Death Sentence for the Arts

I recently read a book written by Don Watson called Death Sentence. The book is about the devolution of public language into managerial type jargon that can be used to obfuscate and manipulate rather than to enlighten or inspire. Watson discusses how harmful this language can be to a society’s psyche. One current manifestation of this in Australia is the plight of the arts:

“In the so-called culture wars of recent years an effort has been made to ignore them (words) pointedly. Conservative politicians, including many on the Labor side, have discovered words to label amorphous categories of malcontents as irrelevant or stupid. Words like elite, chattering classes and café latte are insipid in their usual environment but, like certain animals and chemical compounds, become poisonous and destructive in another one.

There is an old vein of anti-intellectualism in this, and another one of scapegoating. And a third insists that artists, like their distant cousins in universities, accept managerial or main game classifications. Writers and painters now work in an arts industry, where they can be expected to do what other people do in other industries: namely, add value, continuously improve and become world class. P116”

As a former professional performing artist, choreographer and arts project manager I was always very keen to see artists improve their small business nous and learn some rudimentary skills in areas such as marketing, financial management, and arts law. At the very least I have always felt that if artists were somewhat organized as small business people (and like or not that’s what many of them are by default) then they could use these skills to protect themselves from some of the nit picking thugs employed by Centrelink, real estate agents, the ATO, etc. Hell, some of them may even be able to make a living. However I have always deplored managerial jargon and don’t equate it with good or sound business practice.

Over the past few when I was working in project management or arts administration I found myself, at times, working alongside some people who used the kind of bastardized bureaucratic / managerial language that Watson decries in his book. These people often seemed to be hiding poor administrative or strategic nous behind language that was supposed to impress, mislead or intimidate the rest of us. They could not communicate in a way that was clear or useful. The real artistic work of putting pen to paper, brush to canvas, or rehearsing performances plus the real work of facilitating the presentation of artistic work such as ringing up potential venues, buying materials to make costumes and borrowing props all happened a long way away from the meeting rooms and conferences where the managerial gobbledygook was being spoken. But the funding situation in Australia is such that in order to get substantial funding or even recognition artists have to deal with this gobbledygook.

“The Council’s emphasis on grants will continue to be of great importance in ensuring the ongoing viability of the arts in Australia. However support at the demand end of the spectrum has the potential to provide multiplier benefits for artists which grants alone cannot provide.” Australia Council, p. 43, Death Sentence

Watson sourced this quotation from an Australia Council publication. The Australia Council is the Federal Government’s arts funding body. I worked in the arts industry as a performer, choreographer and arts manager for 20 years and I don’t even know what the above text means. If this writing is trying to convey an idea which may be of benefit to people like me then we are automatically excluded from that benefit by this torturously overwritten language. If this writing is trying to disguise our government’s inadequate arts funding policy while still trying to boost the image of that government then I resent it for wasting my time.

There were many reasons why I decided to retire from the arts industry but one of them had to do with the fact that I was sick and tired of attending seminars, talks, and networking events about funding and feeling that I existed in some underprivileged periphery. As an artist and as someone who assist other artists with their projects I should have felt central to any arts industry activity but at these events I felt marginal in comparison to the arts bureaucrats who all seemed to be talking some sort of code.

In Death Sentence Watson includes a quote from poet Henry Lawson (1867-1922). When I consider many of the younger artists I know this quotation often flashes through my mind:
“My advice to any young Australian writer whose talents have been recognized would be to do steerage, stow away, swim, and seek London, Yankeeland, or Timbuctoo – rather than stay in Australia till his genius turn to gall, or beer. Or, failing this – and still in the interests of human nature and literature – to study elementary anatomy, especially as it applies to the cranium, and then shoot himself carefully with the aid of a looking glass.” p67. Death Sentence