- What Does “Inclusive” Mean To A Performing Arts Center? The Kennedy Center held an event to talk about inclusiveness of its offerings. But no one seemed to be able to define exactly what that means. Why is it that many in the arts believe that “inclusiveness” means getting more people to define culture the way in ways that might not feel inclusive to a lot of people? Is inclusivity merely another way of trying to market more people into the theatre to fill seats?
- How Will Canada’s Arts Funders Spend Their New Indusion Of Government Cash? The Canada Council announced a new strategic funding plan with four new priorities – the first being a bridge between indigenous and non-indigenous cultures through the arts. The other three are about helping Canadian artists thrive in a digital environment, raising their profile internationally and giving them more money. We’re betting the “giving them more money” is the priority that will get the most attention.
- Lessons Learned By The Profusion Of Mega-Culture Projects Going Up In Newly Rich Cities: Of course the flashy buildings don’t give you instant culture, and attempts to create these huge projects result in more failures than successes. But, Adrian Ellis reports, there are interesting lessons to be learned. “Increasingly, people are enthused by experiencing the arts in new spaces and contexts, particularly ones where they can socialise, hang out and come and go according to their own timetable.” In other words, cultural spaces that allow people to build culture in them, rather than have it plopped down for them.
- Empire Of The Sun: The Rarefied World Of Larry Gagosian, Gallery Mogul: Gagosian has changed the way art is sold. He is “estimated to clear $1 billion in sales annually and is among a small group of gallery owners whose appetites are omnivorous: He works across the contemporary and modern eras, representing living artists like John Currin and Mark Grotjahn while also dealing on behalf of the estates of Alberto Giacometti, Richard Avedon and Helen Frankenthaler.” Art has always been commodified, but Gagosian has taken it to a new level.
- If At First You Don’t Succeed, Poetry Edition: Over decades Eileen Myles submitted hundreds of poems to the New Yorker, hoping to get published. Every one was rejected. Until one day she scored a yes. Why was she so dogged? “I think because I grew up in an alcoholic household and I was suspending belief so often as a child just to survive that it now felt like a bicep flex.”
“Is inclusivity merely another way of trying to market more people into the theatre to fill seats?”
Yeah. More often than not, I think it is.
There’s nothing wrong with that, of course. Performing arts can’t exist without audiences to perform for.
But it often seems to me that we in the arts world talk about inclusivity, engagement, arts strategies, and such while forgetting (deliberately or not) that what we’re really after, most of the time, is getting more people to come to our play/concert/dance/opera/art show, preferably paying for the privilege.
And we want those things so that we and our employers can keep putting on our shows and we can keep our jobs.
Again, there’s nothing wrong with that. Most people want to keep their jobs; and usually they want to do those jobs well.
But I think we can use a reminder every so often that much of our altruistic-sounding talk and writing is ultimately about filling seats – i.e., selling our product – and that there’s more self-interest involved than we might like to think.
I absolutely agree.