conduit for students looking to shoot more [photographs].” Johnson said he gets several e-mails a week from people offering students opportunities to photograph things—without paying them.
“I filter a lot of stuff out,” he said.
Johnson began freelancing in college and said he has seen his skills from freelancing carry into his current career.
“Freelancing opened up a whole world of people I would have never met otherwise,” Johnson said. “It’s another way to get experience, build contacts and hopefully develop a good business sense. It’s not about the writing or design part—business has to work, and you’ll spend 50 percent of the time or more on business, not on the creative side.”
Johnson’s advice is simple.
“Know the numbers,” he said. “Don’t do stuff for free.”
As Anderson and Darling finish their last two semesters of college, they are expanding their repertoires.
Anderson is practicing so she can sing and play at the same time and Darling is branching out in web design.
“I just hope that I can continue at the same basic level, just being a designer, just focusing on the work and making a physical product that people want,” Darling said. “That’s what drives me.”
Edited by CAREY O’NEIL
