Posted on 03/17/2018 10:01:20 AM PDT by Ge0ffrey
I watched this process unfold when I was living in Australia. Artists focussed their attention on niche culture wars issues that meant little to most Australians (the stand-out is an ugly annual rumpus over when to hold Australia Day, but there are plenty of others from which to choose). Arts funders, meanwhile, started ticking diversity boxes and did little else. Sales of literary fiction fell off a cliff, something paralleled, I note, in the UK.
Unsurprisingly, Arts Council Englands response to the sales drop over here was to seek tax relief for small publishers, coupled with more state funding for individual writers.
This is the Australian path. Follow it too far and oblivion beckons. First, the arts evince ever less viewpoint diversity. Then they become a plaything of politics (as has happened to a large degree already in Scotland, thanks to meddling by the SNP). Ultimately, too, there is the risk of destruction with surpassing swiftness if a politically hostile government comes to power. All it has to do is turn the money taps off. Australias current conservative government is fond of doing this.
(Excerpt) Read more at reaction.life ...
Theater people can be really fakey. I had some theater classes in college but I didnt like when the theater crowd including my friends came into the commons with their obnoxiously louder voices than everyone else, and the vibe was feminine enough to make me puke. Loud women and loud gay guys laughing far too hard at inside yet nasty jokes and comments. It was eye rolling. (There were others that were just interested in the art and craft of theater,but the Queens gave drama a bad name)
“I bet more than 1/2 the custom auto painters, pin strippers, auto restorers, hot rod builders, homebuilt aircraft guys ( I know for a fact they are ) and aircraft restorers, especially the War-Bird guys are all fellow right wing lunatics pun intended ;-).
Those aren’t artists, they’re healthy minded capitalist artisans, using their skills to produce goods & services which people are willing to buy.
Detailed cars, restored cars, hot rods, refurbished aircraft are examples of functional art, IMO.
In this day and age of the internet where most of the population of the planet has instantaneous access to your goods and services, enterprising young artists have unprecedented opportunity with a little work and creativity. One can create their own websites and galleries for themselves and others and with a little patience gain respectability. One can even have a section with very low quality ridiculously overpriced art that looks like it was painted by 2 year old monkeys with parkinsons to gain respect and acceptance from the aforementioned hoity toity more money than sense art crowd. It may start up slowly, but word of mouth is a geometric progression once it catches on.
because they want to be invited to parties
Married to a religious artist, I know the answer to this question. Gallery owners, curators and designers are all opposed to (i) realism, (ii) positive religious work, and (iii) patriotic work af any type.
I believe there are plenty of right-leaning artists. It’s just that they consciously relegate their art to an avocation or hobby, and that results in not becoming famous. They know that working for a living is the right thing to do for many reasons, and the art is accomplished during leisure hours.
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>> “Why are there so few right-leaning artists?” <<
Because few ‘artists’ are sufficiently competent to support themselves on their own product, and expect the public dole to support them.
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A competent artist should be able to open their own gallery.
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I would encourage you to read all of the fiction of Mark Helprin, and the novel A Gentleman in Moscow. Spectacular works of fiction, and definitely civilization building (ie, culturally conservative).
I read lot’s of fiction and non-fiction. The problem is that 99.99% of fiction being published today has no appeal to me.
I have access to such a vast selection of quality fiction already in print, that I have no need of the current tripe being foisted upon the public.
Thank you for your efforts. I am sorry that it has sort of ended the way that it has. But I hope others will be inspired to start their own community theater groups, along the lines of how you described your first experiences.
We can’t give up. You have done more than your part. It’s up to the rest of us to soldier on and keep trying.
Because ultimately the arts sustain civilization more than politics. Politics simply either destroy a civilization or at best, keep the destroyers of civilization at bay for a time period. But the arts can truly help build a civiliation, if done by people like you and the first theater group you were involved in.
Thank you, that is an amazing post, and it comports entirely with my experience as well.
to that end, I buy as much art as possible, constantly encourage artitsts, and am involved in some pretty serious education for artists endeavors.
But what you described is 100% accurate, and one of the reasons why we should be more involved, not less. Just at the human level...there are great opportunities here to build relationships, and help produce civilization.
I don’t know what I can possibly add to what you have posted, except to encourage others to fight the good fight, as you have done, to support those artists within their sphere of influence who are building civilization.
Someone asked me why there are so few Christian science fiction and apocalyptic authors.
The answer is: they’re there, but they don’t show up in general feeds.
There are a lot of Christian dystopian books, but they’re classified under Christian fiction, and they aren’t coming up in the general dystopia or horror genre. Path of Angels by Dawn Witzke and many other books where Christians are oppressed by a totalitarian regime are not in the fiction section but the back corner allocated to “Christian” stuff. It certainly doesn’t get thrown into the general young adult book like the comparable “Divergent” or “The Giver”.
Others come up in prepper / survivalist genres, like James Welsey Rawles’ works. That’s in the survivalist corner or camping/wilderness books, again, not in a general fiction section most of the time.
And the same thing happens to Christian artists. They’re selling artwork through Hobby Lobby and church book stores and gift shops, rarely ever in the big chains. If they are in Walmart or Target, it is likely to be segregated in the Christian / religious section versus the aisles where most of the public circulates.
Because being left is about “feeling” being right is about “Facts.”
emotions or drugs
“RUSSIA!”
I studied theater in Russia...
A great architect should have his own real estate brokerage office?
Are you nuts? They are two completely different businesses. Nothing to do with each other.
Because these artists understand that people are paying them for their art, not their politics. It’s the left that has difficulty separating their private and professional lives.
Yeah, that is exactly my experience.
Well if I can use high school clique terms....it was a bunch of sportos and nerds that got overwhelmed by the glee club!
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