Art and Profit

Because my emotional state probably does not need elucidation (my husband is packing up his stuff in our house and leaving on Monday - just guess how I feel - not hard, right?), and I was about to write a post basically saying that, I ended up reading a comment on my Linkedin Independent Theater Artists and Producers group (as you do...), and had to respond to a series of comments in response to a question about UK funding cuts and arts cuts generally...The comments were trending in the direction of we should get corporations to fund the arts because it's in their best interest plus arts bring profit to community and aspects of creativity can benefit corporations, etc....You can see for yourself by clicking: this discussion page

The advantage, if that is the word, of being emotionally as raw as I am, is that I lose the inhibition to say what I mean and mean what I say.  So, for better or for worse (bad pun in my circumstances, I grant you), here is what I wrote:

You know, I've seen all the same studies about art bringing profit to places, etc. and how creativity can help business...but I worry about this as the main argument for the arts.  What about the fact that there are many, many aspects to life, arguably the most important aspects, that have nothing to do with the 'bottom line'?

What about being able to notice what is around you, see a butterfly on the sidewalk while traffic whizzes by, know for a precious moment you are not the center of the universe, be able to see with fresh eyes.  As a hero of mine Joseph Chaikin once wrote (and I have on my bulletin board still, ripped and battered, having been written in 1985 on a shred of paper and moved countless times and continents since) "To express the extreme joy of being alive at a certain moment is practically impossible - and really worth trying."

That is why I continue to create theater, make art, write and live my life the way I do - against all odds and without a trust fund - at 48 years of age.  I have no pension and no security in the traditional sense of the word and sometimes yes that worries me, but I know because of the time I've spent in rehearsal rooms, and at keyboards and on pieces of paper creating, that my real security lay in my ability to create and connect with the forces that allow for that.

People who do not have access to this experience are impoverished and global capitalism functions on this impoverishment - it makes us think we need things we don't so we'll work like hell and go into debt to get those things and that 'lifestyle.'  Great creativity goes into advertising to make this lie possible, but I want nothing to do with that world.

And as for corporate sponsorship, it's not free, it's money laundering - big business laundering their profits, which have been made off the sweat and in some cases death of others, through your creativity.  That is not a price I am willing to pay.

Sorry to be the wet blanket here, but I really believe this stuff and I'm sick of real politik winning the day over and over again.  We have to make our arguments as artists for what we actually value, not go over and work 'the system' to 'our benefit,' because then whatever system we decide to align ourselves with, wins.  And that is the death of art.

And yes, I know the Medicis funded the Renaissance and on and on.  I know art history and I know we as artists are not pure as the driven snow, but we still need to know from where our work comes and make decisions awake or we are lost.

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Feel free to comment on this if you want and send any good thoughts, vibes, prayers or whatever you believe in to North East London, as I enter a new phase of this transitional period in my life.  Maybe at some point I will attempt to describe the pain, but somehow I think everyone's experienced it so - like photos of NYC - that is probably redundant.

And honestly, I'm just as happy to talk about arts funding, because there's only so much of this emotional shit uncut I can take.