Arts and exclusion
(Nimue)
Many people feel that The Arts aren’t for them, without realising what kind of messaging they’ve been subjected to.
Oppressive governments tell us that arts are worthless, strip arts from schools, strip funding from arts and are destroying higher education too. The message is that there are no carers in the arts. Right wing administrations hate the arts because arts encourage imagination, empathy, creativity and community, all of which is at odds with a right wing agenda. Further here in the UK the arts are a big part of the economy, despite how the industries are treated. Unfortunately it’s the artists who are least likely to be paid.
There’s a class aspect – if you don’t come from a moneyed background you’ll get clear messages that art is not for the likes of you, and that you won’t be able to understand it or appreciate it. Some spaces you will be priced out of (opera especially). At the same time, working class art is downgraded to craft. Folk music and popular music are treated as lesser forms than the ‘high’ art that rich people make exclusive. Street dance is seen as less worthy than ballet, and so on and so forth. The art that ordinary people share and enjoy is no less artful or valuable, we’re just encouraged to think that way.
There are people who will come along to knock you down for daring to take your art seriously. If you don’t have money to help you get started, the demand for instant perfection will probably force you out as a child and keep you convinced that you can never be good enough. Capitalism focuses us all on the idea that we should only be doing things we can definitely make a lot of money from. Devaluing of the arts makes it ever harder to make a steady living, or to survive without support from someone else. That makes creative work less available to people who are economically deprived. That doesn’t mean art isn’t for us, it means we have a system that is against us.
Art is for everyone. It always was. Storytelling is a fundamental human impulse. Our ancestors went into caves to make art, and what we find in archaeology is decorated. Art is a pot you have put some designs on. Art is a spear thrower with an animal head on it. Art is an ornate belt buckle. Drumming, singing and dancing are all ancient practices, all widely found in non-industrial societies. Our arts are part of our humanity, and to strip that away is to dehumanise us.
Art is for everyone. Creativity is for everyone. We have to give each other more room, more opportunity, more encouragement and more support. If we let this current joyless, money obsessed culture take over then we have so much to lose. We need space to express ourselves and to share those expressions and we need community support as we do it. So, never shame someone for trying, or for not being instantly brilliant. Encourage people in expressing themselves, and in having the space to learn and grow. Don’t make it all about the money.
Do call out the joy killers though. Let’s not encourage the people who want to make it harder. If you catch someone trying to shame someone else into not singing, or dancing or drawing or whatever they were doing, call that person out and ask them how they think anyone is supposed to improve if they aren’t allowed to even have a go. Challenge the myth of talent – most of us are not instantly brilliant and we need time to learn. Affluent people get opportunity and classes, the rest of us get told that we don’t have enough natural talent to be worth considering. Talent is a myth. Time spent is key to everything.
Inspiration is at the heart of the Druid path, and I think we all know that it should be available to everyone. Supporting each other in this is going to be an important part of how we resist joyless, planet killing capitalism and build something better.
