Having to go cap in hand to the Medici family no doubt rankled Renaissance artists but thoughts of broader cultural concerns or the place of the artist in history were of little interest. Such concerns were 19th century inventions. Prior to this the artist was considered a tradesman much like bricklayers and masons. You signed a contract and if the client didn’t like the result, you didn’t get paid. It wasn’t the economic justification in place today wherein money is handed out by governmental institutions as grants or support in the hope of furthering cultural awareness [and mental health if recent reports are correct] but Art as a tool to further political ambition. Art that enhanced the reputation of the client has long been the model. Every portrait hanging on a boardroom wall or building with the client name emblazoned in neon lights attests to this. Associations with power and the economic model of justification where the value of the art is seen as a direct relationship to how much money can be generated through it, began long ago. Little has changed in spite of the unfettered proliferation of people calling themselves artists in the 21st century today and the money available for the production of art drying up by the day. Having fossil fuel companies providing funding for cultural events provokes all sorts of arguments as did tobacco companies adding their names to sporting events. We legislated against the latter and perhaps in due time the move to renewables may see the former die a natural death – if we last that long. Predictions of the collapse of the western economy by 2140 may become more than just science fiction. The question though is what happens to the Arts if big business/big government no longer finds the funds to prop it up and governments increasingly see the Arts as a luxury with dubious connections to the economic landscape. Tech billionaires? Hardly seems likely when a rocket to inner space will cement their names in the annals for something other than being filthy rich.
The expectation that government will provide the money for the Arts without applying economic justifications has slowly been eroded with successive Australian governments removing such funding for any other than flagship enterprises. The UK decision to remove 60% of funding for Arts courses at university level in 2022 in favour of those promoting maths and science is yet another attack on the value of the arts. We are in an era where the only value put on art is what it will collect at auction. The odd piece ends up in a national collection but even that is spurious. The guilt factor applied to national collections over the delayed uptake of what would prove to be invaluable, ranges on. If you don’t have a premier Picasso or a van Gogh or Monet…what on earth were you doing and who made the non-decision? Of course, the majority end up in private collections gathered against future investment windfalls. The sale of Basquiat’s skull painting proved the worth of hanging onto something. So, nothing has really changed. The rich, the powerful and the culturally aware still rule the roost.
So where does this leave the plethora of present day artists? The Adelaide Fringe has seen exponential growth over recent years with the proponents of performing and plastic arts paying to be part of it and paying for venues. Bars, restaurants and street corners have all been utilised in the expectation that there would be an economic return for associated businesses. Whether artists survive or not has been carefully separated from the argument as to whether they should survive at all. But beyond the state and national cultural events, the concert circuit, and arguments for the worth of Art, lie the thousands creating regardless of economic return. The abundance of websites promoting Art through exposure, good, bad or indifferent, suggests a grassroots need. This has nothing to do with auction records being constantly broken or yet another architectural masterpeice being erected [think another tower being erected in the Emirates, this one over a kilometre tall to glorify its backer in perpetuity] or even another statue of the Queen or princess Diana promoting ties to a dead empire, this is the basic and inherent desire of humankind to express. Recent archeological evidence of carved objects dating back to well before recorded history suggest that there is nothing new about any of this either.
The best current example of this grass roots surge comes with the annual SALA festival. [South Australian Living Artists]. Thousands of artists will be putting up work in every bar, bus shelter, eatery and gallery space during August. True, we artists are paying for the privilege and the sheer weight of artist numbers and venues may well dilute the potential audience [who has time to track round the venues, guide in hand, on a weekday?] Essentially it is the same ageing audience who attend everything. However, there should be applause on every street corner for the event. With the Adelaide Fringe the biggest event of its kind in the world for acts that don’t cost an arm and a leg and SALA boasting so many artists, South Australia should stand up and be counted. Of course, covid ‘lockdown’ may play a part – Art galleries and the like not considered as essential to the health of the population.
I think the message here is don’t wait for self-serving governments or tech billionaires to pass on a few cents. In many ways they are all irrelevant. Keeping the Australian Ballet or the Sydney Symphony running at all costs is all well and good but the audience for SALA and the Adelaide Fringe would well outweigh those with bulging wallets who can afford the tickets to the aforesaid cultural highpoints. Since the SA state government is currently closing all non-essential retail in the wake of a rampant Delta strain brought in from interstate, perhaps giving everyone a week’s holiday during SALA and again during week one of the Fringe next year, might get people out and spending all of the money they’ve saved over the last year. After all, there are public holidays for horse races and ageing monarchs in foreign countries which no one seems anxious to question.s Artists would love to sell a few paintings, sculptures and craft just to provide a bit of hope and optimism that we can survive and keep creating. It’s not such an outlandish concept. Barcelona has an annual public holiday on St George’s day so that authors can sell books from street stalls.