Yesterday I returned from the No Boundaries 2014 conference, which was an open series of meetings and talks on the role of culture in 21st century society. At the meetings were Artists and people involved in the Arts and the talks were given by people young and old that represented different parts of British culture, from teenage bloggers to Google, City libraries to actors.
One of the things that I took from this conference was that culture is such a huge subject and Art is a small part of it. However, I am an Artist and people involved in the Arts community, like my fellow conference attendees want to create Art. We all look to the Arts Council for help and support, especially the money to create it. But the message that rang out loud and clear was, a tough love one, if you want our support you need to give us as much as possible for our money, you need to engage the people that aren’t engaging, you need to spread your Art as far and as wide as possible and even then you need to find as much money yourself as possible.
So as an Artist what do I do now?
I create Art, just like I always do. But I need to look at how I bring the public with me, just saying this is me and this is my Art is not enough. I need to bring the public into my art form with me, I need to talk incessantly about my work through every channel available to me and get people talking about my art, I need to not apply for funding but make my art pay for itself.
Right I get it, but how the hell am I ever going to have time to create Art, when I’m so busy doing all the above. I don’t want to create Art that I think people will want to buy, I want to create Art that interests me. I understand that funding pots have shrunk and that I chose to be an Artist, but if we value culture as much as we say we do, then we need to support that culture and with that we need to support the Artists that produce it.
So, where do I go from here?
I guess I need to adapt, I need to work on a project that explores these ideas and I need to see if it works for me. If not, I’m not sure what I’ll do.
