A N O N Y M O U S

Artists Recovering Through the Twelve Steps 
 

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April 2023 edition

Announcements 

World Service Conference/Convention Website Page: Recent updates include dates, deadlines, Pre-Conference meetings, zoom links, delegate registration, and a brand-new form for members and meetings to submit motions and/or topics for discussion for the Conference. Please click here for the Conference/Convention website page.  
 

April 15 Pre-Conference meeting: All members of ARTS are invited to join on Saturday April 15 at 1pm PT/4pm ET/ 21.00 GMT, 6am in Australia on Sunday April 16 via Zoom. Click here to register for the zoom. The agenda includes reviewing the Community Solving Method for passing motions, and the A.R.T.S. Conference (workshops and events) and Birthday Celebration. We especially need the delegates (or alternates) to discuss and make decisions.  
 

A.R.T.S. Zoomathon: Coming Saturday, April 22! For more information and to sign up for service, go to the Zoomathon page on the ARTS website. Newcomers are welcome! 
 

Member's Stories: The Member's Stories sub-committee of the Literature Committee would like to hear your story of experience, strength and hope in recovery through A.R.T.S. Anonymous. We plan to develop these stories into a book to add to our A.R.T.S. Literature. For questions, suggestions and guidelines, or to make a submission, email: memberstories@artsanonymous.org  
 

Opportunites to Join in Service: The Conference Planning Committee (email: conference@artsanonymous.org), The Workshop Committee (email: workshops@artsanonymous.org), and the Literature Committee (email: literature@artsanonymous.org), as well as the Board of Trustees (email: board@artsanonymous.org) are looking for your service. Creating a Survey to Assess the Talents and Skills of the Membership (see more about this later in this newsletter) (email: talentsandskillssurvey@artsanonymous.org.) Willingness is the first qualification.  
 

Treasurer’s Report: Click March 2023 Treasurer’s Report for A.R.T.S. Worldwide Services. The 2023 First Quarter Management Report is also on the A.R.T.S. Anonymous website. 
 

Pamphlets Update: The Basic Pamphlet is provided as a free download on the A.R.T.S. Anonymous website. It is also available via kindle for sale. The Basic Pamphlet has been updated to include the A.R.T.S. Traditions as originally adopted in 1986, and the Conference-Approved version of the Traits (with one update). Coming soon: The Conference-Approved versions of From Envy to Appreciation and The Creative ProcesZ on kindle.  
 

Kindle is Free: Kindle is a free app available for download onto any smartphone, tablet, laptop or computer. You do not need any special device to use kindle forms of electronic media. This service ensures that our literature, once purchased, is available only to the user, and that the proceeds are used to benefit A.R.T.S. Anonymous as a whole. 

For 2023: Writings on the Traditions 

While the Twelve Steps of A.R.T.S Anonymous guide us to recover our inspiration and joy in expressing our creativity, the Twelve Traditions guide our focus on our primary purpose in A.R.T.S. Anonymous. What better way to begin this new year of 2023 than with a focus on the Tradition that corresponds with each of the twelve months. Below in this April issue of the newsletter is one member’s personal response to Tradition 4.  

May’s Newsletter welcomes your response to Tradition 5: Each group has but one primary purpose – to carry its message to the artist who still suffers.  

We suggest the following series of questions when writing your response.  

• What does Tradition 5 mean to you? 
• How do you feel about Tradition 5? 
• How may Tradition 5 help your creative expression? 

It will be wonderful to receive your thoughts, feelings, and application of Tradition 5. Please send your response to the editors at newsletter@artsanonymous.org for possible publication.  

Tradition Four – A Personal Response 

A set of agreed behaviors become a tradition as they are repeated by a group of people through time. It is believed that a tradition surviving the test of time is by the grace of a divine authority.  Knowing this motivates me to consider attentively what the words of this tradition say, and how they are said.     

This tradition begins with a polite description of how a group behaves in ARTS Anonymous, autonomously, followed by a condition expressed with the word “except”. While groups engage and enjoy behaviors that are self-governing, self-contained, and sovereign, they must not do so flagrantly, but with respect for one another.  Groups in ARTS Anonymous do not stand alone. So, when a group’s behavior engages its autonomy overtly, to the extent this tradition may be dishonored, the benefit for members to engage freely is at risk. What begins as functional may deteriorate into dysfunction.  And the purpose of the meeting is lost. This reminds me of the story told in the book of Isaiah, 14:12, as Lucifer becomes flagrant, he falls from grace, and his name’s meaning changes from “morning star” to “adversary.”   
 

Click here for the full essay

Help Needed: Financial Responsibility and Talent 9 

Although we understand that the topic of “money” can raise the hackles of some, Talent # 9 from The Twelve Talents for a Good Life, reminds us to understand “we are living in a world where money is an exchange of value necessary for our survival.” We learn that our art has value, as do we and our lives. Becoming grateful for these valuable assets and gifts means we have responsibilities for what we contribute to our art, our lives and ourselves. A.R.T.S. as a whole has a similar responsibility, in that if we as a collective are to benefit from the value of this program of recovery, we recognize money as an exchange of value, and that it must be responsibly utilized and cared for.  
 

The Board of Trustees is in search of someone who can provide financial and budgeting help to the Board. Based on the Board By-laws and the A.R.T.S. Concepts of Service there are a number of ways this service could be provided.  

Click here for more

The Spirit of the Gray

a poem by Tish F.

                         The Ancients  

                         The Earth  

                         The Child  

                        She is broken  

                        She is free  

                        She is nothing  

                        She is free  

                       He was twisted  

                       He is free   

                       He was mangled   

                       He is free  

                       He was hurt  

                       He is free  

                       He is She  

                      She is he  

                     The metaller ...  

                     The traveller ...  

                     The whisperer ...  
 

Click here for the entire poem

Special One-Day Conference July 15: Approving Pamphlet Literature

At the February 11 Pre-Conference meeting, a decision was made to hold a special one-day meeting of the Conference on July 15, 2023, for the purpose of approving non-Founder written pamphlet Literature. The length of the meeting will depend on how many of these pamphlets will be available for Delegate review by May 15. Our goal is to get Conference-approved Literature into the hands of the membership as soon as possible.  If we are not ready by then, then we will consider asking the Conference to include action these decisions for the regular World Service Conference in October. Depending on how it goes, that “special one-day conference” might only be a couple of hours long.  

Currently the Literature Committee and the Board anticipate seeking approval for two pamphlets: "On Being the Perfect Artist,” which was written by Southern California A.R.T.S. Anonymous Intergroup in 1990 and revised and accepted for general distribution by A.R.T.S. Anonymous World Service Board, in 1994. Additionally, The Literature Committee is suggesting some smaller changes and an update to the pamphlet “Facing Avoidance”, originally Conference-approved in 1993.  

For more information on the work of the Literature Committee, and to see the Literature Approval Process, please visit the Literature Committee page on the website.  

Surveying the Talents and Skills of the Membership! 

Taking care of what we value and love can mean giving our time, money, talent, skills, and creative ideas to solutions. Although time and money are often limited or scarce, talent, skills, and creative ideas are abundant. This is especially true for our members in A.R.T.S. Anonymous. Imagine the list of all the talents, skills, and creative ideas that exist in the matrix of our fellowship. (Thinking about this invisible matrix of abundance recalled a story called Stone Soup, maybe you know it, if not take a read below.)  

A committee wants to come together to explore how to tap into this wealth of resources to inspire support for projects to evolve our visibility and reach the artist who suffers.  A way to explore the matrix is a survey asking members to identify how abundant their list of talents, and skills are. If you are interested in assisting this effort contact: talentsandskillssurvey@artsanonymous.org  

Stone Soup: A European folk story. 

     Once upon a time, there was a great famine. The people in one small village didn't have enough to eat, and definitely not enough to store away for the winter. People were afraid their families would go hungry, so they hid the small amounts of food they did have. They even hid their food from their friends and neighbors. One day a wandering soldier came into the village. He asked the different people he met about finding a place to eat and sleep for the night. 
 

Click here to read the story
 

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