For lots of us, it has been a wild ride to the end of the federal fiscal year and funding instability. One of my clients, an organization involved internationally, while still a large organization by most measures, is looking at being 30 percent of the size they were 18 months ago. In a moment of frustration, one of the team asked why we spend money on arts organizations when kids are dying?
I have to admit there have been moments I’ve wondered similar things.
But I have come to think differently. First, it’s not a duality – fund kids or fund art. Second, I’ve come to understand how much we need art. Yes, we need air and water to survive. But we also need imagination, especially in difficult times. We need a way to express emotions we have no words for. To try and find some hope on dark days. To help us calm down, help us problem solve, to help us connect when we don’t agree, to help remind us that the sun does come up in the morning. I love how Amie McNee in her TEDx talk makes the case for making art when the world is on fire.
It is also not about coloring in the lines, drawing the perfect form, or writing a Pulitzer Prize winning novel, it is about expressing ourselves. My favorite quote in the talk is “if you don’t share what you’re meant to share, the people you’re meant to help will continue to suffer.”
For me, it’s been fun to create 100 days of art – see my Instagram. Not big time consuming paintings but watercolors crafted between meetings, and photos of things that seem cool. Ok, one or two are bigger paintings but mostly it’s been about consistently creating.
What are you creating?