Similarly, I am skeptical though not opposed to the entrepreneurial spirit in the arts — that is, I often like the kind of specialized and niche-driven groups and series that the market makes possible, but view the whole cultural mix as an ecology. And these private\/ entrepreneurial efforts often draw from publicly funded halls, grants, tax-breaks, and the public arts education of both players and audiences. So we can’t neglect the larger arts infrastructure, in the same way a forest needs light, clean water, healthy topsoil, and the right amount of shade to get a rich blend of flora and fauna.<\/p>\n
And any reader of this blog knows I consider cultural journalism a crucial piece of the puzzle; and the disappearance of arts coverage aimed at a general audience is a tragedy comparable to the disappearance of arts and music education from public schools.<\/p>\n
But this blog, and this post, is not simply about my ideas but a forum and discussion of where culture has been and where it’s going. And while I don’t entirely agree with Adrian Spence, founder of a well-regarded chamber group which has lasted three decades, I take his point of view seriously enough that I’ll follow up here with an answer of his that tripped me up both when he mentioned it over coffee a few weeks ago as well as when he included it in our recent correspondence. (I have removed a surname to keep from making this personal.)<\/p>\n
So, here goes:<\/p>\n
You say what you’ve done here would be less possible in Europe or the UK. Why does the US seem like the better spot for Camerata, despite the much broader and deeper arts funding over there? Or is it something about the audiences and musical taste in the US that makes a group like yours a better fit?\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Ah, a little push back from one of your readers. Excellent. How exciting to actually have a debate about the ARTS!<\/span><\/p>\n In form of a preface, I have always found it absolutely astonishing that this wonderful country, my adopted home, shows so little national pride in its arts community; a community that has generated leading, form-changing, artists for well over a century. Does the statistic still hold true that this country spends more on military bands than the NEA? An even greater tragedy is the lack of arts education in schools. Well documented science demonstrates the substantial benefits of musical\/instrumental instruction on a child\u2019s cognitive development. That is not just an arts issue but nigh on a human rights issue, that these benefits are deliberately withheld from our youngest citizens.<\/span><\/p>\n Here that all is beyond my remit. Scott asked about my Scots\/Irish background whence the rest of this has sprung.<\/span><\/p>\n I can state categorically I could not have started Camerata Pacifica in Northern Ireland or the U.K. in the late 80s. Back then the notion of an unknown, working class, 25 year old starting what would become a well regarded chamber group would have been seen as preposterous. The still quite pronounced social stratification in the U.K. was also contributory. My ideas would not have been received well and certainly I could not have obtained the seed funding. Perhaps much has changed in the intervening decades, but generally I don\u2019t see it. Not only would it be difficult to sustain a $1,000,000+ budget on whatever small government funding was available, but the musical hierarchy is much more rigid \u2014 less so now I think, but still difficult \u2014 it is hard to break longstanding traditions. 30 years ago the U.S. offered the American Dream. It promised reward for innovative thinking and I deliberately choose to leave the more closed environment of 1980s Britain.<\/span><\/p>\n My intention was never to launch a symphony orchestra or opera house suitable to a capital city. Those institutional pillars of the arts are vital to cities and countries, but there should also be a constant boil of invention and exploration. I became part of a movement in which musicians wrested back control of their, and the greater, musical destiny. I don\u2019t think it is any less than that, and I don\u2019t see how that can happen via an arts council application process.<\/span><\/p>\n A healthy arts environment, any business environment, requires the encouragement of innovation and start ups. In classical music today we\u2019re witnessing, in the U.S., Europe and beyond, incredible fertility in that regard, which is driving the renaissance. In any country this will be driven by individual entrepreneurship and funding, not the bureaucracy. Say indeed UK arts councils do have incubator programs to encourage the formation of new ensembles; along comes a recession, arts budgets are slashed, grants withdrawn and groups disappear. That happened. Scott, perhaps a little investigative journalism can precisely determine the extent of it, but in the last decade that happened. Without investment from individuals those groups had nothing once government funds evaporated.<\/span><\/p>\n The first sentence of Camerata Pacifica\u2019s mission statement states we exist, \u201cto affect positively how people experience live performances of classical music.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Are we touching people? Have we affected positively, have we changed, their experience of classical music? Over 28 years I can say we have. Part of that is a result of how this country\u2019s citizens interact with non-profits of all sorts in their communities. Personal investment is key, financial, emotional and otherwise, which I simply do not witness occurs to the same degree in the U.K. or Europe.<\/span><\/p>\n Permit me to directly address Mr. [name deleted]’s under informed view of the arts scene in Los Angeles. At best it\u2019s dated or he\u2019s Wikipedia-bound. Certainly he has access to an abundance of statistics and we know what Mark Twain had to say about that \u263a <\/span><\/p>\n
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