Arts from the Bottom Up: Three Little Books About Labor, Management, and Mission in the Arts

Author Marsha Schweitzer built a career as a professional musician, arranger, arts administrator, and journalist that has spanned more than fifty years. During that time, through her many roles, she saw vast shifts in the landscape of the arts.

The Arts from the Bottom Up presents a collection of articles, letters, essays, and notes Schweitzer wrote between 1978 and 2017 as she journeyed through the nooks and crannies of the arts. Working in three parts, she begins at the bottom, with the mundane day-to-day aspects of the arts, and moves up to the organizational and spiritual aspects. "Power Play" explores the artistic workplace, with emphasis on unions and labor relations. "In Service to the Art" considers the arts from a broader perspective, addressing issues of organizational structure, governance, finance, and administration. "Peregrinations of a Pensive Artist" deals with the nature and meaning of the underlying and overarching art that ties artists, organizations, and audiences together. Throughout, she seeks to help artists break out of the deep ruts of tradition and conformity and look at problems from new and different angles.