First, a disclaimer.
I was trained as a scientist. Steeped in the experimental method, bloodied by burrowing into the entrails of obscure statistical models, I self-identified as rigorous, and rational. Hayes and Weiner were my bibles, and multi-dimensional scaling my vice.
I say this because these are not the personal values and personality traits usually associated with an artistic "temperament". But, I have one. I play multiple musical instruments, with varying degrees of skill. I had, in my youth, a vocal range from G below middle C, to E above high C, and I performed professionally for over 20 years in various venues. I paint, large works on Masonite, in oil, and I have a fully functioning pottery studio which, with a little help from me, has produce ceramic pieces that current reside in museums and private collections in the US and Europe.
You will understand then, why I am nonplussed that every statement about the current economic crisis, and the desperate need for vision and decisions that will shape the future, is predicated on the need for science while making no mention of the arts.
Yes. We need engineers, and scientists, and an education system that produces them. Yes. We need inventors, and visionaries who can shape and mold an energy efficient future. Yes. We need less emphasis on manipulating futures options and more attention to the industrial and technological development that any strong nation must rely on.
But where, in the soaring rhetoric, and brilliant vision of this technological future, is the role for the artist?
Having just completed a wondering hour with the Pattern and Map Maker who we are blessed to find leading us through this current crisis, I find myself wondering aloud, "Have I finally spotted the Statesmen and Leader I have decried the absence of for the past half a century?"
But, I am left with a jarring absence of articulated vision for the arts.
The Works Projects Administration begun under the Roosevelt Administration, funded public buildings and operated large arts, drama, media and literacy projects. A Google search reveals over 162,000 separate entries on the arts projects that were funded. To begin your introduction to this rich area of art history, visit Jeanette Hendler's site.
Artists such as Milton Avery, Stuart Davis, Mark Rothko, Willem deKooning and Jackson Pollock were just a few of the thousands of artists on the WPA Project who have achieved worldwide recognition. Many, many other artists, who were also on the project, such as Aaron Berkman, Jules Halfant, Max Arthur Cohn, Norman Barr and Gertrude Shibley are in museum collections, exhibitions and are in many private collections, but are not as yet nationally known.
Many states benefited from this funding of young and talented men and women who, in return, greatly valued the support and recognition of their government as to the importance of art, in a time of great social stress. From California, to New Jersey, archeological, architectural, symphonic, and visual arts, as well as dance and literature, all were seen as an important part of the dynamic of a healthy and creative society. They received stipends from the government to produce works that were intended for display all over the country. These works were designed to lift the spirits and challenge the minds of a population beaten into the ground by poverty, the Dust Bowl, and 25% unemployment.
Currently, symphony orchestras all over the country are experiencing financial hardship. Dance companies all over the country are facing collapse as the economy reduces ticket sales and production costs remain high.
Meanwhile, extraordinary schools from Rhode Island, to Chicago, to San Francisco, are producing gifted artists in all fields of the arts. Trained in the classical techniques, and encouraged to expand and manipulate those techniques, they produce a new vision of reality. A new vision that expands the mind, and in turn the possibilities, of anyone who see or hears their work.
But they are being turned out to starve.
Now, I know the starving artist has great cashet among those who neither understand or produce artistic works of their own. The whole garret, and wine and cheese, and struggle meme has been so ingrained in the national consciousness that we rarely question its accuracy. But, driving a cab, waiting tables, and a host of other jobs taken to support the "art habit", while charming in youth, are frequently not available during a recession, and those jobs rob the artist of the time to explore and expand their vision. Years can be lost.
As we consider the unemployed, the under employed, and the need for a stimulus to the national economy, can we stop for a minute and consider two additional things?
- We have a vital generation of young artists who are facing a total lack of economic support for their growth and vision, as the economy continues down this road.
- The Works Progress Administration recognized the terrible loss to the country if its artists were not treated as an integral part of the national dialogue and given support for their vital role.
As we rebuild the bridges, and repave the roads, as we move toward energy independence with the talents of our scientists and inventors, can we find a way to support the talent and gifts of the other creative class - the painters and dancers, the musicians and architects, those who sculpture and those who write the novel that skewers the pompous and self important? Their more ephemeral contributions are as important to American life as the hard scape, and often lasts longer.