When art is work!
“ARTES Ut Opus” is the Latin term, which in English means “art as work”. Most people think that being an artist is a hobby, and it is not taken seriously as work where one can earn a living, or as a livelihood for sustenance.
There are several instances whereby children are discouraged from taking up a career in the arts sector because parents do not take such careers seriously.
However, some of the most successful and rich people in the world are in the arts sector, and are in the fields of music, modeling, film actors, designers, book writers and several other forms of art.
This proves that the arts field can be a very profitable hustle.
As we celebrate May Day or Workers’ Day today, it is imperative to reminiscence the image of the artist as a worker in need of an income in order to survive.
In the context of Zimbabwe, it is sad to say that art remains a hand to mouth survival in a dog eat dog environment.
The arts “industry” in Zimbabwe remains volatile and affected by different economic shocks and vulnerabilities which have made the arts a part of the luxury economy where only the mbingas or the elite few can afford to enjoy the arts.
Only a few privileged or endorsed artists are also enjoying the income they generate through the arts, while several talented young artists are still struggling to get endorsement and exposure.
Some end up selling their souls to unscrupulous music promoters, or to mbingas who have the money to promote an artist, but whose values might not resonate with the values of the artist.
Young upcoming artists in the music sector are dying to be curtain raisers at shows of big artists where they can get exposure, and perhaps some payment.
What is important for artists is to take their art as work. To understand that, when they look at their art as work, they invest on it no matter how much other people may underrate it.
Every piece of art has value, hence the audience has to value the art and also the artist, and understand the need to pay for it to promote the artist.
On the other hand, the artist needs to produce valuable content, and also be able to value themselves.
The value of one’s art sells, originality sells, and being unique and putting passion in the artwork sells.
However, the question is how many Zimbabweans have the mind to buy and promote art?
That is the rhetorical question because many of the artists in this country have died paupers, and very poor.
They produce good music which is still played on radio, or other forms of art such as sculpture, drama series, yet they die as if they never worked or did anything meaningful in life.
For the few very lucky ones whose art works have been flourishing, they managed to build mansions through art as their hustle.
When we say that art is work, it means that audiences must understand that they have to pay for artwork and value the product as something they can purchase.
The artist must value the audience, and the audience must value the artist.
The trajectory of the upcoming artist is very painful as they suffer from the ravages of performing for the sake of exposure.
In most instances, they are also scared of expressing themselves or to speak out about issues in the arts sector because of fear of being shut out of that “exposure”.
Take for instance a girl who has just joined the modeling field and is trying to get exposure. Some of the people that can assist her to get that exposure might be sexpredators that want favours.
Those are some of the challenges that up-coming artists face while trying to get exposure — exploitation.
Being denied that exposure has made several very talented upcoming artists to remain upcoming artists for decades, and they die as upcoming creatives due to lack of exposure.
This then questions how countries like Zimbabwe support upcoming artists. Internationally, some countries scout for talent while children are at school and promote that talent.
That is why countries like Jamaica have produced several artists, because those artists that have made it promote upcoming talent.
For instance, Jamaican reggae crooner Oje Ken Ollivierre, aka Protégé, has promoted younger talented artists like Lila Ike, Sevana and others that have now made it on the international scene.
In Zimbabwe, promoters are said to be swindling artists, and actually bringing ‘international acts’, while devaluing the power of local acts.
While some of those international acts can indeed be crowd pullers, there have been several occasions when those international acts have been outclassed by local acts.
The whole aspect of making an “international act” starts from supporting the home grown talent to improve their art. They can improve if they get that visibility.
It is also very sad to also see how club owners and different entertainment spots shortchange the creatives.
Artists entertain revelers for several hours, but are given peanuts. I know of musicians that play at nightclubs for the whole night only to get US$20.
In some instances that money does not even come. Do those club owners know that a musician can suffer losses such as a broken guitar string or a broken drum stick or amplifier?
Art must be recognised as work because the artist puts in a lot of effort and money to produce their piece of art.
For instance, with regards to music, the expenses include studio time, transport, costumes, allowances for other band members, hiring of sound equipment/engineers and also a sound man.
For those in visual arts and photography, there is need to buy paints for the murals, canvases, different types of brushes, camera lenses, paying rent for the studio apartment and other expenses.
To the companies that endorse the artists, there is a wide net of creatives that need exposure. Maybe by endorsing them you might actually bring in a wider and more diverse customer base.
Art based organisations must also begin to teach the up-coming young artist how to monetize their art, especially in this digitisation era.
Art organisations and the Ministry of Arts must come up with seminars, webinars, and workshops that teach artists how to write good proposals for arts related projects so that they can be supported.
The government must ensure that artists are paid their royalties.
There is a need to end the culture of oligarchs in the arts industry that have killed and destroyed the voices of the suppressed and voiceless artists.
Art is work and work is art.