Making use of ‘exposure’
Guest columnist Heather Galbraith looks at what those graduating with a creative arts degree during Covid-19 offer our future.
We are in an extraordinary time. For now, most of our brightest emerging talent remain in Aotearoa, keen to contribute in a meaningful way.
We can choose to support this incredible talent to grow, and to support their development as leaders of the future, in order for us to better respond to our rapidly changing world.
The Pukeahu campus of Massey University has been bursting with creative talent in Exposure, the annual presentation of Toi Rauwhārangi College of Creative Arts graduating students’ work.
The work spans spatial and industrial design, fashion, textiles, visual communication, commercial music, creative media production, fine arts and photography, and has involved more than 400 people who worked their tails off to complete their degrees in a difficult year.
Work by Māori visual arts students is also garnering attention at Te Manawa in Palmerston North.
Creative industries have faced dramatic change this year.
Some have experienced mini booms, but those requiring more corporeal engagement (making, rehearsing, exhibiting, performing) have been rocked by cancellations and postponements.
Contract work and gigs, so crucial to early-career creatives’ survival, are thin on the ground.
Te Whanganui-a-Tara is infused with creative juices, and within tertiary creative education we tout the value of transferable skills. This isn’t spin. Many of our graduates move into roles in government, non-profits and education. They work within iwi organisations, social justice initiatives and support agencies; in marketing, hospitality, and retail. They forge careers more directly recognised as creative within the Glam (galleries, libraries and museum) sector and in industries such as visual communication, theatre, film, gaming and fashion. They become artists and musicians. They veer into curation, event management, or set up their own businesses.
They need first breaks. Being spotted at a degree exhibition can be a great start. Job offers are sometimes made on the spot, lest employers miss out.
Recent graduates launch startups (Refold), gain design patents (Samantha Hughes’ bachelor of design paediatric urine-collection device will be developed through her PhD), launch artist-run spaces (Meanwhile, PlayStation), and win national and international design awards (Rik Olthuis, Charlotte Klinge, Elley Wagner).
Recent graduate artists are winning major national prizes (Deanna Dowling), getting public art commissions (Raewyn Martyn, Mata Aho Collective) and are in significant exhibitions (Elisabeth Pointon, Bronwyn Holloway-Smith, Isabella Loudon, Ana Iti).
Musicians get gigs, record deals, set up record labels, and tour (Este`re, Riiki and Benee’s band, Tiare Kelly, Dylan Clark and Felix Holton).
Showcases such as Exposure draw attention, but that needs to be converted into concrete opportunities: employment or investment, paid training and mentorship. Of vital importance is a healthy ecology that supports early-career creatives. So how can we help to employ and support emerging creatives?
Buy their work – art, clothes, furniture, games, and tickets to their films, performances and gigs. Commission them tomake work; invite them to collaborate; invest in startups. If strapped for cash, we can boost the reach of theirwork, connect them with others, subscribe to their Ko-fi or Patreon accounts, or support their Boosted campaigns.
We can also better listen to their urgent calls to action: to centre Māori and Moana Oceania knowledge systems; to respond more effectively to climate crisis; and to hear the concerns of our LGBTQI communities, refugee and new migrant communities.
Our graduates have shown how the creative arts can highlight and interrogate burning issues, and they propose ways to address them. Ideally, we will work with them to reconsider what shape of society we want.