BY JOSEPH ASQUITH, LEAD WRITER (EDUCATION)
The arts has certainly been among the hardest-hit sectors during the coronavirus pandemic. Concerts have been postponed, playhouses shut, film sets halted, physical instrumental lessons cancelled, cinemas closed, school music ensembles banned, and vast numbers of freelance artists out of work.
Although to a reasonable extent the rationale behind these decisions is understandable, it has exposed some alarming truths surrounding the global state of the arts. Governments have made the questionable decision to act swiftly in devaluing the arts in an effort to brace for the long-term economic damage manifesting across the world. In a seemingly flight-or-fight decision of economic rationalism, aspiring and practising arts workers are being told to “Rethink, Reskill, Reboot”. Further to this, governments are restricting access to tertiary arts courses in an attempt to steer the next generation into ostensibly more lucrative career paths to help the economy recover. It is perplexingly ironic to consider our collective sanity’s dependence on art during the pandemic in conjunction with this concept of reskilling its highly trained workers.
Moreover, a strong focus on capital and consumption is rendering our planet to hang in the balance. As the arts is a defining feature of our ingenuity and empathy as a species, is it a sustainable choice to de-emphasise the industry? What will the human race – and, by extension, the world itself – become if the arts diminishes?
We have relied on artistic media to comfort and distract us from a ghastly and tentative period of time
Not only has lockdown had detrimental effects on the economy, but also our mental health. That being noted, this offshoot malady has largely been mitigated through means of artistic remedies. It’s indubitable that we have relied on art now – perhaps more than ever – in times of lockdown, isolation, and uncertainty. Whether it be playing or listening to music, tuning in to live concert streams, reading books, watching films or series on streaming platforms, playing video games, or even using social media as a creative content-making outlet, we have relied on artistic media to comfort and distract us from a ghastly and tentative period of time.
It is frightening to consider the mental health consequences that would have transpired in the absence of artistic outlets. Accordingly, it is axiomatically paradoxical that, during this time, world leaders would relegate the arts as merely being a luxury or dispensable component of our existence.
The value of art, however, does not stop in its ability to comfort and distract – its qualities are far more potent in its capacity to shape and mould. Well-trained artists deliver their craft and create discourses, allowing audiences to gain new knowledge, alternate perspectives, challenge, and satisfaction. Think of a life-altering book you’ve read, a powerful film, an unforgettable concert, or an art gallery you once spent so long in it started to close while you were still inside (true story). And think of how this has opened up new outlooks and facilitated self-development. Beyond our own formal school, training, and university years, art is pivotal for our self-education, personal growth, and character development. Musicians, actors, writers, visual artists, and filmmakers provide us with instruction, challenge, didacticism, purposeful discomfort and resolution, and edification. In this sense, it would be judicious for art to be greater utilised and fortified across global society to change for the better.
In an age in which humanity is driving the planet in the wrong direction towards disaster, would it not make sense for our world leaders to actively encourage citizens to collectively appreciate these transformative skills and attributes of artists? If the metamorphic and sustainable power of art was to be used and encouraged more broadly, would it not instigate a society enriched with more forward-thought, open-mindedness, awareness, and empathy?
Art is present in every occupation and discipline
There is also a generally accepted narrative, however misguided, that economy, commerce, and industry work are dichotomous to the arts, based on the reaction many governments around the world – including in Australia and the United Kingdom – of deprioritising the arts in the looming economic crisis. Conversely, art – and the creativity and empathy which embodies its purpose – is based on rhetoric and the sharing of ideas. Considering this, it seeps into the fields of economy, commerce, industry, marketing, politics, trade, finance, science, and many others. Art comprises the speeches delivered by a politician, the presentation of scientific research, or the semiotic exemplification of statistics, to name a few. This actuality verifies that art is indeed stitched into the fabric of society. Whether it is conscious or not, art is present in every occupation and discipline, just as finance, economy, and industry is.
Given the ubiquity of art, could the skills of specially trained professional artists not be capitalised upon more broadly to maximise our general ability to increase our empathy and humanity, but also to communicate more efficiently? Artists are intelligent, conscious, and confident people, trained and prepared to live up to this task if given the chance.
Artists are intelligent, conscious, and confident people, trained and prepared to live up to this task if given the chance
Let us not forget that the coronavirus pandemic is not the only disaster that had permeated our society in the past year. There have been the Australian and Californian bushfires, the locust plague in East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, the disastrous explosion in Lebanon, the exposure of violent racial injustices across the world, rising sea temperatures turning coral reefs a ghostly white, the ever-suffocating mass of plastic pollution, mysterious deaths of elephants in Botswana en masse, devastating oil spills in the Indian Ocean; these are all symptoms of an exhausted, struggling planet. The obsession with consumption, the lack of compassion for other human beings, the disregard of diminishing biodiversity, the rejection of scientific evidence; it seems that, as a society, we’ve become so fast paced that it has become normalised to detach ourselves from our own humanity and decency towards one another and our life-giving planet.
As a society, we’ve become so fast paced that it has become normalised to detach ourselves from our own humanity and decency towards one another and our life-giving planet
Given these global issues, is the ability of art to educate, challenge, make aware, and encourage empathy not needed now as a matter of extreme urgency?
It is clear the precarious state of humanity and the planet had been exposed in the year of 2020. The power of art to empower, inspire, educate, as well as establish empathy and collaboration, could be called upon to effectively minimise the ignorance and apathy attacking our biodiversity, global health, and societal functionality. Since art has a potent transformative effect on the individual, our governments and world leaders could better capitalise on this age-old fact to transform our collective capacity for awareness, thereby working to mitigate future global disasters.
Artist do not need to rethink, reskill, or reboot. Objectively, it seems certain that art is, in fact, one of humanity’s last hopes.
What does this story mean to you?
If you like, you can shout Joseph a coffee for volunteering his time to share his story during COVID-19. No amount too much or little.
About the writer
Completing his Bachelor of Music (Honours) in 2015 at the University of Newcastle (Australia), Joseph wrote an acclaimed 78-page dissertation which focused on the interplay between ‘Music and Zeitgeist’ under the supervision of musicologist/harpsichordist Rosalind Halton. He also studies and performs a plethora of genres including baroque, classical, romantic, folk and contemporary as a soloist and ensemble member.
Joseph has received piano tutelage from esteemed Australian pianists including Marilyn Wilson (Newcastle), Andrew Chubb (Newcastle), Clemens Leske (Sydney), and Michael Kieran-Harvey (Hobart). He spent time at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 2016, where he was mentored by celebrated pianist/musicologist Paul Hersh (USA). In 2019 and 2020, he attended the piano music festival Music at Château d’Aix in the South of France, studying closely with pianists Paul Roberts (UK) and Martin Sturfält (Sweden).
Joseph is a passionate teacher, having obtained a Masters of Teaching with Distinction (Secondary) in 2017 from the University of Newcastle. He has taught in an array of schools, as a classroom and peripatetic teacher, in New South Wales and also in England. Joseph currently lives in London, where he is appointed as Head of Music at an OFSTED-Outstanding Secondary Girls School.
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Photo by Antoine Julien on Unsplash.
