Why Are The Arts So Looked Down Upon?

TV shows, advertising, buses, cars, websites, computers, graffiti, paintings… These are just a few things that have been ingrained into our everyday life thanks to the use of art. These things are fundamental to our lives and are what helps us to escape from the real world, promote ourselves, and make us appreciate the environment we live in to make us feel more comfortable. So, I ask you this, why are the arts so frowned upon?

The arts funding keeps getting constantly cut, to where one day, the funding will be hard to see. Do politicians and the government see what type of effect that this will one day have? I don’t think so, because to them, having a job in the arts is not a ‘career’.

 

You don’t see them moaning when they use artists to help create their online campaigns. You don’t see them complaining when they are putting propaganda on the buses. You don’t see them objecting when they make silly tv advert campaigns that interrupt that TV show you were enjoying. What would they do if we didn’t have the arts?

I understand that sometimes cuts have to be made, because otherwise, our economy would get worse. I think that the decisions about what needs to be cut should be thought through a lot more, with a list of what the negatives and positives are, because right now, it feels like this isn’t being done.

Growing up sitting in my maths and psychology lessons, I would be asked “What do you want to go on to be after you leave school?” I would reply “I want to be a film maker”. The response would either be a laugh or a sorrowful look with “You can’t make a career out of making films, where will your income come from?”. Why is it that people who aren’t in the creative industry assume that a career in the arts won’t get you anywhere? I wish I could answer this question, but I can’t, I would just be making false assumptions.

Over time the mindset of making a career in the creative industries has gotten a lot better.

 

Although a lot of people are becoming artists because they see it as an ‘easy job’ but, it isn’t. It requires many late night sessions, creative blocks, stress as well as networking and meetings to make connections. But it is probably the most fun and rewarding line of work you could get into, because the outcome of making a group project or individual piece that you have put so much of your time and energy into, is so rewarding and you look at it and think ‘I created this’. 

As artists (or emerging artists – everyone is an artist in some form) we all need to keep doing what we are doing and keep creating magic.

Written by Lauren Jones.

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2 Responses

  1. So true, art enriches and allows us to express our individuality, without it we’re just inanimate objects.

    Lovely, straight-to-the-point post.

    theefectivetimes.blogspot.com

  2. The answer is the perception that being a successful artist is all about luck. That if the right people like what you make you can receive funding and commissions to last a lifetime. But if you are never noticed you will die in agony from hunger due to chasing a childish dream. It is the idea that parents would rather have their children have enough money to put meat on the table than to see them suffer for something they have been taught to be frivolous. And often times Art School is needlessly expensive and may would be better of getting books on the basics of art and teaching themselves. Musicians could once just perform in bars or restaurants for small sum to meet ends meat before, painters could once make advertisements or signs for small businesses, and writers could do basic clerical work for magazines or local newspapers as a steady job while they were working in their big time novel or collection of short stories. As the times changed, and demands from employers for university education when none is needed just for the evidence that one has dedication, the rise of computers, the dying of print media, and the demand of News and Media Companies for university education has placed the Artist in an unfavorable light in the eyes of many practicality obsessed and risk reducing parents. It is the curse of the times, and the nature of an economy that could never quite regain it’s luster after it lost the Gold Standard.

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