Everybody knows the
fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows Leonard Cohen b.1934, d. 2016 RIP
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows Leonard Cohen b.1934, d. 2016 RIP
So, it been some time since I have updated my blog. That’s because
we have been flat out at work trying, successfully, to secure and redevelop new
premises into our new home – the ARC. The Arts Resource Centre, will not only
be home to us, but will host workshops, performances, poetry slams, recording
and rehearsal spaces for community groups, bands, organisations and individuals
right across Northern Ireland. What is all the more remarkable is that we have
managed to achieve this new space with absolutely no additional help from
either private or public sponsorship, relying solely on squirreled away
reserves and the support of individual donors via the crowd funding site
localgiving.com.
We moved because we responded to the need for greater
sustainability for the arts and in so doing, we wanted to secure our future and
of course, those we support. Ironically, we asked for support on two occasions from
the Sustainability Fund, but got zilch both times. It seems it might be easier
to get funds for an idea than a reality. It was puzzling, but isn’t the world?
But as a backdrop to the struggle of one small but ambitious
community arts organisation, we see civic, local, national and international
society all in a real state of flux. Since June 23rd, the political
class of both the UK and Ireland has been staring over the edge of a precipice
saying either “it’s a tremendous opportunity” or “It’s a terrible catastrophe”.
The US Presidential Election similarly described the smallest comfort to be
found between a rock and hard place.
And that sense of unknowing, uncertainty, insecurity…
Here, we await the beginning of a Fresh Start, the initial indications
of Outcomes Based Accountability TM and indeed, the activation of an Action
Plan from the Programme For Government that might offer navigation through these
troubled waters. Meanwhile, we see the precarious nature of all publicly-funded
activity inflict further casualties – Gingerbread NI, a charity with a long
history of supporting single parents – gone – and NICEM, another charitable
institution dedicated to supporting ethnic minorities, summarily swept away –
gone – at the stroke of a pen.
So building sustainability, amid all this inertia, this
flux, this precarity, is a tall order. There will be more causalities. Everybody
knows. Do you get the sense that that’s the
way they want it – then powers that be, too ham-strung to take any bold
decisions, relying instead on atrophy and withering of people's agency and
social capital? Does this laissez-faire management of civic
infrastructure bode well for any of us? Is it as Leonard sings, “Everybody knows
that the dice are loaded...That's how it goes"?
Everybody does know that the Arts have never been particularly
strongly supported here. We're bottom of the spending leagues of all EU and UK nations and regions. As a cultural mirror and barometer of the civic health
of a place, the outlook currently for the arts is grim. The arts are on life support. Winter is indeed coming. We
need to redouble all our efforts to make the case that the arts cannot merely
survive – they must thrive if we are to have any alternative creative future
here. The shibboleth of the creative industries, must instead open up, connect
and resonate as part of a wider arts ecology. Those on the margins must be supported
by public funds to enjoy the most basic of civil rights and Northern Ireland
must embrace a new positive, creative outlook that can be a beacon and attract
people, business and investment, drive up educational attainment and social and
personal well-being. The arts can do that. That's what everybody knows in Finland,
Sweden, Norway, Denmark, France, etc etc all appreciate. But they have to be
invested in and supported. It is an issue of basic welfare that the arts, especially
those practices that support the most vulnerable, must be protected.
And everybody knows some people don’t get it. Winning
the argument about how the arts can transform lives and see the worth that they
bring to the most marginalised of people, still seems to be incomprehensibly difficult
for some. Even on the day of our launch, only a few weeks ago, when we told
people of the struggle we had getting the space sorted out, buying second-hand
bits of kit, in order that we could offer community groups, with no access to
the arts, a real opportunity and as we urged people to recognise and support
the good work we do on behalf of so many others, somebody actually saw fit to
steal two mini-ipads on us!! I-pads that
support young people in marginalised groups across the country to do stop-frame
animation, or assist older people’s groups with dementia new opportunities to engage
with the arts. Someone actually came to the launch of our new arts space and
left with our hard-won equipment, cheating others of an opportunity.
Everybody knows the
deal is rotten. In a world where the consequences of our actions become
less understood and the relationship between what people say and what people do
is blurred in political “post-factual” rhetoric, there are no easy
dishonesties. They all have an exponential cost. The arts can of course propagate
lies and much of their work is “made up”, but it is in the making that we learn
how to understand and create something from nothing. We understand that ideas
have power. We consider how that power can become manifest. This is the power
to transform stuff into things of beauty, into stories that excite, enthral,
into words and music that transport our imaginations and lift our spirits, into images that illuminate our otherwise murky view. Lies
only diminish – they steal the moral agency to affect change and leave us
squalid, brutish and denied our human accomplishment – our civilisation itself.
We are social beings and the greatest social connector is the arts, because it
strengthens through deepening cultural engagement and development, the
understanding of who we are, where we are and reflects it back to ourselves and
others.
So, honestly, the arts need your help. And the arts and particularly
community arts represent a space that enables, that helps and turns our creative
efforts into a shared, collective celebration of our own truth about who we are
and what we want to achieve. Our dreams never lie. It is our inalienable right
to dream and participate in the artistic and cultural life of our place. It make us human.
Everybody knows that it’s
now or never
Make it now, please
You can help by sponsoring us at https://localgiving.org/communityartspartnership
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