In a recent posting to Facebook, the father of a friend of mine had this to say (I have not included the name of the city to protect the innocent – and it’s a pretty common story anyway):
I’m not easily disappointed, but as I study the platforms of candidates for … City Council, I am dismayed that not a single candidate speaks out about the importance of culture to a community’s economy and quality of life. They talk about sports tourism. They rant about job creation. They bleat about economic development. They opine about accountability and transparency. They drone on about engaging youth in civic affairs. They bellow about keeping taxes low. Well, folks, I’m here to tell you that we’ve heard this all before. How about changing the tune to focus on adding value to the life of a community through cultural activities such as performing arts, not as casual, occasional activities, but as an integral part of the vision for (our city). Cultural industries are one of Canada’s largest employment sectors. If we continue to ignore it we will continue to miss great opportunities to enhance (our city)’s quality of life and, at the same time, diversity our economic base. Did you know that the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland employs 350 people on an ongoing basis? Think about it, then do something.
Which of course got me thinking and responding in a comment. I’ve placed them both here in my living archive, which is how I trick my inner critic into letting me produce a body of written work…
The real irony is that cultural activity embedded into the economic and social landscape of community IS the means to deliver on all those things you mention. People learn and practice the necessary skill sets for living in groups, managing projects,planning, creating, understanding the bigger picture, developing empathy, along with financial literacy and design thinking from cultural activity. It’s not an either/or at all.
The enhancement to quality of life that people attribute to art is often stated like magical thinking, as an ‘If only…’, and so, even when people want to believe it, this presentation is not persuasive to those who need empirical data. that is not a negative comment on those left-brain needs. It is a perfectly reasonable expectation to have some demonstrable illustration of the impact. It’s also important to question what ‘quality of life’ means to a broad spectrum of people, and discover the many ways we differ in defining this.
And so with a strict numbers game and poorly described narrative data, we get stuck with trying to measure the unmeasurable and are left with inconclusive fragments of the data picture: economic impact, income disparities, ‘bums in seats’. In fact – and this IS magical – the ability for a community to build its quality of life may come from the very behaviours and understanding that people can learn through cultural activity: being learner, creator, performer, audience, supporter, critic, designer.
The ‘arts’ have been hived off artificially to try and make them fit the silo model of labelling and managing, when in fact they (and the people who are the creative and unconventional folks in the community) connect across all sectors laterally wherever creative and innovative thinking shows up.
To treat the arts and artists as somehow separate – and as commodities – does us all an injustice. The old economic paradigm of ‘scarcity increases value in a market-driven economy has been used as an excuse to justify the lack of support for the small arts business/person. It’s ironic that the very same people who promote the new economy and innovation still rely on the same old framework for development that supported the Old Economy. This means the components/elements (the artists, freelancers and cultural creatives) that make up the end product are expected to finance themselves.
Funders have continued to reinforce this through silo funding, but creative people are collaborating and proving the worth of a more complex, less turf-driven approach. Unfortunately they are still the last to benefit financially from this work. Paying attention to the huge base of knowledge and social capital held within the arts community will eventually help the business sector answer some of their questions about how to grow and sustain a new economy.
And somehow, we have to keep exhibiting our drawings (no matter how child-like and fantastical) ON THE FRIDGE with pride.