Investing in the arts – a new mental calculus
WHEN PERSONS decide to listen to the radio, watch cable television, or attend the cinema, a play, a stage show, a recital or an art exhibition, they are investing time and money. Anticipating this, the producers of the arts conceptualise, procure to market and promote. Actively or passively, we all consume and critique art.
One only has to listen to the range of discussions about the treatment of reggae music in the Grammys to get a sense of the levels and nature of the investment. In this way, we also get a sense of art as a collective good. Individuals might not necessarily contemplate how they could benefit in the future from their patronage. However, the nation, as a whole, should have a vision of this. In strictly Western economic theories, investing is setting aside an asset, such as real estate and other durable goods, for the creation of future wealth. In the event of miscalculation, the result is a financial deficit with little or no hope of recovery.
Our experience, however, is that the arts accrue in value despite minimal national and deliberate investment. Consider that Jamaica, which defiantly and consistently punches above its weight in every area of human endeavour, now boasts the inscription of three elements of its culture as world heritage: music of the Moore Town Maroons, the Blue and John Crow mountains and reggae music.
What if the population embraced the value of what this means in the global setting, but more so for individual self-worth and how that might fuel the desire and ability to produce durable goods, to value other human beings, to protect the environment? What if there were a collective understanding of the link between the valuing of the arts and sustainable economic development? Whose responsibility?
At the international conference ‘Art for Tomorrow’ held in Doha in 2017, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova said, “In Mali, when UNESCO rebuilt the mausoleums in Timbuktu, I have seen the power of culture to heal, to bring people together, and I had the feeling we were giving identities back to the people ... . This is not a concern for heritage professionals – it is a peace and security imperative.”
INVESTING IN PEOPLE
In another forum, sharing that the creative industries represent 30 million jobs in the world, more than the global automobile industry, Bokova said, “Investing in culture is not charity. It is not lost money. It is investing in people, in skills, in the future – as well as in sustainable jobs.”
Using culture to mean behaviour, conduct, or the way of relating to one another, investment in the arts becomes a statement about the kinds of human beings we desire to raise and live with. This must be more enduring than favouring the individual artists or events with ‘sponsorship’ as a one-off ‘gift’ or repeated over time. It must include arts education for itself, supported by an understanding in policy about what it means to provide internships and scholarships for persons who choose to pursue the arts as career options. The decision of corporate entities to purchase event tickets for their staff would then be predicated on building audiences that value our creative output and growing future generations to know that in the same way they purchase a loaf of bread without bargaining down the owner of the supermarket, they should purchase a ticket for a show with the knowledge of how they impact the ability of creatives to sustain themselves economically. This is building the cultural and creative industries.
THE ARTIST AS DEVELOPMENT WORKER
In this context, the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts would be situated to facilitate cross-sectoral partnerships, or ‘join-up’ government, pursuing the kind of governance and focused attention on national objectives that are also designed to drive Jamaica’s fulfilment of its commitment to internationally defined development goals. These link-ups would include the ministries with responsibilities for culture, education, finance, labour and foreign affairs.
It would inform the treatment of delegations to international and regional festivals such as CARIFESTA. It would determine the nature of concessions, including waivers of travel taxes for artists whose personal performance engagements abroad cannot be separated from their representation of Jamaica.
Cultural economics is about strengthening the position of culture to create opportunities for growth, not calculated mathematically, but leading to overall improvement in the climate for monetarily defined investment. If this undergirds the understanding of the call in Vision 2030 for a “new mental calculus”, the artist is seen as a development worker worth investment considerations.