Writing/ Imagine Imagination as Essential

Back in April, I was a panelist on a discussion hosted by the SFU Labour Studies Program as part of their webinar series: Just Recovery? Labour, Organizing and the Future We Want. The specific conversation was around a just recovery for the arts — what does that look like? Here was my offering:

As a prompt for this panel discussion today, we were sent 3 questions. They are really big questions that are very difficult to answer simply, especially from the overwhelming position of being inside this moment right now. Of course, during this time, these questions have been rolling around our brains and bodies as artists and cultural workers — the pandemic has further revealed to us things we have known for a long time — as artists, the precarity of what we do; questioning the value of what we do and what we provide society is not new. This moment is an opportunity to engage in a conversation that we as a city, as a community, as a society and as a (Canadian/North American) culture need to have.

To help, I reached out to some trusted colleagues who work in theatre and was really energized to by some of their responses; they were both very practical as well as philosophical, and imaginative. And what is it that we as artists do if not to imagine realities and futures and to bring them to our audiences in the hopes of a public conversation, or a shift, or a change, or an opening of some kind?

So, to the first question: How has the pandemic made visible the precarity of creative workers, and what do we need to do to create a just recovery for the arts?

Big question.

Most artists I know understand fundamentally how precarious the arts are as a career. This is not new. It’s been part of the culture here for so long that I think many don’t think to question it. Or we question it, but we still participate in all the structures that perpetuate the precarity because it’s the way it’s always been, change is long, it seems so immoveable, or because we have been told we have to suffer, or because we are all too busy hustling and working to be able to give it any real time.

And yes, this unfolding time has made it more visible and more true. And yes, it has afforded artists a little time — not a lot — but a little, to think about it.

Across my many conversations, the pandemic has reiterated what one colleague called “a chronic undervaluing of artistic production.” Again, not new, but how is this illuminated by this moment, and what does this actually mean to artists and their lives?

It means that many artists, even after years of working with well established careers, woke up in March 2020 to realize they are fundamentally operating inside of a gig economy. It means their outside jobs, that they’ve had to hold down in order to pay rent/feed their families/live, have now become their main jobs, or they’ve had to leave the arts to fall back on another skill set entirely. 

It means they don't have healthcare benefits or retirement plans (they didn’t before the pandemic either, but it’s felt more acutely now I’m sure), and if they stay in the arts, they will likely have to continue to work for as long as their bodies and minds will allow. And then what happens after that?

If they’re young, they might not make it, because this time has made them have a really hard think about whether it’s possible or even responsible for them to pursue a career in the arts, if they are thinking about having a family one day, or a house or any kind of stable existence.

We’ve lost a lot of artists during this time.

We are told by the structures, by the institutions, by the funders that we are valued. We are asked to bring meaning to times like these — to help make sense of the things we are trying to process, or to understand. We are asked to be translators and to do the cultural work needed on social and systemic issues.

And we are told that a culture that has art and artists is a sign of a healthy and a thriving culture.

And yet, we chronically undervalue artists and what they do.

Almost everyone spoke about the idea of a Universal Basic Income for artists.

One colleague said: “The whole CERB thing was shocking because all of a sudden, artists were getting some kind of stable, meaningful income -- which totally brought to light the kind of *bs we often had to do, to even do anything.”

Someone else called for “A reassessment of where art is in the machine of our society. If it’s located in luxury, then of course it will return to how it was, but if it’s weighted in public health (philosophically not departmentally) for example, it may see itself integrating more into life.”

Which is perhaps a nice segue into the next question: What models can we look to for building collective power and creating programs to support workers in the arts?

I’ll answer this question with a question: If we truly recognize and acknowledge and value the role that artists play in our society, then how can we better embed artists inside of the structures and systems in which we operate?

I want to read a bit from an article written by Deborah Cullinen, CEO of the Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts that was published on Howlround Theatre Commons. The article is called The Future Becoming and was part of a series called Devising our Future, that asked artists to consider a future theatre field where resources and power are shared equitably in all directions, contributing to a more just and sustainable world:

At the time, as the world teetered on the edge of an abyss, people came to understand something that seems all too obvious and yet was not. They understood that imagination was essential. The only way to ensure a radical emergence from this dangerous and broken state was to assert that people and their communities are the best and most creative imaginaries and designers of their own futures, and it was time to fuel the collective imagination in order to give shape to new institutions and structures that would deliver a new future possible.

Imagine imagination as essential.

Imagine if you couldn’t imagine anything else but our current situation right now.

Art and artists help us to imagine.

And honestly if we are going to recover, then we are going to need some serious imagination power. 

Some of the brain trust spoke dreamily about community-led models, about the idea of artists working and leading their own communities, which included audiences, as opposed to institutions leading artists. Developing our own systems of accountability, as opposed to structures dictating how we should operate and account for ourselves. More independence means less having to say ‘yes’ to unhealthy relationships and messed up power dynamics. And ultimately, again, they spoke about the need for shifting how art is valued by our society; the worth of artists, the worth of their work and what it contributes to all our collective lives.

I want to swing back to Deborah’s article to answer this question one more time as well as perhaps offer a segue to the next question:

Others sought new models for centering artists, particularly those who had been historically marginalized, as critical facilitators who are working to advance equity and well-being in their communities. These models included artist-led community investment and participatory philanthropy, artists at the forefront of our health care system, and artist collectives and councils leading our cultural institutions.

The whole article has some pretty great offers, actually. I would recommend it.

Next question: How can we use this moment to address systemic inequities in how creative work is valued, whose work is valued, and how colonialism, racism, sexism, transphobia and other oppressions operate in the arts and creative sectors?

Talking about the precarity of artists and creative workers is one thing, but if you want to add systemic inequities to the equation, you can turn the precarity dial all the way up.

I’m swinging full brain trust on this answer, if anything as an ode to generating some collective imagination power:

“Take the time for discussions, and acknowledge that not everyone is interested in participating in them fully. Some people will be new at it so it will take time.

“Take the responsibility as artists to be propagandists again — demonstrate the realities and ways of thinking, invest time in futurist thinking.” 

“I tell young BIPOC artists in Vancouver to build it themselves, and they have the chance to do it now. Woe be the BIPOC artist in Canada that must interface with institutions exclusively to practice their art.”

“I see BIPOC artists raging against the institutions to include them —and I think that's a good thing — but of course there's the burn out associated with that. It's hard work and I'm glad they're doing it, but they also end up not being able to make their work.”

“We need funding & funding models that address the specific barriers that marginalized artists experience so that these artists have a chance of staying in careers in the arts; we need to demand & normalize budgets that pay all arts workers living wages, benefits, and provide for us such that we can have things like retirement funds.”

“The root of it is to get a much larger swath of the arts sector on the same page about how capitalism, white supremacy and colonialism all go hand and hand, compounding and scaffolding each other, and that keeping artists (especially marginalized artists) in precarity serves to uphold those systems.”

And lastly, one of my closest and longtime colleagues, James Long, who I built my company with and who I’ve made art with for over 17 years said:

“Be cautious about burdening the artist with the task of solving society’s inequities coming out of this. Because we will try and we will try because that is where the funding will be at. As much as we like to pretend we don’t, and this is especially true of the freelance and by association, historically marginalized artist, we chase the money and will bend creativity to policy. What this leads to is intense, community damaging, competition, and history has shown that at the end of the day, the most established companies, who know how to work the system, continue to dominate. The artist is at their most impactful when they are liberated to find unique ways to reflect society’s quandaries back to us, not when they are asked to repair them.” 

I’d like to thank the brain trust: Corbin Murdoch, Jiv Parasram, Remy Siu, Lili Robinson, and James Long for their labour and their time.