I just read this article:
regarding the struggles in the art community during this pandemic & it has motivated me to remind folks just how important the role of artist is to society.
What is it that makes a society out of a group of humans struggling as a group for survival? Does their activities as farmers or hunters make them a society or a civilization? Is it the tools they use? The structures they build?
While tools & architecture may be important elements of a particular group, I would suggest that what makes them a society or civilization as distinct from another group that may even be using the same tools or building styles, is the stories that they share among themselves by which they define their distinct identity as a people as differentiated from other groups of humans.
We often use the term “mythology” to describe these stories but that term is too easily disregarded.
America is defined by its mythology, its stories. We have the stories of the founding fathers. We have the stories of Jamestown & the Pilgrims in Massachusetts. There are lesser known stories that have hidden influence, s.a. the story of Roger Williams & the founding of the concept of religious freedom in America. Then we have the stories written by the likes of Ralph Emerson, Henry Thoreau, Mark Twain. The paintings of the Hudson River Group: en.wikipedia.org/… & modern art by the likes of Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Georgia O’Keefe, Norman Rockwell… Musicians s.a. our recently lost John Prine (if you don’t know his music, start with his early works s.a. Paradise, “Sam Stone” or “Hello in There”), Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin & Jim Morrison, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong.
Our TV shows like “I Love Lucy,”“Leave it to Beaver,”“Ozzie & Harriet,”“Sid Caesar,” “All in the Family,”“The Cosby Show” (irregardless of Bill’s personal failings), Seinfeld, Cheers, Friends & many more.
There are the newer contributions by Hollywood, The movies starring the likes of John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, Jimmy Stewart & Henry Fonda. Even new movies s.a. Saving Private Ryan.
All of these stories help us to define what it means to be an American.
Fundamentally speaking, the artist in a given society is the person(s) who defines for us what it means to be a member of the given society. We would have no concept of what it means to be an American if it were not for the stories & the images, that we use to define for ourselves what it means to be an American. & this is an ongoing process. While this essay is not meant to be political, what we see in the political discussions are attempts to promote contrasting stories about what it means to be an American.
Without the artist, none of this is possible. While art is often created in private, it is only through public sharing that it becomes part of the iconography of a society. We are constantly defining & redefining what it means to be an American & a human on the planet Earth. This pandemic has become a part of the newest version of the defining.
We need our artists to speak & write & imagine these concepts for us. Yes, we do this as individuals all of the time, but there are always those individuals who are more articulate & can create images & sounds that better describe what we ourselves are imagining. We need a society that supports artists. Particularly artists who can imagine our world in new ways in order to help us move forward as a society. Otherwise, we will be relegated to a society imagined by the corporate marketing departments whose primary function is to convince us to be good little consumers.