Here’s the Only Justification for the Arts that Matters in the 21st Century
Many artists and arts advocates have a secret fear — that our art doesn’t really matter, that it’s not tangible enough to make a difference to a world in need.
The fear that our art may not matter comes from living within a culture that says that the arts are basically frivolous — nice, yes, but really no more than entertainment, luxury items, and hobbies. Living within such a culture, artists, art lovers, and art advocates all face an uphill battle: to survive, we must constantly justify our existence to stakeholders who believe, at some level, that the most important thing in our own lives — art — doesn’t really matter.
While all art advocates know in their hearts that the arts do matter, and that, in fact, the arts have an absolutely vital role to play in making a more beautiful world, few can articulate this fully.
The result? Without the ability to properly articulate the fullest role of the arts in society, arts advocates and their organizations suffer from the following challenges:
- Shrinking audiences and enrollment
- Burnout and overwork
- Advocacy fatigue
- Difficulty effectively making their case to key stakeholders and funders
- Decreased relevance in the digital age
- Ongoing financial difficulties
Taken together, these challenges can seem to confirm that the arts don’t really matter in today’s world. How do we counter this perception in our efforts to advocate for the arts?
In this article, I will share what I believe it means for art (and therefore art advocacy) to matter at this moment in history. I will share the #1 mistake arts advocates now make that leads to the declining cultural relevancy of the arts and difficulty funding the arts everywhere from elementary schools to prestigious cultural institutions. I will also share how to address this mistake at its root cause so you can more effectively advocate for arts’ crucial role in today’s world, and thereby secure your organization’s funding and prestige in our uncertain future.
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What does it mean for art to matter? What matters to you depends on your goals and values. Since we’re asking a big question, let’s frame art in relation to something similarly big: the purpose of life, who we are, and what we were born to do.
In the purposes of this essay, I will say that the purpose of life is more life. Anything that we do to make life more wonderful, abundant, verdant, interconnected, and whole aligns with the deepest levels of who we are and fulfills what we were born to do.
Art matters when it also fulfills this purpose. Art matters when it brings us more to life, when it inspires, heals, and brings us together. Art matters when it puts us in touch with something larger than our individual selves.
In our current turbulent times, art matters when it heals the wounds that now tear us apart, and when it allows us to grow into the kind of people who are capable of acting from a perspective of interconnection.
Take a moment now and let this sink in. Notice if this description touches something you already know to be true, deep down.
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To say that art doesn’t matter is a form of insanity. Insanity is simply ignoring anything that’s true. In this case, saying that art doesn’t matter ignores what every art lover’s heart knows to be true about the purpose and value of the arts. It’s based on an outdated story about the nature and purpose of life.
What is this story? Author Charles Eisenstein calls it the Story of Separation. More than a tale, it is a fundamental worldview that animates and organizes the industrialized, consumerist society that now spans the globe.
The Story of Separation says that the universe is a thing to be manipulated; it says that everything is fundamentally separate, and that the only purpose of human existence is to expand the tiny, fragile light of human consciousness ever outward onto a dead universe. Take a look into the destruction and chaos in your own life, in our world, or even in the arts, and you will see this story at work.
It’s vital to understand the Story of Separation for two reasons. Firstly, you may not even be aware that this is a story; you may take it for granted and mistakenly believe it to be a feature of reality, when it’s not. This mistake is the root cause of many of our individual and collective problems.
Secondly, any action taken within a given story tends to further that story. For instance, if you unconsciously believe the Story of Separation to be true and then create, perform, practice, teach, or advocate for the arts from that story, then the results, however unwittingly, will only act to further the forces of separation.
Take a moment now to sense into the Story of Separation and ask yourself: could anything created within this story fulfill the growth and healing of ourselves and our world? Probably not.
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This brings us to the #1 mistake arts advocates make, which is to justify the arts in terms of the utilitarian values of the Story of Separation. Here are some examples:
- Economic growth
- Skills development
- Early childhood development
- Mental health
- Cognitive development
- Cultural diplomacy
- Crime reduction
- Social mobility
While all these justifications are true in their own way, they all miss the point of the arts. They all regard art as a means to an end, and not as a worthy end in itself. Any “art” created with these as its motivating force will fall flat and hardly be worthy of the name.
Think about it: did you love creating as a child because you knew that doing so would be good for your brain, or reduce crime in your neighborhood, or add to the economy? What if someone told you to create and gave you these justifications as arguments for you to do so — would that have made you more or less likely to enjoy the creative act? Did Michelangelo carve his Pieta because he thought it would help neighborhood children better develop STEM skills? Would the Pieta have been improved if he had?
Herein lies the crux of the problem for arts advocates.
Funders and other power holders almost universally hold the Story of Separation and its utilitarian values to be fundamentally true and seem to respond most to justifications for the arts based on those values.
However, justifying the arts in utilitarian terms is exhausting and soul-destroying for many arts advocates because it conflicts with what we know the purpose and value of the arts to be.
Moreover, the arts aren’t very good at fulfilling these utilitarian aims (artists aren’t known for their economic prowess, for instance), and so justifying the existence of the arts in utilitarian terms tends to fall flat.
The tragedy of this situation is that, in our struggle to survive, we abandon what makes the arts (and life) worthwhile, and so the institutions, education, and funding that we secure robs the arts of the healing and growth that are their very raison d’étre.
Take another moment to let this sink in. This can be an uncomfortable place, but to find a solution we must first get comfortable with the seeming tension between our love and our survival.
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Clearly, we need a new story. One which aligns with the true purpose of the arts and the vital role our hearts know the arts have to play in society. One which aligns to the growth and healing we need individually and collectively. One which results in a way of creating, teaching, and advocating for art that matters to our current world.
This is the Story of Interbeing. Inspired by Buddhist monk Thich Naht Hanh’s term interbeing, the Story of Interbeing says that the world is a being to be honored. In this story, we are not separate; indeed, my being partakes of your being — I exist in part because you exist. In this story, the purpose of life is to bring about more life, to heal separations, and to grow our sphere of awareness and care to include all life on earth.
The Story of Interbeing changes everything about how we create, perform, practice, teach, and make a living in the arts. It also provides profoundly different, and more emotionally resonant, pathways for arts advocacy.
Here are several possible tenets of arts advocacy in the Story of Interbeing. As you read this list, notice what comes up for you. Some of the tenets may resonate well with you and others may seem unrealistic. See if you can gently set aside any initial objections and instead listen in for any resonance you may feel in your body.
- Art as a unifying force that heals fragmentation and provides rituals for celebration
- Art as catalyst of awakening to our life’s purpose, inner growth, and new perspectives
- Art as a path to healing, harmony, and emotional resilience
- Artists as heralds and midwives of social evolution
- Art as creator of coherence among seemingly disparate groups of people
- Art as celebrating, centering, and honoring deep ecology
- Art as expression of the inexpressible
What do you notice as you read this list? Do any of these resonate with what you already know to be true about the arts? Do any trigger objections? If so, where do these objections come from? Do these objections assume the Story of Separation to be true? If so, what’s at risk if you were to stand in the deeper truth of interbeing and what your heart knows?
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Arts advocacy sometimes feels like a zero-sum tug-of-war between those who care about the arts and those who have the money and power to fund them. In such a struggle, both sides lose because gaining victory all too often means losing sight of what’s important about the arts.
Thankfully, there is another way, one used to great effect by Mahatma Gandhi in his satyagraha (“Soulforce”) campaign to free India from British colonial rule. Instead of fighting against other stakeholders, he invited them into a story that worked for both parties. In situations where most of us would fall back on force, control, demonizing, or violence, Gandhi spoke to the angels of their better nature, helping them see themselves as agents for the growth and healing of India.
And you know what? It worked!
Arts advocates can learn from Gandhi’s example. The biggest obstacle we face is the remnants of the Story of Separation that both we and arts funders carry. If we act from this story or speak to its values in our advocacy, then we will fail. Arts institutions will continue to decline in relevancy, economic security, and audience engagement. Then, the arts will truly not matter in our world.
However, if we act from the Story of Interbeing and speak to its values as we advocate for the arts, our actions and words will resonate with the desire our funders already hold for growth and healing. Doing so can pass their emotional armoring and open them up to new possibilities for the arts that go beyond all our current perceived limitations.
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Here’s your homework.
If you want to advocate for the arts and demonstrate their utter relevancy to our world, you must rely on the potential for resonance with the true purpose of the arts beyond any utilitarian value.
Get as clear as you can on your own heart’s knowledge about the purpose and value of the arts. Stand in this knowledge as fully as you can. Don’t throw away your utilitarian justifications; rather, use them judiciously, and always in the larger context of the true purpose of the arts.
Then, when you can advocate, speak from that knowledge in yourself, and to the same knowledge within other stakeholders. When you do, your heart-truth (what I call Soulforce) will stream right past their defenses and objections to strike them in their own hearts. To paraphrase an old saying, “Where your heart is, there your treasure will be also.”
The key, then, to advocating for the arts in the 21st century lies in expanding our vision to include utilitarian values, yes, but also to transcend them as we elicit resonance with the arts’ true purpose.
Here’s the good news: approaching arts advocacy in this way creates an atmosphere that naturally invites all stakeholders’ actions, words, and creations to align with growth and healing. This is a form of arts advocacy worthy to face the challenges of the 21st century. It allows us to demonstrate that art does, indeed, matter because of its power to resonate with the desire for a more beautiful world latent within us all.
Joseph Arnold
“The Art Whisperer”
Creative Magic Mentor
Director of the Soulforce Arts Institute
SoulforceArts.com
