Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council: I’m deeply concerned that our democracy is eroding—slowly, but deliberately—under the current federal administration. And if that’s true, we must ask ourselves: What are the warning signs we’ll wish we had paid more attention to? How many red flags will we overlook—or worse, comply with—before resistance is no longer possible?
4 comments:
This is an incredibly important topic to discuss. I firmly believe that art is the way that humanity expresses themselves to one another and to the world. It is how we communicate across time and space, speaking to a shared experience that we all have. It’s something that frightens authoritarian and fascist leaders throughout history. Hitler had a strong campaign against the arts, Stalin shut down art and only allowed art really in his image, Mao had strong opposition against art and how it was used to critique him. All leaders that impose dictatorial rule over their people have followed this pattern. It is frightening and horrifying that we can see this patter emerging in Trump and our current administration. I pray that the arts can find a way to live on through this time and not be eradicated under a conservative regime. I hope that we can still find our voice in the darkness and continue to speak out against horrifying atrocities that are commited by our country every single day.
The thing is, we aren't seeing warning signs anymore. The warning signs have felt like everything leading up to this moment and that the warning signs were the second the US was ever established. As more and more things grow to be under attack and are threatened or taken away or stopped, one thing that brings me a bit of faith about the arts is because I see it that the arts have always been under attack. I think that that is how the arts came to be in the first place, but that is not to say to then ignore ways to help and to resist and fight for a change. I think that our detachment from tangible art further detached us from the hope or mindset that we are capable of forming tangible change. Or that there is any point in fighting for change in a tangible way such as protesting, which people seem to think is useless, which when forced in systems where all we can do to stay afloat is work, it is difficult.
I think that this article is a really necessary read. It is unfortunate, but we do have to acknowledge the reality that we are living in a time where the Arts are under attack. One of the best ways we can resist is of course, to continue making art despite the fear of retribution, but I think that we as artists also have an additional burden on our shoulders, which is that we should be using our experiences and using our connections to make people who aren't interested in the Arts or who don't care about the Arts the same extent realize why this matters and realize that this is a fight worth fighting.I think the most important takeaway from this article was the part where they said that you can either resist loudly or resist quietly, but you should try to make your art with the goal of resistance.
It is so incredibly frustrating to watch people see the suppression of the arts happening right now and not bat an eye, claiming its “not that deep”. The way anti-intellectualism has led to so many outright dismissing the importance of art and refusing to acknowledge the weight and impact it has on our day to day lives is so worrying and honestly makes me sick to my stomach. Art has power and influence; the movies we watch especially are HUGE areas of influence that we are constantly exposed to. One thing about arts suppression that this article touches on is the “villainization” of artists, and its unsettling to read that because I have seen that play out in front of my own eyes many times on social media- where artists are disparaged for being pretentious pricks who only create for money laundering- and that general attitude is very concerning. We are getting to a point in our culture where willful ignorance of the importance of art is going to lead to some really screwed up stuff getting past us as propoganda (as if it hasn’t already) because we are abandoning our artistic critical thinking skills.
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