You & the Needs of Your Audience

On the advice of a friend, I bought a ticket to the San Francisco Symphony's performance of "The Planets" by Gustav Holst. I remember wearing a little black dress and heels, which was unusual during my California days. As I took my side box seat at Davies Symphony Hall, I gave a brief glance to those around me. We were sitting in a bowl-like formation. I saw people on either side of me and I noticed that they, too, were wearing suits and dresses. I was glad I fit in with the crowd.

I don't remember much after that. I have a tendency to go deep within myself while listening to music, and the Symphony's rendition of The Planets put me in a trance-like state. At some point, I noticed that I came back to myself. The lights were dimmed, but I could still register the faces of the people surrounding me. They were no longer people who wore suits and dresses. There was no difference between us. I knew that when I died and looked back on my life, I would see this moment as being extraordinarily significant. We were one.

Some people might mistake my call for cultural relevance as an urging for agit-prop. Nothing could be further from the truth. It saddens me that there are those who would dismiss these essays with that response. It also would be very simple for the artist to dig a hole and hide from the undercurrent. Why sully yourself with ephemeral matters? Elections come and go; money is for someone else to understand.

Unfortunately, while you can wash your hands of these problems, your audience cannot. Instead of paying attention to your composition, their thoughts may drift back to their bank accounts. Will they be able to access their money? How are they going to justify buying tickets with these kind of money troubles?

Or perhaps they may even have a problem getting to the performance. With the bailout, the Washington Mutual bank failure and the debates taking over the headlines, perhaps you weren't aware of the southeast's gas shortage. Will there be more shortages like this in the future?

These are the concerns of your audience. Does it matter to you as an artist?

Whether or not we have a hand in directing the change coming to our country, make no mistake, cultural change is coming. The German Finance Minister has declared that the U.S. will no longer be a financial superpower. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsen declared the prospect of a bailout "embarrassing." Our self-image as a country has already taken a big hit.

This is the stuff that cultural and societal change is made of. As I mentioned earlier, our culture serves as a mirror. If you would like to know the subconscious of America, watch Hollywood movie previews. What fears are we fighting? Is Mother Earth attacking our cities? Are the characters fighting the government winning or losing?

Our entertainment symbolizes our dreams and nightmares, which can easily be analyzed and decoded.

Cultural change is coming. It will happen because it has to happen. The needs of our audience are different now. However, we don't need to hammer them over the head with a message. We are artists, after all. We use a variety of methods to make our point, including tone and symbolism. Our culture has served the needs of others, with dire consequences. Now is the time for us to serve the public interest.

Comments

[Scott Walters]

Art doesn't teach, it shows. Agit-prop teaches. But art can show the best in human nature, and by doing so, it can bolster our audience's courage, hope, faith in a better future. We come in touch with possibility. You're right: "Our entertainment symbolizes our dreams and nightmares, which can easily be analyzed and decoded." Our entertainment also can influence our dreams and nightmares.

[Laura]

I have NEVER been a big fan of agit-prop, so whatever it does, I don't want any part of it. ;)

[Jonathan Clausen]

I would argue that cultural relevance is, by it's very nature, directly tied to a choice by the artist to navigate in the same current which their audience swims - upstream, downstream, cross-current - those are up to the individual. Standing on shore as an artist, however, while others attempt to swim, float, or just keep from drowning is relevant to no one but the author and is narcisistic.

While I don't often comment on your posts Laura (this is my first, actually), I read them with interest. Cultural relevance, especially in America, among artists, is often seen as "selling out." One only needs to look at others who have "swam" in the currents of their audience before - Brecht, Boal, Ibsen, Shakespeare, etc. - to see that it is the very combination of the work they produced, for their unique audience, at their unique moment in history that makes it meaningful and gave it "wings" to last beyond it's time.