William's Reflections

William Chen, LT'24

We romanticize artists. Artists – writers, musicians, singers, actors, dancers, etc. – who are all happily struggling to make ends meet because their inspiration to create is enough to sustain them. The archetype of "starving artist.”

Josh Heim, LT'18 kicked off our day with a critical reflection on this archetype. It assumes that the arts don’t pay and that’s just the way things are. And because artists choose this path, they don’t deserve to be paid a living wage. Their craft is their reward, and we all benefit from what they create as a fortuitous byproduct of their romantic sacrifice. But this state of affairs isn’t a law of nature.

Our speakers, Brian Carter, LT'18, Vivian Phillips, LT'93, and Manny Cawaling, shared their experiences leading organizations that improved funding, and equity of funding, for the arts in our state. We can, as individuals, organizations, communities, and a society, choose to value the people behind the arts the way we cherish their creations.

However, and I say this as an artist, it’s difficult to see how we get from where we are now to a hypothetical future where the average artists (not your Beyoncés and Taylors Swifts) aren’t assumed to all be “starving.” A future where you don’t have to pin your hopes on being a mass market success or else live a life of precarity. Culture and values are difficult and slow to change.

But I have a metaphor I like to use: We don’t have to be able to see the way to the other side of the foggy lake. We can start by taking the stepping stones in front of us, and trust that we will be able to see more as we proceed. Brian and Vivian were doing this when they focused on the immediate steps to improve equity without having a clear vision for what an end state of “equitable arts funding” would look like.

As I was pondering whether there were examples of societies where artists weren’t generally “starving,” or else limited to those who are personally wealthy or sponsored by a wealthy person, it occurred to me that in America, teaching is also an undervalued and underpaid profession. But in Taiwan, culturally teachers are accorded much more respect and are paid relatively well, and the profession attracts high-performing students. To end on a more positive note, I take this analogy to show that a different way is possible. Artists don’t have to starve.

Jen's Reflections

Jen Self, LT'24, Brick 13 LLC

The question lingering in my mind and body following Arts and Culture Day is one posed by Vivian Phillips, LT'93. She asked us what would be possible if we considered the arts a basic need. What kind of world would we create? To my mind, the arts are inherently about liberation – freeing the connection between our minds, hearts, bodies, and souls to express the entirety of humanity and the infinite space of our collective imagination. The arts enable us to innovate and express that which may currently exist only in the imaginary. They grant us access to the unseen and provide pathways to make real, dynamic futures rooted in radical love, liberation, and deeper human connectedness.

So, when Vivian posed her query, my mind radiated with further questions. What indeed makes a need basic? Are basic needs meant only to sustain human life rather than nourish humanity? Are the arts not basic intellectual, emotional, spiritual, and physical needs?

I have often told myself the story that I abandoned my creativity in childhood because I quit acting, stopped singing, quit drawing, and focused on hiding my gender, sexuality, and trauma through being an athlete. Even as I have loved musical theater, performed stand-up comedy, prided myself on quick wit, I have still found myself saying, “I’m not creative.”

Coming into LT, I chose Arts & Culture as my focus because I wanted to embrace what I have come to realize is a way of being for me. I’ve had to invent myself into the world, into my family, into adulthood, into how I do relationships, into every moment of my existence. Innovation and creativity are the foundation of my life, my relationship to people and the world, and deeply rooted in my beliefs (particularly liberation, antiracism, radical love, and truth-telling). Arts, culture, creativity, innovation, and collective imagination have been life-giving/saving – for me and for so many others.