Friday, January 16, 2015
Can artists Procreate Without Going Bankrupt?
Jennifer Rivera: I'm a member of two different Facebook groups that have frequent postings; one of them is a group for moms, many of whom also happen to be artists. The other one is a forum for classical singers, a few of whom happen to be parents. There isn't a lot of crossover topics between the two groups -- but this week, unrelated to one another, I read a post on my classical singer group asking whether people who had kids felt that it affected their careers as singers, and another post on my mom's page asking whether any artists that were also parents were managing to keep their artistic careers going while still staying afloat financially.
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THANK YOU JENNIFER RIVERA!!
This is something that's a huge concern for me as I embark on my artistic career: I do want a family someday, but I'm terrified about the prospects of raising a child as an artist, especially if I'm not tied to an institution that can provide health benefits and a stable salary.
But then she really hits the nail on the head by examining why the barriers against artists with families (esp. families with children) speaks to a much larger problem: our worth in society as artists. "Because if having children is so impossible for someone who works as an artist [...] then it suggests that it is not a career worth being compensated for, but merely an avocation for a young and untethered person who doesn't mind living la vie boheme, using old chairs for firewood and eating sardine sandwiches." (And seriously, who wants to live like this all their lives??)
...But the end is a bit of a disappointment. "You're creative people, you'll figure it out??" That's not something you can tell you're partner when you're deciding whether to have a kid or not.
So, short of moving to Europe, how do we fix the problems Rivera addresses in the arts (and parenting) world(s) in the United States? How long will it be before people can agree on the value of universal healthcare and paid maternity leave (let alone the concepts of stipends for each child a family has and insurance for unemployed artists, which seem like luxuries in our cultural context)? How can we convince Congress (by way of the American public?) that the arts deserve way more funding than the puny NEA grants available?
I seriously wonder if we'll even come close to addressing these concerns in my lifetime. In the meantime, time to find a survival job...
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