The development of any work of art seldom happens overnight
and the skillset that is required to support and facilitate its production in
all likelihood was developed over years of training, with trials and tribulations
along the way. Creating something that
synthesises purposeful design, elegance in execution and depth in messages and
meaning remains the challenge that faces all artists and arts facilitators,
from whatever discipline. Even the stand-up
comedian, seemingly “winging it” conversationally may well have honed her
apparently throw away patter through years of blood, sweat and gigs. Seldom do we attach value to things that we
attain easily. And in a world where more and more becomes less and less valued,
and increasingly disposable, cherishing our arts and the skills, talents and
processes sustaining them for the benefit of current and future generations
becomes more crucial. The arts, that have created the “soundtracks of our
lives” across every medium, not just music, have been our constant companion,
reflecting and indeed amplifying who we are as individuals and communities and
reminding us time and again of what it is to be human – the joy, the grief, the
ecstasy, the tragedy, the beauty and the sheer endurance.
Nothing else in our world has this function – nothing else
channels all this lived experience into forms that layer meanings over meanings
and allow for us to appreciate more keenly even the most everyday. And this
function of art making is as old as our civilisation, older still, it is as
enduring as our species itself. The arts are the engine of culture, the flywheel
of dreams.
We have sung, danced, painted and narrated forever. Whether we were pursuing our eternal
exploration of meaning or keeping our spirits up entertaining ourselves, we
have consistently turned to the arts, millennium after millennium. We are makers, crafters and creators.
Our dreaming through creativity has offered us visions of
futures where we get it right and where we abysmally fail. It continues to offer
us the chance to look beyond the edges of our selves, appreciating the lives of
neighbours and others and reaching further, contemplating universes of
eternities unknown. Fictions of truth. Every generation has heard these critical
creative voices sing out about what it is to be alive, or dead, free or
captive, angry or righteous.
So, this is important stuff. Even if we think the arts are
just about entertainment, we have a right to enjoy those forms of entertainment
in theatre, film, song, dance, books, verse, whatever. In a world so incredibly
diverse, the more we understand the expression of ourselves and others, the
more we accept how alike our lives are and the easier it becomes to share this
increasingly contested, shrinking world.
This is the power the arts carry.
For this place, Northern
Ireland, the North, we have seen our government and politicians over the last
successive years, actively limit the potential of the arts locally –
undermining all that transformative power and replacing it with a deepening
sense of insecurity about the future and the cultural values that matter to a
society. Whilst at the same time
assuring all of us that the arts really do matter. They matter so much here,
that they have now created a new government department where the term art has
all but disappeared. And this tomorrow
or maybe in the days after, we will see the emergence of a new local Assembly,
with public representatives taking up leadership roles to promote and safeguard
a range of responsibilities, like health, the economy, education, justice etc
etc
The arts community and more
pointedly for me, community artists, implore not only our new assembly of
politicians but our re-shuffled civil service as well, to take heed of what
1,700 respondents to the outgoing minister for culture’s strategy paper were
saying and recognise the role that arts must play in civilised societies and
the value they bring to all our lives, especially for those who struggle most
and have least. To undermine a sector,
that is run so efficiently (almost 6,000 arts jobs are leveraged from a core
Assembly investment of just less that £10m, offering ten times that in social
and economic return) makes no political or economic sense. For this investment,
less than the cost of 1,000 yards of motorway or 30 Routemaster buses, the arts
support our society, making us healthier, happier, more connected to each
other, more adaptable, more attractive to visitors and investors, more
expressive, confident and inventive. These are all the attributes that any
Programme for Government seeks to enhance.
So, as we witness the political to-ing and fro-ing of the coming days
and the inevitable sharing out of responsibilities to govern, let’s recognise
that at the heart of any community is the need to celebrate and value who we
are, understand we have come from and support our collective ambition from the
cradle to the grave. In our local economy of almost £40 billion, the investment
in our schools and communities, our villages, towns and cities in accessible,
excellent and vital arts programmes, events, activities and opportunities is
crucial to delivering a social vision that strengthens rather than diminishes
us.
Only the arts can deliver
that vision in such an all-encompassing way.
This society cannot afford
to let the arts and creativity wither any further. If the programme for
government wants to support outcomes that offer progress here, the arts can
catalyse more potential and transform it into valuable demonstrable social and
economic development better than any other sector.
The arts want to support
the Programme for Government. Give us the means to do so.
The arts are relevant
The arts are extraordinary
The arts
Offering alchemy that make
lives golden.
Northern Ireland needs the
arts.
