To Laugh? To Cry?

It’s a sign of the times, and in any other economic situation I would declare it the rebirth of Reason in the World.  Instead it’s just kinda depressing.

Whilst trolling through the New York Times website I happened upon this little ditty.  Yes, it’s true my friends, the Muzak Corporation has filed for bankruptcy.  Cue the fireworks, balloons, festive cheer – for all of about 2 1/2 seconds.  Then the depressing news hits you.  There are people who are probably going to lose their jobs, and that’s not a situation I’d like to be in in today’s economy.  Cue the prozac.

If possible let’s look beyond this particular Canary in a Coal Mine and ask what Classical Music (and the Arts in general) is doing these days to keep ourselves in the psyche of the general public –

Precious little.

The whining going on about the Coburn amendment to the bailout bill is already starting to grate on my nerves.  God yes, this amendment is the most short-sighted ridiculous excuse for culture warfare since the brouhaha over the NEA 5, but that’s not the point.  The point is that, once again, our industry has been exposed as elitist, outmoded, and sufficiently blind enough to have no effective lobbying strategy in the halls of power.

“Artists are riff-raff, they sponge off of hardworking “real” Americans, and any money given to the Arts is a waste. They’re also elitist, high-brow, and condescending towards “real” Americans.”

No matter that it’s somewhat incongruous that a group of people can be both riff-raff and elitist,  that’s the company line from Republican central, the masters of spin.  The Arts have been painted with the same brush that the “Welfare Moms” were splashed with during the Reagan Administration, when it became politically incorrect to do anything but blame poor people for having the audacity to be poor.

We have done everything we possibly can to ensure the success of this fallacy.  Do I even need to go through the list?  Administrative incompetence rewarded.  Innovation squashed by structural deficiencies and labor agreements that made sense in the 1950s but have little relevance in today’s digital world.   Reliance on the Next Big Star who has made the Faustian bargain with the Management Company From Hell.  I could go on and on but most of it is irrelevant.

What really kills us is that there is NO OVERARCHING POLITICAL STRATEGY IN PLACE TO EFFECT LEGISLATION AND THE PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF THE ARTS! Twenty Five years ago a politician could get away with claiming that AIDS was just a gay disease, so who cares what happens to those deviants?  Today, one of the biggest legacies of the Bush Administration is a dramatic increase in funding for AIDS programs in Africa.  Re-read that last sentence – George Bush, who will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the worst leaders this planet has ever seen, threw money at an AIDS program for Africa.  What happened?

Simple – effective mobilization of millions of people to impact the public perception of the AIDS issue, thereby making it much easier to effect legislation.  People who believed came together and spread their belief.  AIDS, of course, is a global health crisis and something not to be belittled.  I doubt if there’s anyone in the Arts who hasn’t been affected by this disease.  I have friends who are HIV+, and my wonderful teacher Yvar Mikhashoff succumbed to this affliction.  But my point is that people rallied, and continue to rally, for AIDS.  In the Arts we don’t rally – we whine.

I have run into the attitude that we shouldn’t be too politically active because we don’t want to be perceived as “rocking the boat.”  Well, we have succeeded.  We couldn’t rock the boat if we tried.  We have no nationwide organization that could get anyone in congress to so much as return a phone call.  On the local level we are often too busy fighting amongst ourselves over when we can schedule a certain rehearsal to look at the bigger picture.  And the response, when slapped by Coburn and, God help us, another 72 Senators, is to whine about it.

It is time for the Arts, all of the Arts, and especially that subset known as Classical Music, to collectively get off of our lazy tuchuses and start throwing our weight around.  We know the statistics.  We know that Arts education makes a great society.  We know that we contribute BILLIONS of dollars to the economy every year.  We know that more people are exposed to art than go to professional sporting events, etc. etc.  We know all this.  Why don’t they understand it in Washington, D.C.?  Because we don’t shout it loud enough.  We’re too busy finding different ways to complain.

Enough.  It would be very nice if closed minds came with closed mouths but that’s not the way the world works. We need to combat the closed minds head on.  Those of us in the Arts need to open our own minds up to change AND open our mouths to impact our government and our public.  We must change, or die and go the way of the Canary in a Muzak mine.

1 thought on “To Laugh? To Cry?”

  1. I hear you – I agree the idea that the arts are not a legitimate industry is baloney. If anything I think the arts are incredibly underestimated, and have far more potential for economic impact.

    But, I can see the “riff-raff” & “elitist” barbs as true in many cases.

    I’m a working artist. My husband is also a working artist. We live in Detroit, one of the worst towns to be in economically right now. We are 100% against the bailout.

    A relative of mine who lives in New York City snapped at me about my anti-NEA opinion claiming I only think that way because I don’t know what it’s like to be a “working artist” because I don’t live in NYC and I’m not in a union.

    So my art is less valid here in old Detroit?

    Anyhow, the NEA budget is so small compared to other areas of spending, it should really be eliminated, not increased so we get more used to it! Aside from the NEA 5 issues (which I think are critical to this dialogue) increased subsidy will only make it harder for currently practicing artists to survive in the long run, though admittedly painful in the short run.

    With subsidy, the intent is to increase artistic output and help struggling artists make it in their careers, correct? Well, that sounds good, right? Sort of. Overall, subsidy does achieve the goal of a net increase in artistic output.

    However, as subsidy increases, it is obvious profit motive decreases. As subsidy increases, the arts seem a much safer place to start a career, because there is more cushion, less risk. As such, many more people decide to enter the arts than normally would, driving down the incomes of all the currently practicing artists (non-union, of course), rather than individual artist’s incomes being boosted. Subsidy increases (individual) artist poverty – not the other way around. So while subsidy might be good for “the arts” as a whole – it isn’t helping individual artists at all.

    Also, helping people choose a particular career is distinct from allowing a greater number of people to become educated and enjoy the arts. If we have subsidy at all, I’d love to see a voucher system, giving art consumers rather than producers, more of the say in what art “wins” public dollars. This has been implemented successfully in trials. Arts organizations that receive vouchers from “paying” consumers receive the government subsidy. So they still have to do something to earn the business! They still have to know something about audience development and keeping butts in the seats!

    The NEA in its current iteration does not provide such a platform, which is what arts organizations need to learn. What they are learning instead is grant-writing and finding the “token” race/county/gender/sexual orientation individual sitting on their board. I know about this kind of stuff from people who spent their lives doing it. It’s a big game that has little to do with art and creativity.

    Furthermore, I don’t like the idea of some panel of artists and chairman elected by the President telling me what I should be enjoying. It’s insulting, really, and has no place in a government’s functions.

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