A CALL FOR GENEROSITY AMID A TIME OF CRISIS
If you work in the arts, maybe you have felt like me – disconnected from my peers and audience, questioning my contribution to society and sensitive to the waves of grief, depression and anxiety flowing throughout the world.
At the beginning of this year I was appointed Associate Director at MTC. I took the role part-time to honour my freelance commitments. When the pandemic hit, I was among the thousands of artists who saw my contract work disappear overnight. So, I have had a strange kind of dual existence – the privilege of being ‘inside’ a major theatre company observing it in this time of crisis and experiencing the heightened uncertainty of being a freelance artist.
Part of my job as a theatre director is to create a space where all voices contribute and are of value to the conversation. It is a critical, thoughtful, playful and dynamic role. It balances the needs of many while focusing attention on a shared goal – the show must open on time (and on budget) for a hungry, deserving audience. This year I am still engaged in this conversation, but it is not in the rehearsal room, it is via Zoom and it is not about the play at hand, it is about the hand we have been dealt.
At MTC, it has been heartening to witness a company so dedicated to its creatives and workforce – honouring contracts and creating opportunities so that actors have some income. So many arts companies have been doing the same. The common thread is digital; hastily finding ways to stay connected to audiences, create work for artists and assert value in an increasingly complex world. It is an exceptionally steep and very public learning curve, with scant resources, all while planning for an uncertain future.
Across the industry I have witnessed the ire and distress from artists who feel ignored, undervalued and scared. Their work is cancelled. They are left off JobKeeper. Their futures: uncertain. Directionless, they are constantly expected to step up – audition without payment and compete for grants with impossibly stacked odds. While companies try their best, budgets have been slashed, rehearsal time is reduced, and available funds do not provide for the amount of preparation needed to get the piece audience-ready. Creatives look to those in ‘secure’ jobs within arts organisations and are further disheartened – after all, artists are the reason these companies exist.
There are challenges creating work at this time for everyone. Critical response to digital exploration has failed to take this into account. These critiques have shamed the writers, directors and actors without empathy for the fact that this is a brave new world for many of us. Instead of meeting the work where it is at or acknowledging the context of its creation, these critics opt to belittle and discredit the artists involved. We need our critics to lead conversations which engage in robust and critical dialogue. It is essential to the making of better art. Publicly panning artists as they step into uncharted territory, without usual supports, is in no way helpful to the immediate situation nor the conversation about how we move through this together.
The danger of ignoring the specific pressures that artists and companies face right now is that vital and important voices are going to be lost – and who could blame them? Existing in a world that does not adequately remunerate your work, or what you contribute to society, one that constantly questions your relevance, and worse – dismisses you as not even a part of the conversation – takes too great a toll. Why not go somewhere where working incredibly hard, creatively solving problems, bringing analytical and emotional intelligence to the table every day and making it look easy, is valued?
Arts criticism exists in a much broader conversation. The last six months has exposed rhetoric and a value system around the arts that is emphasised by the phrase ‘not essential’. While creatives understand they are not front-line workers, these sentiments have a dramatic impact on artists personally, and profoundly influence a collective opinion around the value of the arts and the skills of people who work in the arts. The advocacy challenge for all of us is to find a way to communicate our value to people who do not yet know it or understand it. The shared goal – for critics, creatives, policymakers and audiences alike – should be to protect a vibrant, dynamic industry that is invaluable to our culture, wellbeing, economy, even international standing. So, I call for generosity. Speak to the value of what you see. For if we continue to shame people for bravery, for their attempt to ‘give it a go’, no one will do anything and the performing arts community will simply crumble.