Money, The Arts Etc.

Laura Axelrod asks that we talk about the coming (or perhaps already here) financial crisis in our work, our lives and the intersections therein.  I agree with her when she writes:

I'm not saying that we should come up with a public policy position on the matter. I'm talking about dealing with this problem both in our work and in our lives. There is a crude silence about something that is impacting millions of people world-wide. It's not going to clear up tomorrow.

It will affect you and your work. Something with this kind of impact will change our culture. It will alter the way society sees itself and the world.

I think this is important shit to talk about, and I've certainly been following with a feeling of dread the breeze blowing on our economic house of cards as it has turned into a gale force wind.  It's not a good situation.

Now, I haven't blogged about it much, that's true, but it's nice that Laura's post gives me an opportunity to do so... so... let's start talkin' about it.

Obviously, the most direct impact will be financial. I was speaking a friend who works for an Off-Broadway theater who told me "we were waiting for a grant from Lehman... I have no idea what's going to happen with that". That's not good. Corporations are going to be donating less. Individual giving is going to fall.  It's going to be a tough climate.

I wrote about this earlier in what might have seemed like a throwaway sentence in a column on Government arts funding.  I wrote something to the effect of with the economy almost certainly leading to a downtick in giving, we need increased Government funding for the arts.  I still believe that. What can I say? I'm a Keynesian at heart. 

As to the actual effect it will have on our work... I know it will have one, I just don't know what it is. Crises tend to be deeply conservatizing. People have two main reactions to crisis. The first is to get radicalized the second is to get conservatized. The second impulse is (in my experience) far more common.  Look for example at 9/11, where our response was eventually to do the same old shit but more intensely.  Or look at after the Florida Recount Debacle where our collective response was to reassure each other that the system would work in the future, if only we opened it up to more theft via computer systems.

So I don't know what the impact of it will be on the work.  Rock music tends to get better during economic downturns. I have no idea why that is.  Any theories? Please give a shout in the comments.

Comments

[RVCBard]

I don't know.

I think we need to consider issues and strategies for a worst case scenario - complete lack of government funding. If this possibility became a reality, how will we have to adapt to ensure that art thrives? What will the arts scene look like? Who will make art? Who will they represent? Who will become part of the larger cultural landscape? How will this support or undermine the greatest values of our society? Is this necessarily a Doomsday situation? Why or why not? What can we do right now to draw on the benefits of such a scenario while limiting the drawbacks? Which is better as far as government funding goes: a half-hearted, lip-service commitment, or none at all? How can we empower ourselves to make the art we want and the world needs (even if it doesn't say so)? Are there other viable options besides commercialized theater or charity drama?