Catching up with Brittany Anderson, Artist Services Coordinator

By Stephen Deusner

Earlier this year, Brittany Anderson, MSW, LCSW received a troubled phone call from an artist in a dire predicament. A musician and painter in her seventies, the artist was dealing with two disasters at once. First, her car had died, leaving her unable to buy art supplies or drive herself to paying gigs. Worse, she had been diagnosed with cancer, and the frequent hospital stays left her with no energy to make the art that sustains her creatively and financially. With no income beyond Social Security and with medical bills stacking up, she was in a bind.

This is, sadly, the kind of predicament Brittany sees nearly every day. A licensed social worker and therapist, she works as the Artist Services Coordinator to administer the Music Maker’s Sustenance Program, assessing the problems artists face, working to solve them, and sometimes just checking in to say hello. The program is crucial to the foundation’s mission and ensures artists have everything they need to make art: food, running water, shelter, income, transportation, and support. “One of the things I’ve always said is that the artists cannot do the things they love to do—whether it’s making music or making art—if they’re worried about their basic needs. Even if they don’t have an immediate need, it’s important to show them that they have support, that they’re not alone. We do have some artists who just need to talk to someone.”

In other words, if an artist gets a call from Brittany, they know that help is on the way. She worked with Music Maker co-founders Tim and Denise Duffy to replace that artist’s car, which allowed her to start gigging and painting again. And she managed to secure a grant that addressed her medical needs. It was a triumph, but Brittany and Music Maker understand it’s only a tentative one: Even a small setback could put them all back in the same predicament.

The Sustenance Program has been a crucial part of Music Maker’s mission since its founding in 1994, and the organization has administered more than 16,000 grants for essential life needs. Brittany, a North Carolina native, began working with Music Maker in 2018—the first social worker in the foundation, which means she devises risk assessment forms and questionnaires, recommends grant distribution, and reaches out to every artist under Music Maker’s umbrella. Those needs have changed dramatically over the last six years. “When I started, our economy was in a very different place. Our artists still needed assistance, but they could still afford everyday life.”

Since the pandemic, however, it’s become much more difficult to stabilize these artists’ incomes. The circuit of small venues and local churches was decimated by Covid and has not recovered in its wake. That loss of supplemental income, coupled with inflation, has made their financial situations increasingly unstable. “Covid is still around and still a risk to the population we serve, but the broader population believes it’s all over. So the funds and programs that helped people during the pandemic have dried up. Prices have skyrocketed, and the moratorium on rent increases has ended. So our artists are really hurting.” Almost all of them receive Social Security, but that hardly even covers rent anymore, let alone groceries or utilities. A lengthy hospital stay or a break in gigs can put an artist in a hole that just gets deeper and deeper. “When I started, an artist might need help once a year. Now they need help almost every month.”

Out of dire necessity, the Sustenance Program has shifted to focus on the idea that creativity depends on stability and security. Says Brittany, “An artist can’t go and perform a show and get paid if they don’t have running water in their home. The artist is a human, and it’s been amazing to see this shift to support them holistically. That allows them to create more art and keep doing the things they love. It’s a great honor to be part of that.”

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