tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/performing-arts-8957/articlesPerforming arts – The Conversation2023-10-13T12:31:53Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2084342023-10-13T12:31:53Z2023-10-13T12:31:53ZThis engineering course has students use their brainwaves to create performing art<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Text saying: Uncommon Courses, from The Conversation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/uncommon-courses-130908">Uncommon Courses</a> is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.</em> </p>
<h2>Title of course:</h2>
<p>“Arts and Geometry”</p>
<h2>What prompted the idea for the course?</h2>
<p>After a serious injury in 2016, I started drawing and painting during my recovery as a form of self-taught art therapy. I found the experience transformative. During my recovery, I rediscovered Pablo Picasso’s artwork and the geometry of his cubism, which inspired my early paintings.</p>
<p>As making art became part of my life, a desire grew to share this transformative experience with my engineering students. I wanted them to learn how to see science and engineering from a broader perspective – as an artist.</p>
<p>This led to the idea for, and development of, a course on arts and geometry in collaboration with professional artists of the Atlanta community. The play “<a href="https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/2865/picasso-at-the-lapin-agile">Picasso at the Lapin Agile</a>,” where comedian Steve Martin imagined a conversation in a Parisian cafe between Picasso and Albert Einstein, helped inspire the course. So did a book by history and philosophy of science professor Arthur Miller, “<a href="https://www.arthurimiller.com/books/einstein-picasso/">Einstein, Picasso: Space, Time and the Beauty That Causes Havoc</a>.” </p>
<h2>What does the course explore?</h2>
<p>The course introduces engineering students to the geometry of manifolds – that is, cylinders, spheres or hyperboloids, and more complex surfaces, like a crumpled piece of paper or a rippled kale leaf. It then looks at how these concepts influenced modern arts and sciences: Picasso’s cubism and Einstein’s relativity. Cubism combines many angles to create a new way of seeing things, whereas Einstein’s theory changes how we think about time, which isn’t separate from the space around us – they are intertwined. </p>
<p>The course is integrated with weekly art labs taught over the years by Atlanta professional artists <a href="https://www.createdbyemily.com">Emily Vickers</a>, <a href="https://www.rachelgrantstudio.com/">Rachel Grant</a>, <a href="https://research.gatech.edu/anna-doll">Anna Doll</a> and <a href="https://jerushiagraham.wixsite.com/jerushiagraham">Jerushia Graham</a>, and with the support of music technologist <a href="https://mikewinters.io/">Mike Winters</a>. The artists teach students the fundamentals of several art mediums: <a href="https://issuu.com/ceebuzz/docs/like_picasso_and_einstein_book_fina">pencil and charcoal drawing</a>, printmaking, <a href="https://issuu.com/ceebuzz/docs/forms_and_expression_book_2019_fedele_grant">oil painting</a> and sculptures. </p>
<p>We also teach students how to create performing art using their brainwaves. Brainwaves are produced when we are engaged in any activity. They can be measured by electroencephalography – or EEG – headsets.</p>
<p>Students learn to create auditory or dynamic visual representations of our mind activity when we think, reason, create, dance or relax doing nothing. For example, brainwaves produced by a dancer can be transformed into musical sounds, an auditory representation of the dancer’s movements. Similarly, the brainwaves of an artist making a painting, or those of a mathematician deriving an equation, can be transformed into music that mirrors the act of creating art or math.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZB7Gk1lVZFM?wmode=transparent&start=419" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Mind melody performance: The brainwaves of artist Rachel Grant making a painting, engineer Francesco Fedele developing equations and choreographer Bella Dorado dancing are transformed into musical sounds designed by student Dennis Frank.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The same brainwaves can power on or off a set of pumps that produce water jets in a tank, a system designed by professor <a href="https://lai-etal-lab.github.io/author/chris-ck-lai/">Chris Lai</a> and students Muhammad Mustafa and Alexander Zimmer. These jets interact among themselves to produce a disordered turbulent flow in the water tank. The shape and motion of vortexes generated by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFLOn6fzMKY&ab_channel=73gabbiano">turbulence</a> are a dynamic visualization of the human mind’s activity.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A student dances on stage while another paints in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540377/original/file-20230801-17-2r0ssq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540377/original/file-20230801-17-2r0ssq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540377/original/file-20230801-17-2r0ssq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540377/original/file-20230801-17-2r0ssq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540377/original/file-20230801-17-2r0ssq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540377/original/file-20230801-17-2r0ssq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540377/original/file-20230801-17-2r0ssq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Choreographer Bella Dorado dances to sounds produced by the brainwaves of student Tanisha Chanda while she paints a waterscape.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Francesco Fedele</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why is this course relevant now?</h2>
<p>Civil engineering can be explained and taught using the physics and mathematics of Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz, from the 17th century: the concepts of derivatives and force being proportional to acceleration.</p>
<p>In our fast-changing world, there are exciting discoveries happening in science and technology, like in the understanding of the universe, artificial intelligence and quantum computing.</p>
<p>To prepare for the challenges posed by these recent discoveries, engineering students should be familiar with special mathematical tools developed by 20th-century geniuses such as Elie Cartan and Einstein. Such tools empower students to gain insights such as uncovering hidden geometric structures of complex physical systems or of large amounts of data. Normally, engineering classes don’t teach these topics.</p>
<p>The course also involves the participation of Colombian university students interested in arts for <a href="https://www.100kstrongamericas.org/roboarts-initiative/">the RobotArts Initiative</a>. Such an international exchange seeks to increase the number of Latino engineering students with skills in the arts, engineering and robotics. Besides taking my course, the students from Colombia also take a course on robotics. </p>
<h2>What’s a critical lesson from the course?</h2>
<p>Students realize the <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2008.156497">mental health benefits</a> of practicing arts. They feel more self-confident and have more <a href="https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/329834">self-esteem</a> because they have created something.</p>
<p>Performing art live empowers students’ self-expression. By not relying on memorization, these performances stimulate spontaneous creativity, improvisation and free thinking.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Students dance on stage." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540378/original/file-20230801-20-t0wcs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540378/original/file-20230801-20-t0wcs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540378/original/file-20230801-20-t0wcs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540378/original/file-20230801-20-t0wcs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540378/original/file-20230801-20-t0wcs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540378/original/file-20230801-20-t0wcs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540378/original/file-20230801-20-t0wcs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students Dennis Frank, Muhammad Mustafa and Alexander Zimmer performing brain art. In the background, software converts student performers’ brainwaves into music and water turbulence in a tank designed by professor Chris Lai.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Francesco Fedele</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What materials does the course feature?</h2>
<p>• “<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/1112495919">Spacetime and Geometry: An Introduction to General Relativity,</a>” by Sean M. Carroll, Cambridge University Press, 2019 – a textbook that covers the foundations of the general relativity and mathematical formalism.</p>
<p>• “<a href="https://www.arthurimiller.com/books/einstein-picasso/">Einstein, Picasso: Space, Time, and the Beauty That Causes Havoc_</a> by Arthur J. Miller, Perseus Books Group, 2001 – a biography of Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso.</p>
<p>• EEG headsets to acquire brainwaves and <a href="https://supercollider.github.io/">SuperCollider</a> software to synthesize them into music. </p>
<h2>What will the course prepare students to do?</h2>
<p>The course will prepare students to think like an artist, using abstraction, imagination and fluid thinking. They will tackle with confidence the new engineering quests and challenges of the 21st century. The challenges encompass sustainable urban and ocean infrastructure design for extreme weather, global warming mitigation, clean water and energy, quantum computing, cybersecurity and <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-69978-9_4">ethical use of AI</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208434/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francesco Fedele does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Art and science combine in this engineering course to let students turn their brainwaves into creative works.Francesco Fedele, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1886902022-11-22T19:45:30Z2022-11-22T19:45:30ZPuttin’ on the Ritz and improving well-being with older adults through virtual music theatre<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493940/original/file-20221107-17-grm9wr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C31%2C1000%2C514&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Whether you’re 16 going on 17 or 79 going on 80, singing classics and new numbers virtually with a group brings joy. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Digital programming and virtual interactions, initially considered to be stop-gap measures during the first few waves of the pandemic, may now be an important part of supporting many people’s health and well-being — including the well-being of older adults. </p>
<p>During the COVID-19 pandemic, group musical activities moved online, prompting a wave of <a href="https://ericwhitacre.com/the-virtual-choir">virtual choir</a> experiments and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rzZ2F18MwI">virtual orchestra</a> offerings. </p>
<p>These and other online communities weren’t limited to students. A <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/45-28-0001/2021001/article/00027-eng.htm">Statistics Canada survey</a> found that more than half of Canadians between the ages of 64 and 74 increased their participation in online activities during the pandemic by connecting with family and friends through video conferencing, or accessing entertainment online. </p>
<p>Virtual opportunities in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0252956">performing arts are ripe with potential</a> for older adults to foster skills and creativity, and to improve well-being. </p>
<h2>Social connection</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A woman in headphones laughing while looking at computer screen." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495162/original/file-20221114-15-7g5ay5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495162/original/file-20221114-15-7g5ay5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495162/original/file-20221114-15-7g5ay5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495162/original/file-20221114-15-7g5ay5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495162/original/file-20221114-15-7g5ay5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495162/original/file-20221114-15-7g5ay5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495162/original/file-20221114-15-7g5ay5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">More than half of Canadians between 64 and 74 increased their participation in online activities during the pandemic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Going digital serves many purposes, the most important of which may be social connection. </p>
<p>Since <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/23748834.2020.1788770">connecting with others</a> remains important for older adults, this can be achieved through, or in addition to, virtual leisure or entertainment opportunities. </p>
<p>Our research has revealed that <a href="https://storage.googleapis.com/wzukusers/user-20563976/documents/598184972c66407e9334c5df1b37bb91/Renihan%2C%20Brook%2C%20Draisey-Collishaw.pdf">virtual music theatre — music theatre online — allows for a more accessible and a less exclusive way to engage with this art form</a> with many benefits for participants.</p>
<h2>Online performing arts</h2>
<p>The performing arts allow performers and audiences to feel, be creative in community, express themselves and communicate or play through song, movement or storytelling. </p>
<p>Benefits associated with participation in the arts include <a href="https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/329834">improved mood and well-being</a> and sense of <a href="https://www.pbs.org/parents/thrive/turn-to-the-arts-to-boost-self-esteem">belonging</a>.</p>
<p>Research has also documented associations between seniors’ participation in the arts and improved <a href="https://doi.org/10.1159/000499402">mobility</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.archger.2018.02.012">vocal health</a>.</p>
<p>Before the pandemic erupted, we had started leading a program, <a href="http://www.riseshinesing.ca/">Rise, Shine, Sing!</a>, that created opportunities for local citizens typically excluded from the creation of music theatre due to age, ability and access. The program was mostly attended by older adults, some with Parkinson’s Disease or other chronic conditions.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/59MTQnoi2hU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A trailer for the ‘Rise, Shine, Sing!’ program.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We held three weekly face-to-face sessions from the end of February 2020, until mid-March, and then moved the program online (via Zoom) for 12 sessions from April until June 2020. The program continues to be offered, with many participants indicating a preference to continue virtually.</p>
<p>Somewhat to our surprise, when the program moved online, the fact that participants could only hear the facilitator and themselves singing was not a deterrent to participating. Participants enjoyed singing, dancing and creating characters using costumes and props based on cues and feedback from facilitators.</p>
<h2>Paradigm shift for music theatre</h2>
<p>Virtual music theatre presents a serious paradigm shift for the genre. Most of the time when people think of music theatre, they think of live bodies moving in perfect synchrony <a href="https://www.americantheatre.org/2022/02/04/what-can-be-said-with-and-about-broadway-dance/">to choreographed movement</a>, and voices singing in perfect harmony while performers are physically present together.</p>
<p>Researchers have examined how group singing and movement fosters togetherness, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-020-00549-0">community</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01096">social bonding</a>.</p>
<p>Music theatre has made strides to become more inclusive over the course of the 21st century. <a href="https://www.deafwest.org/">Los-Angeles based Deaf West Theatre</a>, for example, creates works of music theatre that can be experienced and performed by members of the Deaf and hearing communities. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/k08lV8GO43w?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">ASL version of ‘We Don’t Talk About Bruno,’ from Disney’s ‘Encanto’ with Deaf West.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A multitude of new works, stagings and casting practices are highlighting and supporting the experiences of marginalized groups, by <a href="https://www.blackoperaalliance.org/">diversifying</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/arts9020069">queering</a> the field, for example. </p>
<p>Such works offer resistance and new stories to an industry that has traditionally been ableist, white and ageist.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/canadas-theatre-community-must-nurture-bipoc-leadership-to-improve-racial-equity-162786">Canada's theatre community must nurture BIPOC leadership to improve racial equity</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But despite a healthy <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/beyond-broadway-9780190639525?cc=ca&lang=en&">community music theatre scene</a> in North America, most opportunities still leave out many people due to issues related to social anxiety, experience, mobility, family life and/or finances.</p>
<h2>Music theatre meets universal design</h2>
<p>We drew on the intersection of <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/629960/pdf">music theatre performance</a> and <a href="https://www.cast.org/impact/universal-design-for-learning-udl">universal design for learning</a> to develop a model where success could look different from person to person. </p>
<p>In terms of the movement, participants could synchronize with the facilitator and/or other members of the group. They were equally welcome and encouraged to customize or adapt their movements to suit their own needs and interests. </p>
<p>We embraced dancing from both a seated and standing position, to explore different levels and to accommodate different mobility capabilities. Participants controlled how much they shared by deciding how visible they wanted to be on camera. </p>
<h2>Classics and newer numbers</h2>
<p>We drew on musical classics or standards from <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Singin-in-the-Rain-film-1952"><em>Singin’ in the Rain</em></a>, the <em>Sound of Music</em>, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/stage/2022/08/23/joseph-and-the-amazing-technicolor-dreamcoat-coming-to-toronto-as-a-test-run-for-possible-broadway-revival.html"><em>Joseph and The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat</em></a> — as well as newer numbers from <em>Wicked</em> and other popular songs. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495163/original/file-20221114-14-ufus7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Colourful lettering shows the 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat' sign above a lit theatre marquee" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495163/original/file-20221114-14-ufus7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495163/original/file-20221114-14-ufus7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495163/original/file-20221114-14-ufus7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495163/original/file-20221114-14-ufus7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495163/original/file-20221114-14-ufus7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495163/original/file-20221114-14-ufus7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495163/original/file-20221114-14-ufus7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Rise, Shine, Sing!’ drew on songs from musicals like ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat’ as well as newer numbers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We also <a href="http://www.riseshinesing.ca/glow.html">co-created our own songs</a> by combining our shared memories or inspirations through image, lyrics and movements to explore themes of joy and resilience in difficult times. </p>
<p>While the program was led virtually, before sessions, leaders dropped off or mailed prop boxes to all participants. These were filled with costumes including small scarves and ribbons that could be used for choreography. </p>
<h2>Promise of virtual musical theatre</h2>
<p>Virtual music theatre has shown incredible promise, even in the short time we have been exploring it. Digital connections reframe being together at the same time and in the same space. This adds new unexpected dimensions to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2012.06530.x">making music in a group</a>.</p>
<p>First, goals and expectations of uniformity are replaced with goals of individual empowerment and creative exploration. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/music-helps-us-remember-who-we-are-and-how-we-belong-during-difficult-and-traumatic-times-136324">Music helps us remember who we are and how we belong during difficult and traumatic times</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Second, participants remain committed to the community and group endeavour, but are also free to tailor and adapt the ways they engage with the material and with one another. If group members invite friends or family in other cities to participate virtually, as some in our group did, the virtual community also expands in meaningful ways. </p>
<p>Finally, participants can also adjust their personal comfort by sharing as much or little of themselves with the group without feeling like they are letting the group down.</p>
<h2>Our hybrid future</h2>
<p>The pandemic catalyzed the need for virtual interaction. While we know that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqab041">Zoom fatigue</a> is pervasive, virtual opportunities for music theatre participation and creation offer a new paradigm of artistic experience. </p>
<p>These opportunities also offer striking promise for bringing performers some of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00778">same benefits</a> as in-person music theatre experiences. </p>
<p>In some cases, they also facilitate new access to music in community, and allow participants to engage with the art form and one another in ways that support personal agency and independence, while also maintaining social connection and interactivity. <a href="https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/6358131/George+Gershwin/I+Got+Rhythm">Who could ask for anything more</a>?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188690/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julia Brook receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Colleen Renihan receives funding from The Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation. </span></em></p>I’m happy again: A pandemic-induced move to virtual music theatre presents a paradigm shift for the genre, yet reveals surprising benefits in facilitating new access to music in community.Julia Brook, Director and Associate Professor, DAN School of Drama and Music, Queen's University, OntarioColleen Renihan, Associate Professor and Queen's National Scholar in Music Theatre and Opera, Queen's University, OntarioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1907152022-09-16T23:14:46Z2022-09-16T23:14:46ZExploring the St. Lawrence River through the performing arts<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484716/original/file-20220914-6106-i6dwue.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C0%2C3848%2C2898&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The O d'écH2osystème is a wheel four meters in diameter that can be attached by crane to the deck of a ship, a wharf or the banks of the small and large municipalities along the shores of the St. Lawrence River.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Geneviève Dupéré)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The St. Lawrence River constitutes an immense theatre of activity that is beyond our comprehension. The size of the river makes it impossible to grasp it in its entirety. Even if we were to gather together all the scientific, economic, historical, cultural, industrial, political and logistical knowledge we have about the river, it would be impossible to understand its dynamics as a whole.</p>
<p>If we cannot capture the true scope of the St. Lawrence through science, can the performing arts allow us to see the bigger picture? This article recounts the journey of the <a href="http://ech2osysteme.blogspot.com"><em>ecH₂osystème</em> project</a>, where, through the circus arts, I try to express the complexity of what connects us to the St. Lawrence ecosystem through the people who work on its waters.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469058/original/file-20220615-9549-jj1phn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469058/original/file-20220615-9549-jj1phn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469058/original/file-20220615-9549-jj1phn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469058/original/file-20220615-9549-jj1phn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469058/original/file-20220615-9549-jj1phn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469058/original/file-20220615-9549-jj1phn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469058/original/file-20220615-9549-jj1phn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>This article is part of our series, <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca-fr/topics/fleuve-saint-laurent-116908">The St. Lawrence River: In depth</a>.
Don’t miss new articles on this mythical river of remarkable beauty. Our experts look at its fauna, flora and history, and the issues it faces. This series is brought to you by <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca-fr">La Conversation</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<p><em>ecH₂osystème</em> is a documentary-type maritime research-creation project. The approach is the source of <a href="https://doctorat-arts.uqam.ca/babillard/evenements/22-juillet-2022-genevieve-dupere-ech2osysteme-%20du-fleuve-a-la-scene/">my doctorate in arts studies and practices at UQAM</a> and various <a href="https://www.rqm.quebec/valorisation/o-dech2osysteme/">scientific</a> and <a href="https://oceanweekcan.ca/artist-hub/genevieve-dupere/">artistic</a> projects that combined 20 years in the performing arts with my long-standing fascination for the maritime world.</p>
<p>Research-creation has a dual objective: the <a href="https://thepedagogicalimpulse.com/research-methodologies/">production of a work and of the knowledge gathered while creating it</a>. <em>ecH₂osystème</em> mobilizes knowledge, facilitates intersectorality, meshes the arts and sciences and questions the arts as a mode of knowledge starting from an ecosystem of which we are part. From these reflections, in 2020 I proposed carrying out <em>maritime research-creation</em> in the sense that the waters themselves would drive the creation, unlike a project that starts from a concept, a text, an aesthetic, a performance or a staging.</p>
<h2>Change of course</h2>
<p>In 2017, I left a career punctuated by different creative projects and travels throughout the world to turn my attention to the St. Lawrence.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480900/original/file-20220824-9524-aaitdg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="people in a cage at the end of a crane attached to a ship" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480900/original/file-20220824-9524-aaitdg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480900/original/file-20220824-9524-aaitdg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480900/original/file-20220824-9524-aaitdg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480900/original/file-20220824-9524-aaitdg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480900/original/file-20220824-9524-aaitdg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480900/original/file-20220824-9524-aaitdg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480900/original/file-20220824-9524-aaitdg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sampling sea ice on board the CCGS Amundsen, a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Geneviève Dupéré)</span>, <span class="license">Fourni par l'auteur</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Two things drove my decision. In 2016, following the creation of <a href="https://finzipasca.com/en/creations/luzia/"><em>Luzia</em>, by the Cirque du Soleil</a>, I took a few weeks’ break from my theatre work to cross the Panama Canal to Ecuador as a crew member on a ship. One day, during a stopover, <a href="https://lacgeo.com/island-gorgona-natural-national-park">the scientific team of Gorgon</a> invited me into the field. I was swimming towards the island when two jets of water shot out. I was taken by surprise by two whales, and, not wearing a life jacket, almost drowned. I have never forgotten this immense lesson.</p>
<p>The second element is linked to the first maritime stage project I worked on. <a href="https://finzipasca.com/en/creations/avudo/"><em>Avudo</em></a> was a large-scale project by the <a href="https://finzipasca.com/en">Compagnia Finzi Pasca</a> that was part of the festivities around the <a href="https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/montreals-375th-anniversary---last-montreal-avudo-show-performed-to-sell-out-crowds-642442933.html">375th anniversary of Montréal</a>. As director of the artistic and historical content, I spent three years doing research to tie together my synopsis and the colours of the river.</p>
<p>Throughout this process, I was absorbed by a historical perspective of the river. But what about the St. Lawrence today?</p>
<h2>Thousands of memories</h2>
<p>Between 2017 and 2022, I set out to explore the river at the Gulf of St. Lawrence aboard a variety of fishing vessels, research vessels, bulk carriers, ferries, tugs, barges, and even a tractor operating on a part of the coastline set between the extreme limits of high and low tides known as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intertidal_zone">the intertidal zone</a>.</p>
<p>Five years of research allowed me to work with over 300 partners from marine and freshwater sciences, fisheries, and the maritime and port industries. They included representatives of different research groups, government departments, corporations, First Nations, harbour authorities, institutes, networks, municipalities and family traditions. They covered all generations, from professors to students trained in the latest technology. They contributed to the story line through the transmission of their knowledge and experience, as well as through links forged throughout the project. I gathered literally thousands of memories during my interactions with them.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480931/original/file-20220824-4272-i6ebvu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="person suspended on a giant wheel at the end of a crane" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480931/original/file-20220824-4272-i6ebvu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480931/original/file-20220824-4272-i6ebvu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480931/original/file-20220824-4272-i6ebvu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480931/original/file-20220824-4272-i6ebvu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480931/original/file-20220824-4272-i6ebvu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480931/original/file-20220824-4272-i6ebvu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480931/original/file-20220824-4272-i6ebvu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The O of ecH₂osystème is an innovative maritime acrobatic device.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Geneviève Dupéré)</span>, <span class="license">Fourni par l'auteur</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I recorded these parcels of experience that brought together maritime, scientific and fishing knowledge, in real time. Moving to a soundtrack composed of the voices of my many collaborators, recorded on the spot, acrobatic manoeuvres transport spectators to a port, a laboratory, a ship deck or, for example, to a <a href="https://amundsenscience.com/expeditions/past-expeditions/">winter scientific mission of the Québec Maritime Network, aboard the icebreaker CCGS <em>Amundsen</em></a>, the moment oceanographers discovered a (rare) halibut larva in their sampling net.</p>
<h2>The <em>O</em> of <em>ecH₂osystème</em>, a unique device</h2>
<p>In order to transport the river to the stage, I came up with the idea of a maritime acrobatic ship. As a researcher at the <a href="https://ecolenationaledecirque.ca/en/school/critac">Center for Research, Innovation and Transfer in Circus Arts (CRITAC)</a>, I designed the <em>O</em> d’<em>ecH₂osystème</em> in 2018. The <em>O</em> is a wheel four metres in diameter that can be placed, using a crane, on the deck of a ship, a wharf or the banks of large and small municipalities along the shores of the St. Lawrence. The water in the background becomes the heart of the real-time narrative.</p>
<p>In 2020, the <a href="https://www.rqm.quebec/valorisation/o-dech2osysteme/">creation of the <em>O</em></a> brought together an <a href="https://ech2osysteme.blogspot.com/p/le-o-dech2osysteme.html">intersectoral research team and partners</a> that included the <a href="https://www.rqm.quebec/">Réseau Québec Maritime</a>, <a href="https://door-spec.com/?lang=frhttps%3A%2F%2Fdoor-spec.com%2F%3Flang%3Dfr">Doorspec</a>, <a href="http://www.multi-electronique.com/welcome.html">Multi-Électronique</a> and the <a href="https://www.groupocean.com/">Groupe Océan</a> shipyard where this unique device was built. Tests on the <em>O</em> during the summer of 2022 were the start of a new phase of the project, supported by the <a href="https://www.calq.gouv.qc.ca/en/">CALQ</a>, the <a href="https://canadacouncil.ca/?_ga=2.101750018.2095329508.1663180567-2025533965.1663180567">CCA</a>, the <a href="https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Professors-Professeurs/RPP-PP/CCSIF-ICC_eng.asp">NSERC Innovation Program</a> and others.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481844/original/file-20220830-22-6xibsx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="people working on the design of a wheel" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481844/original/file-20220830-22-6xibsx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481844/original/file-20220830-22-6xibsx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481844/original/file-20220830-22-6xibsx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481844/original/file-20220830-22-6xibsx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481844/original/file-20220830-22-6xibsx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481844/original/file-20220830-22-6xibsx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481844/original/file-20220830-22-6xibsx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The creation of the O brought together a cross-sector research team and partners including CRITAC, the Réseau Québec Maritime, Doorspec, Multi-Électronique (MTE) and the Groupe Océan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Geneviève Dupéré)</span>, <span class="license">Fourni par l'auteur</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This new phase allowed for a series of collaborative work residencies where scientists became co-choreographers, fishermen co-directors and sailors co-playwrights.</p>
<h2>From the river to the spectator and from the spectator to the river</h2>
<p><em>ecH₂osystème</em> does not explain the disproportionate scale of the St. Lawrence ecosystem. It seeks to stage it by transferring the knowledge of its many actors. If the <em>O</em> is hoisted to the top of a crane, the acrobat becomes tiny. At 20 meters high, the water column becomes vertiginous. Instinctively, we hold our breath. If the wind picks up, the sensation increases, even if the acrobat is in a harness and all safety measures are being taken by the crew of the <em>O</em>.</p>
<p>Building on <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt16gznjb">contemporary documentary theories</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/oct/02/peter-brook-empty-space-tip-of-the-tongue">the writings of director Peter Brook</a>, the performing arts have the ability to intersect with reality and go beyond words, data or representation. In 1989, filmmaker Pierre Perrault <a href="http://www.edhexagone.com/grande-allure/pierre-perrault/livre/9782890063372">searched for a present tense in the river, asking, “Does it even exist?”</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/fr/book/show/36239986-tip-of-the-tongue">The arts become a lens that allows us to narrow life down </a> by <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9789462701410/transpositions/#bookTabs=1">transposing it onto an intelligible scale</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480905/original/file-20220824-4398-2mg4lq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="person on a barge seen from above in winter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480905/original/file-20220824-4398-2mg4lq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480905/original/file-20220824-4398-2mg4lq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480905/original/file-20220824-4398-2mg4lq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480905/original/file-20220824-4398-2mg4lq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480905/original/file-20220824-4398-2mg4lq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480905/original/file-20220824-4398-2mg4lq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480905/original/file-20220824-4398-2mg4lq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Five years of investigation allowed me to work with over 300 partners from marine and freshwater sciences, fisheries, and the maritime and port industry.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Geneviève Dupéré)</span>, <span class="license">Fourni par l'auteur</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>My first weeks of marine acrobatic exploration in Sept-Îles, <a href="https://oceanweekcan.ca/events/ech2osysteme-from-river-to-stage/">Pointe-aux-Trembles</a>, Rimouski and <a href="https://ici.radio-canada.ca/ohdio/premiere/emissions/bon-pied-bonne-heure/segments/entrevue/414923/ech2osysteme">Rivière-au-Renard</a> showed promising preliminary results. This exploration will continue in the summer of 2023 in different riverside municipalities so that in the following year I will be able to mesh the different scenes that were co-orchestrated with collaborators. The aim of this first show, designed for the general public, will be to reflect the St. Lawrence on a larger scale.</p>
<p>By seeking to highlight the links between the river and the spectator and between the spectator and the river, <em>ecH₂osystème</em> is interested in the way research-creation invites us to represent our links with an ecosystem <a href="https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/thematic/environmental-aesthetics/v-1">“in which we live, not as spectators, but as participants”</a>.</p>
<p>The waters of the St. Lawrence are home to microscopic shrimp that are swallowed up by the largest giants on the planet. These shrimp flow from melting glaciers into the taps millions of us use every day. Over the next few decades, this knowledge will carry <em>ecH₂osystème</em> from the currents of the Great Lakes to the Arctic, back to the stage, to viewers who participate in this ecosystem.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190715/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The O of ecH2osystem was supported by the Fonds de recherche du Québec through the research promotion program of the Réseau Québec Maritime. The research project on the impact of the intersectoral collaborative approach is supported at CRITAC by the NSERC college and community innovation program. Geneviève Dupéré received a SSHRC doctoral scholarship for her doctorate. She has received funding as an individual artist from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the Canada Council for the Arts for the residency phases.</span></em></p>This article crosses from the river to the stage, to explore the St. Lawrence at the meeting point of marine and freshwater sciences, the fishing, maritime and port industries, and the circus arts.Geneviève Dupéré, Conceptrice, chercheuse au CRITAC (Centre de recherche de l'École nationale de cirque), professeure à l'École nationale de théâtre, chargée de cours en sciences de l'environnement à l'Université de Montréal, et doctorante en recherche-création maritime, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1833302022-06-13T20:36:13Z2022-06-13T20:36:13ZKeeping injured voices hush-hush: Why professional singers and actors often don’t seek treatment for vocal illness<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468268/original/file-20220610-39156-3lbq01.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=426%2C93%2C4702%2C3352&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Because of the demanding ways in which they use their voices, performers have increased risks of voice injuries. Canadian singer Michael Bublé underwent vocal cord surgery in 2016.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Professional singers and actors are at higher risks of vocal injury. Performing artists need to master their voices in a sophisticated way to meet the esthetic demands of their work. Most people may not pay much attention to their own voices, but for performing artists, any minor changes in their voice can prevent them from working and can seriously disrupt their life and career. </p>
<p>One common form of voice disorders are <a href="http://www.otolaryngology.pitt.edu/centers-excellence/voice-center/conditions-we-treat/benign-vocal-fold-lesions">benign vocal fold lesions</a>, such as nodules and polyps. Affected individuals may experience voice breaks and difficulty in singing high notes, for instance.</p>
<p>Among professional singers, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvoice.2017.02.010">about 46 per cent</a> reported having a history with voice disorders, compared to 18 per cent of the general population. For those in their early training, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvoice.2013.05.006">almost 60 per cent</a> of students in drama acting showed clinical signs of vocal dysfunctions. </p>
<p>At the <a href="http://voice.lab.mcgill.ca/">Voice and Upper Airway Research Lab</a> at McGill University, we study a broad range of upper airway and laryngeal health conditions using computational models and cell cultures as well as human studies. In the Canadian health-care system, the medical specialists who manage patients with <a href="https://www.asha.org/practice-portal/clinical-topics/voice-disorders/">voice disorders</a> include <a href="https://www.entcanada.org/">ear, nose and throat doctors</a> (ENTs, also known as otolaryngologists) and <a href="https://www.sac-oac.ca/public/what-do-speech-language-pathologists-do">speech-language pathologists</a>. </p>
<h2>Stigma and vocal health</h2>
<p>Stigma is a social phenomenon whereby individuals are marked as different, enabling discrimination and inequality. <a href="https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/phac-aspc/documents/corporate/publications/chief-public-health-officer-reports-state-public-health-canada/addressing-stigma-what-we-heard/stigma-eng.pdf">Stigma around a medical condition</a> often makes the condition worse because of the stress it causes. Additionally, people who experience a health-related stigma are often reluctant to seek professional medical help. For example, individuals with <a href="https://mentalhealthcommission.ca/what-we-do/stigma-and-discrimination/">mental illnesses</a> like depression and addiction are less likely to seek counselling because of the stigma around those conditions. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468311/original/file-20220610-47314-am4w3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Illustrations of normal vocal cords, vocal cords with benign nodules and with benign polyps." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468311/original/file-20220610-47314-am4w3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468311/original/file-20220610-47314-am4w3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=714&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468311/original/file-20220610-47314-am4w3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=714&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468311/original/file-20220610-47314-am4w3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=714&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468311/original/file-20220610-47314-am4w3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=898&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468311/original/file-20220610-47314-am4w3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=898&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468311/original/file-20220610-47314-am4w3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=898&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A top view of healthy vocal folds and benign vocal fold lesions (nodules and polyps).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similarly, voice disorders also carry a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/jun/06/the-silent-treatment-singer-sarah-louise-young-losing-voice">stigma among performing artists</a>. This has made performers hesitate to seek proper and timely medical help. <a href="https://broadwaynews.com/2019/09/19/speaking-out-about-vocal-injuries-on-broadway/">Broadway singers have reportedly preferred not to disclose</a> that they have had a voice disorder because it could damage their career prospects. </p>
<p>In addition to these external pressures, performers blame themselves for their vocal health issues, believing they are the sign of an unskilled performer. In truth, even <a href="https://www.ohniww.org/category/celebrity-voice-issues/">highly skilled and successful artists can have voice disorders</a>. However, the scientific evidence for vocal stigma is mostly anecdotal. </p>
<p>For a master’s thesis project conducted at our lab, we wanted to find out how vocal stigma might affect Canadian performers. Specifically,</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Do professional Canadian singers and actors experience stigma around voice disorders?</p></li>
<li><p>If so, are performers less likely to seek medical help when they experience vocal stigma?</p></li>
<li><p>Who is likely to experience vocal stigma most strongly?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>An online survey of vocal stigma was designed to answer these questions. With the help of the <a href="https://www.nats.org/">National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS)</a> and the <a href="https://www.actra.ca/">Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA)</a>, 200 Canadian singers and actors ages 21 to 65 were recruited to complete the 64-item survey. An additional 200 Canadians, who did not have any experience in the performance industry, were also recruited to complete the same online survey as study controls. </p>
<h2>Vocal stigma affects Canadian performers</h2>
<p>Overall, Canadian performers experienced about 15 per cent more vocal stigma than the study controls. Performers also showed less motivation and intention to seek help from health professions if they had vocal illness. </p>
<p>The study also found that younger performers and those with previous voice disorders tended to experience more vocal stigma. It is likely that artists’ reputations are more vulnerable in their early careers and that people who haven’t had a voice disorder are less aware of vocal stigma. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468313/original/file-20220610-43722-wjou46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man standing up with a music stand behind him, and another man sitting down and looking at him" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468313/original/file-20220610-43722-wjou46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468313/original/file-20220610-43722-wjou46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468313/original/file-20220610-43722-wjou46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468313/original/file-20220610-43722-wjou46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468313/original/file-20220610-43722-wjou46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468313/original/file-20220610-43722-wjou46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468313/original/file-20220610-43722-wjou46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Demonstrations of vocal coaching were part of the public information events at McGill’s School of Communication Sciences and Disorders for World Voice Day on April 16.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, McGill University; Photo Fund)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our study also found that vocal stigma was characterized more by external pressures than by internal beliefs like self-blame in Canadian performers. Performers feared losing both current and future work if employers found out they have had a voice disorder. </p>
<p>The ensuing economic pressure can be compounded by challenges in accessing specialized vocal health services, including <a href="https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/waiting-your-turn-2021.pdf">long wait times for public ENT clinics</a> and <a href="https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/private-cost-public-queues-medically-necessary-care-2019.pdf">the high cost of private alternatives</a>. </p>
<h2>Possible solutions for breaking vocal stigma</h2>
<p>Like other stigmas, vocal stigma is a complex issue without a one-size-fits-all solution. Education and outreach from voice health experts could form part of the solution, with the potential to both reduce vocal stigma and help performers protect their voices. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468323/original/file-20220610-24020-suzm1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A person out of frame holds a model of the larynx and vocal cords, in front of two people seated at a table" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468323/original/file-20220610-24020-suzm1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468323/original/file-20220610-24020-suzm1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468323/original/file-20220610-24020-suzm1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468323/original/file-20220610-24020-suzm1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468323/original/file-20220610-24020-suzm1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468323/original/file-20220610-24020-suzm1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468323/original/file-20220610-24020-suzm1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A multidisciplinary workshop on vocal health for singers, actors and other professional voice users, jointly presented by McGill and the University of Bergen (Norway) on World Voice Day.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, McGill University; Photo Fund)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, McGill’s <a href="https://www.mcgill.ca/scsd/">School of Communication Sciences and Disorders</a> has been holding annual public seminars, panel discussions and free voice screenings for <a href="https://www.mcgill.ca/scsd/community/serving-local-community/world-voice-day">World Voice Day</a>. We hope to expand this program to reach more artists across the country. </p>
<p>Improving performers’ access to services could also play a role. For example, by improving the coverage of employment and medical insurance for performers requiring vocal health care. Upholding medical privacy is also important in ensuring that performers’ careers are not unfairly damaged by past health issues. </p>
<p>The first step, though, is to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/aug/10/adele-vocal-cord-surgery-why-stars-keep-losing-their-voices">increase awareness of vocal stigma within the performance industry</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183330/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole Y.K. Li-Jessen receives funding from Canada Research Chair, Fonds de recherche du Québec–Santé, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and National Institutes of Health. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Colin Jones does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Singers and actors are more likely to have voice injuries, but less likely to report them or seek treatment due to stigma and fears that it may affect their career.Nicole Y.K. Li-Jessen, Associate Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Canada Research Chair in Personalized Medicine of Upper Airway Health and Disease, McGill UniversityColin Jones, Master's Student in Speech-Language Pathology, McGill UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1814592022-05-05T12:43:51Z2022-05-05T12:43:51ZA white librettist wrote an opera about Emmett Till – and some critics are calling for its cancellation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461045/original/file-20220503-12-jpgsmp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C22%2C2986%2C1976&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A faded photograph is attached to the headstone that marks the gravesite of Emmett Till in Chicago.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/faded-photograph-is-attached-to-the-headstone-that-marks-news-photo/1308512100">Scott Olson/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Are Black audiences, actors, and producers simply conditioned to having their stories told by white counterparts?” screenwriter and director <a href="https://www.ebony.com/entertainment/op-ed-the-problem-with-white-writers-writing-black-stories/">Darian Lane</a>, who is Black, wondered in a 2021 op-ed for Ebony. </p>
<p>On TV and in film, white authorship of Black stories has long been a point of contention, whether it was David Simon <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/11/us/who-gets-to-tell-a-black-story.html">writing about a Black neighborhood</a> in Baltimore for his series “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0306414/">The Wire</a>” or Tate Taylor writing and directing “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1454029/">The Help</a>.”</p>
<p>It was only a matter of time before this issue would beset the world of opera. Since “Emmett Till, A New American Opera” <a href="https://playbill.com/article/emmett-till-a-new-american-opera-to-premiere-at-john-jay-college">premiered at John Jay College</a> on March 23, 2022,
a <a href="https://www.change.org/p/cancel-a-new-american-opera-emmett-till-at-john-jay-college">Change.org petition</a> has circulated with 12,000-plus signatories calling for the production to never again see the light of day. </p>
<p>The reason?</p>
<p>A white woman named Clare Coss wrote <a href="https://www.uncoveringsound.com/difference-between-a-libretto-and-a-script/">the libretto</a>, or text, for the opera, which she based on an award-winning play she had written called “<a href="https://theaterlife.com/emmett-down-in-my-heart/">Emmett, Down in My Heart</a>” in 2015. </p>
<p>Coss concocted a fictional white female protagonist named Roann Taylor, who fails to call the police when she overhears the lynching of the 14-year-old Till. Eventually, she realizes that her silence has perpetuated injustice and she confronts the killers. </p>
<p>Critics claim the opera elevates the guilt of white audiences while capitalizing on Black trauma. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/03/22/emmett-till-opera-protest/">The Washington Post</a> notes that the production joins a slew of white-authored responses to the Emmett Till murder that didn’t sit well with the Black community, ranging from Bob Dylan’s “<a href="https://bob-dylan.org.uk/archives/5856">Death of Emmett Till</a>” to Dana Schutz’s painting “<a href="https://www.vulture.com/2022/01/dana-schutz-open-casket-emmett-till-painting.html">Open Casket</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Painting of boy in suit in casket." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460796/original/file-20220502-22-8flicq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460796/original/file-20220502-22-8flicq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460796/original/file-20220502-22-8flicq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460796/original/file-20220502-22-8flicq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460796/original/file-20220502-22-8flicq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460796/original/file-20220502-22-8flicq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460796/original/file-20220502-22-8flicq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dana Schutz’s painting of Till sparked protests during the 2017 Whitney Biennial, where it was displayed – with some people calling for its destruction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Casket#/media/File:Dana_Schutz_Open_Casket_2016_Oil_on_canvas.jpg">Dana Schutz, Open Casket (2016). Oil on canvas</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On the one hand, I sympathize with the frustrating legacy of white artists telling Black stories. On the other hand, my 25 years of experience <a href="https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/0031Q00002QPtm6QAD/anita-gonzalez">teaching African-American theater</a> have made me acutely sensitive to the complications of authorship – especially when it comes to stage productions.</p>
<h2>Whom is the opera for?</h2>
<p>When artists develop new stories about Black experiences it matters who creates the story. How might their own background connect to the narrative? What sort of audience do they have in mind?</p>
<p>Social activist and cultural thinker W.E.B Du Bois published <a href="https://archive.org/search.php?query=sim_pubid%3A10994+AND+volume%3A32&sort=date">an essay in a 1926 issue of Crisis magazine</a> that set out to define what constitutes African American drama. He argued that they were plays that ought to be “about” Black communities, “by” Black authors, written “for” Black audiences and performed “near” Black neighborhoods.</p>
<p>Under this definition, Coss’ opera wouldn’t be considered African American drama. While it was a production about the Black community, it was composed, in part, to help white audiences empathize with Black pain. </p>
<p>And even though Coss has said the opera is intended for everyone, she’s also noted that the inclusion of a white character who recognizes her slow response to racial violence was <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2022/03/23/1088169711/a-new-opera-about-emmett-till-is-criticized-for-being-written-by-a-white-woman">important for predominantly white operagoing audiences to see</a>.</p>
<p>This is the rub. Many Black artists <a href="https://www.ebony.com/entertainment/op-ed-the-problem-with-white-writers-writing-black-stories/">are weary of products told from white perspectives</a> because there’s a tendency for the characters and conflicts to fall into familiar tropes. Lost are the ambiguities and inconsistencies of our unique cultural legacies.</p>
<p>Productions like George Gershwin’s “<a href="https://www.metopera.org/season/2021-22-season/porgy-and-bess/">Porgy and Bess</a>,” where the Black experience is reflected in old tropes, still draw huge crowds. The opera – which tells the story of Porgy, a disabled, downtrodden Black man who lives among drug dealers and addicts – perpetuates stereotypes of Black people as addicts who are incapable of self-sufficiency.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Older man using crutches sings on stage." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461049/original/file-20220503-19080-6ru4ob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461049/original/file-20220503-19080-6ru4ob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461049/original/file-20220503-19080-6ru4ob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461049/original/file-20220503-19080-6ru4ob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461049/original/file-20220503-19080-6ru4ob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461049/original/file-20220503-19080-6ru4ob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461049/original/file-20220503-19080-6ru4ob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 2019 dress rehearsal of ‘Porgy and Bess’ at New York City’s Metropolitan Opera House.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/american-baritone-eric-owens-performs-at-the-final-dress-news-photo/1179461251?adppopup=true">Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/20/us/george-floyd-protests-police-reform.html">In this moment of raised social consciousness</a>, it’s important to tell stories about Black injustices. But stories of joy, community, healing and wellness are just as important. </p>
<p>So it’s refreshing to see newer musicals like Michael R. Jackson’s “<a href="https://strangeloopmusical.com/">A Strange Loop</a>,” which is now playing on Broadway. Jackson, who is Black, wrote a musical that plumbs the inner psyche of a character named Usher who struggles with anxieties about his queer identity and lifestyle. A chorus of colorful characters depicts his thoughts as he untangles his fraught family relationships and rebuilds his self-esteem. </p>
<h2>The complications of ‘by’</h2>
<p>The “by” of Du Bois’ argument is particularly complex in the case of both the Till opera and “Porgy and Bess.” Both productions feature white authors writing about Black experiences that are then depicted by Black performers. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461052/original/file-20220503-17-8tt63g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Man in suit sits in chair." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461052/original/file-20220503-17-8tt63g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461052/original/file-20220503-17-8tt63g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=887&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461052/original/file-20220503-17-8tt63g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=887&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461052/original/file-20220503-17-8tt63g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=887&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461052/original/file-20220503-17-8tt63g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1114&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461052/original/file-20220503-17-8tt63g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1114&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461052/original/file-20220503-17-8tt63g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1114&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">To W.E.B. Du Bois, a work needed to meet certain criteria to be considered African American drama.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/dubois-waits-to-be-called-as-a-witness-at-the-federal-news-photo/514697730?adppopup=true">Bettmann/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Is the author the writer, producer, director or lead performer? Many productions about the Black experience – Steven Spielberg’s 1985 adaptation of Alice Walker’s “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088939/">The Color Purple</a>” is just one example that comes to mind – were originally authored by Blacks yet produced by whites to accommodate white sensibilities. At the time of its release, the film also <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/2020/04/the-color-purple-debate-anniversary-1202217786/">elicited controversy</a> for depicting Black female experiences through the eyes of a white male producer and director.</p>
<p>The current controversy about the Emmett Till opera ultimately glosses over a complex collaborative processes. As with most performance projects, many artists participated in realizing the final product. Afro-Cuban composer <a href="https://www.tanialeon.com/">Tania León</a> conducted the score. The Harlem Chamber Players and Opera Noire International co-produced the work. </p>
<p>Most importantly, Mary Watkins, the composer, is Black. The composer is usually considered the core creative artist in an operatic work, and Watkins artfully uses emotional arias and music that mimics moans to draw listeners into the anguish of the mother’s loss.</p>
<p>“Even though there are many artists of color involved in this project, the critics are assuming that we have had no impact on the final shape of the piece and that the playwright has somehow forced all of us to tell her story,” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/03/22/emmett-till-opera-protest/">Watkins wrote in an email interview</a>. “It is an insult to me as a Black woman and to the cast members who are African-American.” </p>
<h2>Performing race</h2>
<p>One of my students once pointed out that enslaved Africans arrived in the Americas naked and were then forced to don clothing provided by the enslavers. </p>
<p>We have been wearing garments and identities designed to conform to white sensibilities ever since. African American theater historians have long grappled with how to assess Black contributions in a country where white critics, by and large, evaluate our cultural productions. </p>
<p>Books like “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/african-american-performance-and-theater-history-9780195127256?cc=us&lang=en&">African American Performance and Theater History</a>” describe how double-conscious performance styles enabled Black artists to resist stereotypical representations on stage. <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/04/hattie-mcdaniel-gone-with-the-wind-oscars-autobiography">Hattie McDaniel</a>, for example, played the maid in “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gone_with_the_Wind_(film)">Gone With the Wind”</a> with tenacious spunk, using sassy comedy to humanize her servile “Mammy” role.</p>
<p>Newer anthologies, like my edited collection “<a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/black-performance-theory">Black Performance Theory</a>,” complicate notions of Black authorship and artistry. The book describes how Blackness circulates through cultural productions as vocal, physical and visual imagery which may or may not be aligned with Black bodies on stage. For example, in “Emmett Till, A New American Opera,” Watkins’ use of resonant open tones in the first few bars of Mamie Till’s lament, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kfwNzQyrDA&t=28s">My Son, My Child</a>,” evokes the choral singing of the African American gospel tradition.</p>
<p>To me, the backlash against the white librettist is ultimately a waste of time. Not only is there room for works done in collaboration with Black artists, but cross-cultural, interethnic collaborations also add to the richness and versatility of performed storytelling. </p>
<p>Du Bois wrote about Black performance as it existed within the confines of a segregated society. Theatrical performances by, for, near and about can certainly unite Black communities around collective storytelling. </p>
<p>But I also cherish the vibrancy of storytelling that includes a diversity of perspectives. I hope to see more operas, plays and musicals that encourage conversations about Black identities – without efforts to cancel those who have contributed to the effort.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181459/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anita Gonzalez does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many Black audiences are justifiably weary of works about their community told from white perspectives. But authorship isn’t always black and white.Anita Gonzalez, Professor of African American Studies and Performing Arts, Co-Founder/Director Racial Justice Institute, Georgetown UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1746102022-01-18T19:08:48Z2022-01-18T19:08:48Z63.5% of Australia’s performing artists reported worsening mental health during COVID<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440806/original/file-20220114-17-1sbmtzg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C3360%2C2531&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hailey Kean/Unsplash</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>92% of performing artists experienced significant changes to their work during early stages of the pandemic – and at least half experienced depression.</p>
<p>These shocking figures comes from <a href="https://www.waapa.ecu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/960387/Breathing-through-the-pandemic.pdf">new research</a> talking to hundreds of performing artists from across Australia.</p>
<p>The impact of COVID-19 was particularly devastating for performing artists because their artistic practice is highly ingrained in their identity.</p>
<p>The disruption to performances during lockdown led performers to re-evaluate their artistic practice, whether through having a break or reassessing their career paths. </p>
<p>Artists described cancellation of tours, gigs, and contracts which often happened overnight and without warning. Participants spoke of losing “27 gigs in three days” in March 2020, having a year’s worth of touring work cancelled, and not being able to find any new gigs.</p>
<p>In our national survey of 431 performing artists, 63.5% of the participants reported feeling their mental health worsened during the pandemic.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pHzAmofN0kI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Mental health stressors</h2>
<p>COVID-19 exacerbated social, economic and mental health problems <a href="https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2016-10/apo-nid121961.pdf">long-recognised</a> throughout the performing arts sector. In an industry that was already under the spotlight for stress and mental health, COVID-19 brought with it another test to the resilience of the industry.</p>
<p>In our research, we used the <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16004657/">short form Depression Anxiety Stress Scales 21</a> (DASS-21), a self-reported survey which measures levels of distress, and found scores on all three subscales were elevated compared to <a href="https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.499926749273237">previous findings</a> among performing artists in 2015.</p>
<p>49% of participants demonstrated moderate, severe or extremely severe levels of depression; 61% demonstrated moderate, severe or extremely severe levels of anxiety; and 47% demonstrated moderate, severe or extremely severe levels of stress. </p>
<p>In line with these findings, almost half (47.9% of respondants) accessed mental health supports, such as psychologists and GPs. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/V2w4BKcs_q0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The participants most affected by poor mental health were early career artists, freelancers and women. </p>
<p>Women not only faced the difficulties of COVID and related lockdowns, but also <a href="https://theconversation.com/planning-stress-and-worry-put-the-mental-load-on-mothers-will-2022-be-the-year-they-share-the-burden-172599">disproportionately</a> faced the challenge of increased care responsibilities for elderly parents and children, and the distractions of working from home during lockdown.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/planning-stress-and-worry-put-the-mental-load-on-mothers-will-2022-be-the-year-they-share-the-burden-172599">Planning, stress and worry put the mental load on mothers – will 2022 be the year they share the burden?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Freelance artists often found themselves <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-says-artists-should-be-able-to-access-jobkeeper-payments-its-not-that-simple-138530">excluded from government support such as JobKeeper</a>. </p>
<p>Early career artists questioned their future in the arts: their performing opportunities suddenly disappeared during lockdown, and they lost opportunities to gain new networks and build there careers. As one participant told us, “a whole year [was] just ripped away,”</p>
<blockquote>
<p>that’s a year I’ll never get back, to add to my portfolio, to my connections and networks.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/a2bemxzY0Gc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Ongoing stress</h2>
<p>Difficulties weren’t just faced by individual artists. The immediate impact for performing arts organisations was a complete shock to the system. </p>
<p>Workload stress for managers increased with their efforts to maintain operations and recoup lost income. </p>
<p>Many artistic organisations are only now beginning to feel the true burden of COVID-19 and will continue to feel these impacts throughout the medium term. </p>
<p>As the pandemic went on through 2020 and 2021, some organisations saw two seasons’ worth of programming delayed. 2022 and beyond will see these organisations trying to play catch up, causing additional logistical work – and as Omicron is proving, there will be with further disruptions and shutdowns in the sector.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AGp4em5wOd8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>While almost half of the participants accessed mental health support during COVID-19, several barriers to seeking help were identified, such as financial constraints and a lack of available and appropriate mental health support which understood the particular stressors of working in the performing arts. </p>
<h2>Community and resilience</h2>
<p>Even as they were facing stress, our research found organisations acted as beacons of support for the wider performing arts community, honouring artist and employee contracts as much as possible. </p>
<p>In turn, arts workers reported support from audiences, donors and direct support from government was instrumental in maintaining morale and purpose for organisations. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XaqXf0TqCXA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The adaptability and resilience evidenced within the performing arts industry during COVID-19 should not be underestimated. Artists continued to create work throughout the pandemic, and even found positive outcomes from this challenging time. </p>
<p>Participants reported being able to rest and reset.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Time for people to take a break is important, mental health is important, hard conversations are important. But we had the time to have them, instead of “we can’t have that conversation because the show’s going on in two weeks and we’ve got to rehearse the scene.” It’s like, well, let’s stop and let’s talk about this. It was really beneficial for a lot of works that I was involved in.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For many artists, it will be a long recovery for their careers and their health. Now is the time to consider how the industry can build back stronger post-COVID: increased arts funding, low-cost or free mental health services tailored to performing artists, and encouraging everyone to experience – and support – the amazing art being made in our own backyards.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174610/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research was supported by funding received from the Western Australian Government Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation.</span></em></p>92% of performing artists experienced significant changes to their work during early stages of the pandemic – and at least half experienced depression.Helen Rusak, Senior Lecturer, Arts Management, Edith Cowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1630572021-07-15T14:51:57Z2021-07-15T14:51:57ZArts venues set the stage for wonder, the critical sense we need for post-pandemic innovation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410009/original/file-20210706-21-y3rqm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=77%2C1296%2C3973%2C2149&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Instructional sign, Boston Museum of Fine Arts. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lauren Peng/Unsplash</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The COVID-19 pandemic <a href="https://fortune.com/2021/03/09/covid-pandemic-how-life-has-changed-coronavirus-one-year-later-march-2020/">has changed everything</a>, from how <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-01/return-to-office-employees-are-quitting-instead-of-giving-up-work-from-home">we work</a> and <a href="https://hbr.org/2020/07/the-pandemic-is-rewriting-the-rules-of-retail">shop to</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/after-a-year-of-zoom-meetings-well-need-to-rebuild-trust-through-eye-contact-160405">how we communicate</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2347631120983481">and learn</a>.</p>
<p>Worryingly, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2020/05/17/the-politics-of-choosing-winners-and-losers-with-taxpayer-money.html">governments have overtaken market forces</a> in deciding economic winners and losers, with <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/article-when-the-musics-over-covid-19-decimated-the-arts-in-canada-and-the/">arts spaces</a> ending up among the biggest losers despite well-documented evidence that the <a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/nea-arts-economic-study-1484587">sector is a major driver of growth</a>.</p>
<p>Aside from their direct economic contributions, we need arts venues to recover because they are the optimal stages to refine a sense of wonder. Wonder is the sense of “wow” emerging when our abilities to neatly explain or categorize what we are seeing fail. It is an indicator that our mental frames have been broken by new content. </p>
<p>It’s also a feeling of discontent with the status quo, turning our attention to unrealized potential: future customers, possible innovations, new alliances. It encourages us to think about the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000018">collective dimensions</a> of our identity and efforts. It’s a force that transforms.</p>
<p>My research findings demonstrate how <a href="https://ecwpress.com/products/fifteen-paths">honing imagination and wonder</a> is essential to creating cultures dedicated to <a href="https://profiles.laps.yorku.ca/profiles/dweitzne/">innovative and responsible corporate practices</a> demanded by a <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/banking-system-resilience-in-the-time-of-covid-19">growing majority</a> of workers. That is why any society hoping to <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/06/12/fact-sheet-president-biden-and-g7-leaders-launch-build-back-better-world-b3w-partnership/">build back better</a> must start by supporting their arts venues, the training ground for wonder. </p>
<h2>Activating wonder</h2>
<p>In researching my new book, <a href="https://utorontopress.com/9781487508425/connected-capitalism/"><em>Connected Capitalism: How Jewish Wisdom Can Transform Work</em></a>, I took a deep dive into the critical role that wonder plays in building innovative cultures. </p>
<p>Our work lives must provide not only financial rewards, but intellectual meaning, emotional connection and awe-inducing wonder. Most of us are familiar with the first two, desiring meaning in the work we do and valuing the connections that emerge from co-operative partnerships formed in the workplace. </p>
<p>But wonder is often a blind spot. Many of the executives and policy-makers I interviewed operate under the misguided belief that activating wonder somehow requires us to detach from the challenges of the material world.</p>
<p>While we may not name it as such, many of us experience wonder in concert halls, galleries and theatres, spaces where we encounter weird sounds, unusual colours and strange ideas. Honing a sense of wonder in the unique setting of arts venues will equip us for the type of rebuilding demanded by turbulent times.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A light bulb against a pink sky." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410010/original/file-20210706-13-12yzzky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410010/original/file-20210706-13-12yzzky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410010/original/file-20210706-13-12yzzky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410010/original/file-20210706-13-12yzzky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410010/original/file-20210706-13-12yzzky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410010/original/file-20210706-13-12yzzky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410010/original/file-20210706-13-12yzzky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Wonder encourages us to think about the collective dimensions of our identity and efforts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Sixteen Miles Out/Unsplash)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Journey without a known outcome</h2>
<p>My last book, <a href="https://ecwpress.com/products/fifteen-paths"><em>Fifteen Paths</em></a>, documents the year I spent learning about the power of wonder and imagination by hanging out with iconoclastic artists. In the spring of 2019, to celebrate the book’s release, I organized events with some of the artists, inviting audiences to join our unrestricted conversations about politics, capitalism and creativity. We met at concert halls and galleries in Toronto, San Francisco, and Brooklyn, N.Y. — in the latter case, at the now-shuttered art space Rough Trade, a painful reminder today of the cost the pandemic has had on independent arts.</p>
<p>At Rough Trade, a few months before the pandemic, Sonic Youth’s <a href="http://www.sonicyouth.com/symu/lee/">Lee Ranaldo</a> explained to me how, when we go to a gallery to experience an art exhibit or head to a theatre to attend a concert, we are committing to a journey without a known or definitive outcome. </p>
<p>That simple act is the initial step in stimulating a sense of wonder. Pursuing an experience as an ends in itself is antithetical to outcome-focused business environments where there is concern about “<a href="https://hbr.org/2020/03/building-a-culture-of-experimentation">getting off-track</a>” with experimentation. As Ranaldo said, “that’s where innovation comes … when you are threatening the stability of things and knocking some plates off their spindles you are potentially pushing the conversation, and therefore the culture, forward.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three men standing next to each other in a line with arms around each other in a black and white photo." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408006/original/file-20210623-27-gj41f8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408006/original/file-20210623-27-gj41f8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408006/original/file-20210623-27-gj41f8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408006/original/file-20210623-27-gj41f8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408006/original/file-20210623-27-gj41f8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408006/original/file-20210623-27-gj41f8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408006/original/file-20210623-27-gj41f8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">From left, Lee Ranaldo, David Weitzner and Nels Cline at Rough Trade in Brooklyn, N.Y.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Allen Ying)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Getting over fear of the unknown</h2>
<p>Also in Brooklyn, Wilco’s <a href="https://www.nelscline.com/">Nels Cline</a> discussed another point in the wonder journey: getting over the fear when facing the unknown. He compared it to the aversion one might have to off-putting sounds. But sharpening our sense of wonder empowers us to stick with the discomfort and engage in potentially radical explorations.</p>
<p>Improvising live music only emerges when artists embrace discomfort. Cline hopes that non-musicians open themselves up to wonder, knowing that if we’re not feeling a little uncomfortable or uncertain, then we’re probably not in the process of creating something transformational.</p>
<p>As policy-makers begin executing post-pandemic reopening strategies, they need to know arts venues matter not just because of the revenue they generate, which could be replicated by replacement industries, but because of the societal resources they are uniquely positioned to develop.</p>
<p>Consequently, it’s critical to make entry to arts venues accessible. Prior to the pandemic, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/ago-annual-pass-permanent-1.5373672">the Art Gallery of Ontario</a> announced plans to either eliminate or dramatically lower admissions fees, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-01-10/moca-free-admission">joining other galleries</a> with similar approaches. Such efforts need to be continued, despite the near-term funding crunch.</p>
<h2>Go experience art</h2>
<p>Equally important, however, is the type of work audiences encounter once inside the admission gates. Curators and artistic directors should not shy away from programs that may be disorienting or uncomfortable to a popular audience because that’s the path to wonder. Wonder occurs precisely when what confronts us is difficult to process, interpret or immediately understand.</p>
<p>Arts managers have always faced the challenging trade-off between artistic integrity and the ability to reach a larger audience. But if what we’ve said about wonder is true, there’s reason to hope opting for the former will serve the latter. Audiences will seek out the opportunity to experience the mysterious or disturbing elements of art as practice for navigating a turbulent business environment.</p>
<p>As for the rest of us: Go experience art, especially if it was not a pre-pandemic habit! While this prescription might strike some as an oversimplification, many of us don’t have the opportunity to hone our sense of wonder. </p>
<p>In the business world, we’re told these feelings slow down strategy execution and <a href="https://hbr.org/2018/09/the-business-case-for-curiosity">raise the costs</a> of doing business. But efficiency is not a value that should be prioritized when rebuilding. Until wonder is welcomed in all work spaces, the health of our society is contingent on the ability to experience and refine the sense in artistic spaces.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163057/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Weitzner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Until wonder is welcomed in all workplaces, the health of our society and our capacity to imagine new alternatives is contingent on the ability to experience and refine wonder in artistic spaces.David Weitzner, Assistant professor, Administrative Studies, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1641672021-07-14T14:27:46Z2021-07-14T14:27:46ZWe used performing arts to map out gender violence in Sierra Leone. What we found<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411203/original/file-20210714-13-13xczmd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">About 62% of Sierra Leonean women aged 15-49 have experienced physical or sexual violence.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s been more than two years since Sierra Leone <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-47169729">declared a state of emergency</a> over sexual and gender-based violence. The declaration followed a public outcry over a spate of high profile sexual attacks in which minors made up one in three victims. </p>
<p>Though unconstitutional, the state of emergency led to <a href="http://rogee.sl/docs/ROGEE-Sierra-Leone-Act-Sexual-Offences-2019.pdf">significant legal amendments</a>. The minimum sentence for rape was increased from five to 15 years for adults. New provisions also <a href="https://theconversation.com/taking-stock-one-year-after-sierra-leones-gender-violence-emergency-130487">criminalised</a> informal out-of-court settlements for sexual assault and rape. </p>
<p>These amendments have generally been welcomed as a positive step. But some have criticised the emphasis on sexual violence, particularly of young girls, at the expense of other types of gender-based violence.</p>
<p>According to the 2019 demographic and health survey, about 62% of Sierra Leonean women aged 15-49 have <a href="https://sierraleone.unfpa.org/en/topics/gender-based-violence-11">experienced physical or sexual violence</a>. Everyday violence within marriage is rife but receives less attention in legislation and political discourse. Women are also quite reluctant to discuss violence in their own marriages for a variety of social and cultural reasons. </p>
<p>Our research <a href="https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FV005480%2F1">project</a> sought to examine how different performing arts mediums can open up discussions about this sensitive issue. While various performing arts techniques have long been used to mobilise social transformation, we simply sought to start conversations about violence. </p>
<p>We found that people (particularly women) were much more active in discussions around violence when these were linked to a performance. We were able to access information much more quickly, primarily based on audiences seeing themselves in the performances. This approach also helped us to learn about the everyday experiences of women and the different ways they feel and address physical and emotional pain in these communities. </p>
<h2>Performances in rural Sierra Leone</h2>
<p>Traditionally, theatre for development or applied theatre is interventionist. Performance techniques are used to achieve <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-theatre-project-explores-collective-solutions-to-saving-the-ocean-135229">behavioural change</a> and to promote messages around public health or education. </p>
<p>Our project diverged from this approach by using performing arts as a tool for understanding, or creating spaces for discussion, rather than to change behaviour. We explored the extent to which different modes of performance – comedy, theatre and dance – could open up conversations around everyday experiences of sexual and gender-based violence. </p>
<p>We worked across three communities in Bombali District, in northern Sierra Leone. Two different performance workshops – each focused on a different type of performance – were delivered to each community. The goal was to establish whether different performative modes led to different kinds of conversations around sexual and gender-based violence.</p>
<p>Working with local comedians, the comedy workshops created scenes which addressed local gender stereotypes in an overtly humorous manner. For the interactive drama we drew upon participatory performance techniques such as direct address and “hot-seating” – meaning the character could field and respond to questions from the audience. </p>
<p>For the dance workshops, we collaborated with the community Sampa, a female folk dancer. She led dances while women from the community took turns to introduce a childhood favourite song or lyrics they created themselves in the moment.</p>
<p>Following each performance, we conducted focused discussions with small groups of men and women in the audience. Observations and remarks that emerged from the audience in the first workshop then informed the content of the scenes we delivered when returning to that community.</p>
<h2>Findings</h2>
<p>Conversations sparked by the performances confirmed that issues such as domestic violence, infidelity, abandonment and polygamy were all recognisable and prevalent in communities. Both men and women spoke of lack of communication in marriage, tensions over financial strains or sexual dissatisfaction. These ultimately resulted in infidelity and violence. </p>
<p>Many men believed that the payment of a bride price gave them a right to sex freely offered or, if not, taken by force. For women, withholding sex was one of the few acts of power and resistance they felt they had in the marriage. Yet it carried the risk of an unsatisfied husband seeking sex elsewhere. Many women spoke of the rejection and desperation they experienced when their husband took a new wife or girlfriend.</p>
<p>Much of the content and themes discussed were similar across all three of the performing art forms we explored. But we did notice a different quality to the conversations depending on the performance style. The <a href="https://www.nottinghamfreeschool.co.uk/data/uploads/homework/files/Drama_KOs/Theatre_In_Education_Augusto_Boal.pdf">interactive drama techniques</a> we employed are designed to promote critical reflection in the audience. These help to identify social problems and invite participants to work through solutions. </p>
<p>By contrast, the songs that women danced to focused on the emotional and bodily pain of their husband’s betrayal. Women had various reasons for singing in everyday life: to gain the attention of the husband or family members to discuss the issue; general relief for many who felt powerless; or, at times, connection with other women.</p>
<p>The comedy and interactive drama offered an entertaining and engaging way for people to reflect upon situations they recognised. But it was evident the songs provided more immediate access to deeply felt emotions arising from personal experience. While there was a sense the group singing soothed such pains, for many women singing was a way to unsettle or even disturb. </p>
<p>A number of men expressed their unease with these types of songs in the household, referring to them as offensive or provocative. This hints at the capacity for this form of self-expression to underline women’s personal anguish, and the subtle and creative ways women express these feelings. </p>
<p>The most common and pervasive forms of pain in the everyday lives of Sierra Leone women require attention from local officials and policymakers. The insidious nature and general “acceptability” of these acts is precisely what makes them so scary, and in need of being addressed. </p>
<p><em>Juliet Fornah and <a href="https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/users/stella-kanu">Stella Kanu</a> contributed to the research on which this article is based.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164167/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aisha Fofana Ibrahim receives funding from the. Arts and humanities Research Council, UK</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helen Shutt receives funding from Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura S. Martin receives funding from Arts and Humanities Research council (AHRC). </span></em></p>Theatre is able to create a space for discussion about how and why women experience physical and emotional violence.Aisha Fofana Ibrahim, Assistant Deputy Vice Chancellor 2, Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra LeoneHelen Shutt, PhD candidate, University of GlasgowLaura S. Martin, Global Challenges Research Fellow, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1609162021-06-03T06:51:53Z2021-06-03T06:51:53ZBelvoir’s The Cherry Orchard is a laugh-out-loud tragedy for uncertain times<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404171/original/file-20210603-27-tywaa9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1597%2C1058&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Peter Carroll and Mandela Mathia in The Cherry Orchard, Belvoir St Theatre.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Belvoir/Brett Boardman</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: The Cherry Orchard, directed by Eamon Flack, Belvoir.</em></p>
<p>In 1904, when <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Anton-Chekhov">Anton Chekhov</a> wrote his last and greatest play, The Cherry Orchard, Russia was still 13 years away from the Bolshevik Revolution. But the conditions for those future events were already all around him. </p>
<p>Rapid industrialisation and urbanisation had ensured old relationships with the land and between people were no longer sustainable. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/serfdom">Serfdom</a>, which had tied peasants to landowners in the bonds of slavery, had been abolished a generation before. Old certainties were slipping away in favour of a future that was probably already there but out of focus. </p>
<p>In the play, the cherry trees on the vast estate of the bankrupt landowner, Ranevskaya, have become so old and tired they only fruit every second year. There is nobody left who can remember what to do with them when they do. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404188/original/file-20210603-15-1n79ahu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="actors in stage scene" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404188/original/file-20210603-15-1n79ahu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404188/original/file-20210603-15-1n79ahu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404188/original/file-20210603-15-1n79ahu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404188/original/file-20210603-15-1n79ahu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404188/original/file-20210603-15-1n79ahu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404188/original/file-20210603-15-1n79ahu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404188/original/file-20210603-15-1n79ahu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">And all the while, the sound of axes chopping down the trees.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Belvoir/Brett Boardman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A future out of focus</h2>
<p>Belvoir’s production is timely. We are still emerging, bleary-eyed into a world we know has changed, and has been changing economically and environmentally for decades now. But we have no collective capacity to see or to control the horizons against which this change is taking place. Will this future that is already happening have room for people who live, behave and consume like we do? Probably not. </p>
<p>So, how should we behave now? Is it okay to cling to the past for as long as we can? Or should we already be living differently, <em>be</em> different? What does it mean to still laugh and enjoy company if these are the very things that might be shielding us from reality? </p>
<p>At the height of the gloriously insane third act of the play, Ranevskaya — here played by <a href="https://belvoir.com.au/pamela-rabe/">Pamela Rabe</a> in a role she embraces with all of her considerable resources — shouts out, “This might not have been the best moment for a party!” You think? </p>
<p>As she and her extended family await the fate of the auction on their home, they drink, laugh, sing and dance. Until they don’t. </p>
<p>But Chekhov and director Eamon Flack both want us to laugh, and to laugh loud at the absurdities and ironies of the situation in which they find themselves. Chekhov insisted on his play being a comedy and Flack draws out its capacities for absurdity with what Belvoir audiences have come to recognise as his customary generosity of spirit. </p>
<p>This is a big, warm-hearted production. And the third act is central to this as characters all cling to actions and habits that make increasingly little sense in terms of their actual situation: from the brilliantly comic turns of Lucia Mastrantone as the governess Charlotta to the futile love affairs of Sarah Meacham’s Dunyasha. </p>
<p>Flack has a great directorial eye for presenting actions and gestures that have become unmoored from the social contexts that gave them meaning.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-lies-of-happiness-living-with-affluenza-but-without-fulfilment-42886">The lies of happiness: living with affluenza but without fulfilment</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Changing roles</h2>
<p>This sense of a future that is already disrupting the present condenses itself in the character of Lopakhin, here played brilliantly by Mandela Mathia. Lopakhin is the offspring of serfs who previously worked on the estate. He is now a wealthy bidder for the property. </p>
<p>Casting a Black actor in this role vividly adds racial context around the narrative of slave turned financial saviour. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404189/original/file-20210603-13-4vh69y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Man onstage" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404189/original/file-20210603-13-4vh69y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404189/original/file-20210603-13-4vh69y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404189/original/file-20210603-13-4vh69y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404189/original/file-20210603-13-4vh69y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404189/original/file-20210603-13-4vh69y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404189/original/file-20210603-13-4vh69y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404189/original/file-20210603-13-4vh69y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Serf turned saviour, played by Mandela Mathia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Belvoir/Brett Boardman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The play does not shy from its potential for tragedy. The last words go to the family’s old butler, here played to comic perfection by the inimitable Peter Carroll. </p>
<p>Firs is a servant who regrets the emancipation of the serfs and wishes he were still indentured to the family. As he lies down, alone and left behind in the deserted old house, he finally faces his situation: “Well, that was my life,” he says. “It’s just as if I’d never lived at all”. </p>
<p>All this to the soundtrack of the axes finally being taken to the cherry orchard, now auctioned off to recover the family’s debts. How to craft a comedy in the face of an ending that is seemingly so bleak?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-samuel-becketts-waiting-for-godot-a-tragicomedy-for-our-times-157962">Guide to the Classics: Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, a tragicomedy for our times</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>To laugh or cry?</h2>
<p>Chekhov was famously upset The Cherry Orchard’s first director, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Konstantin-Stanislavsky">Konstantin Stanislawski</a>, played it for more for its pathos and tragedy than its comedy. But the ongoing critical question of the play’s tone or genre misses the point. </p>
<p>The play is a tragicomedy: not just a mix of the tragic and comic but an attempt to come to terms with their complex overlap. </p>
<p>Key to genuine tragicomedy is a sense of forgiveness: that we can forgive ourselves as much as we can forgive others. Take the ending of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale. For that play to achieve the wonder of its final moments, the characters have to have gone through years of coming to terms with the tragic events that have set up the play’s narratives of loss and estrangement.</p>
<p>There is potential for forgiveness, too, in The Cherry Orchard, but it is a mark of the play’s modernity that we can’t quite be sure it will bring off a happy ending. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404190/original/file-20210603-13-z407yq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="actors in stage scene" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404190/original/file-20210603-13-z407yq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404190/original/file-20210603-13-z407yq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404190/original/file-20210603-13-z407yq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404190/original/file-20210603-13-z407yq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404190/original/file-20210603-13-z407yq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404190/original/file-20210603-13-z407yq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404190/original/file-20210603-13-z407yq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Playing tragedy for laughs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Belvoir/Brett Boardman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-picture-of-dorian-grey-review-eryn-jean-norvill-stuns-in-all-26-roles-150165">The Picture of Dorian Grey review: Eryn Jean Norvill stuns in all 26 roles</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In one of the most affecting scenes of Belvoir’s production, Rabe’s Ranevskaya confronts the young student, Petya (Priscilla Doueihy plays the traditionally male role), angry at her idealistic and unforgiving belief she might be able to rise above current circumstances. </p>
<p>The older woman demands a more forgiving attitude that accommodates the attachments of the past. And that forgiveness is forthcoming, both from the young student and the production. She — and we — understand why so many of these people want to blind themselves to the abuses of the past and attach themselves to its comforting memories. And we forgive them for it. </p>
<p>But this forgiveness doesn’t bring reconciliation. The future happens anyway, whether we dance or not. The cherry orchard still gets chopped down. </p>
<p><em><a href="https://belvoir.com.au/productions/the-cherry-orchard/">The Cherry Orchard</a> plays at Belvoir, Sydney, until 27 June.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160916/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Huw Griffiths does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When the future is clearly changing but we can’t focus on tomorrow, should we just keep dancing? Pamela Rabe anchors the absurdity of The Cherry Orchard.Huw Griffiths, Senior Lecturer in English Literature, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1607612021-05-13T01:59:41Z2021-05-13T01:59:41ZNZ Budget 2021: we need the arts to live, but artists need to earn a living<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400416/original/file-20210512-13-13js4cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=71%2C20%2C6764%2C4427&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It seems unlikely the arts will be a priority in the government’s May 20 budget. With housing affordability, climate change and child poverty all urgent issues, arts funding might not be seen as equally important.</p>
<p>I argue it is — for two main reasons: it makes economic sense, and it is also essential to our health and well-being in myriad ways. The two are, of course, interrelated.</p>
<p>Despite the wider arts sector accounting for up to 7% of the total workforce, it receives a disproportionately small proportion of overall government spending.</p>
<p>Last year, arts, culture and heritage were given just 0.33% of the total <a href="https://www.treasury.govt.nz/publications/budgets/budget-2020">2020 Budget and COVID-19 Recovery</a> package (NZ$374 million out of $112.1 billion). This was an increase on previous years, but still miniscule compared with other sectors.</p>
<p>And yet the performing arts alone <a href="https://mch.govt.nz/what-we-do/cultural-sector-overviews">contributed $2.3 billion</a> to the economy in 2018. According to the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, the sector “matched or outpaced other sectors of the economy in terms of income, employment and value added”.</p>
<p>Furthermore, New Zealanders participate in cultural activities <a href="https://www.stats.govt.nz/reports/kiwis-participation-in-cultural-and-recreational-activities">at least as much</a> as in sports and other recreations. For Māori, arts and culture overshadow sports and other leisure activities.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1392345047992049664"}"></div></p>
<h2>The myth of suffering for your art</h2>
<p>Still, the arts struggle to secure continued long-term funding. For example, a scheme such as the <a href="https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/recognising-importance-our-arts-culture-and-heritage">Pathway to Arts and Culture</a>, removed in 2011 by the National-led government, has not been reintroduced. But this could secure a liveable income for many working in the creative arts.</p>
<p>According to a <a href="https://www.creativenz.govt.nz/news/research-reflects-significant-challenges-of-making-a-living-as-a-creative-professional-in-aotearoa">2019 survey</a> by Creative New Zealand, the average annual income of freelance creative artists was just $15,000. Without greater support and investment, artists will continue to be some of the country’s lowest earners.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-new-zealand-can-radically-reform-its-health-system-why-not-do-the-same-for-welfare-160247">If New Zealand can radically reform its health system, why not do the same for welfare?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Some people will be unsympathetic. There are persistent myths about the creative arts – that it is not “real work” and that artists must “suffer for their art” – that contribute to negative perceptions of the sector.</p>
<p>But these notions are just that – myths. There is no evidence creativity requires practitioners to suffer, that it is part and parcel of being creative. We know the arts can <a href="https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/blog/how-arts-can-help-improve-your-mental-health">improve mental health</a>, but working in poverty as an artist can do quite <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/world-mental-health-day-tortured-artist-dangerous-myth-pain-art-depression-suicide-a8576971.html">the opposite</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1390457160287543299"}"></div></p>
<h2>Understanding the place of art in society</h2>
<p>In my role as a parent, educator and arts practitioner, however, I often hear those myths expressed — that those working in the sector are not contributing to society in any meaningful or useful way, that they should “get a real job”.</p>
<p>These views are reinforced in many ways. The creative arts are not compulsory at all secondary schools, and anecdotal evidence suggests guidance counsellors often steer students away from careers in the arts.</p>
<p>All this suggests overly narrow definitions are at work. I define the creative arts as including any discipline – from writing to fine arts to film and television production – that exists in community, educational and professional contexts.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/has-the-government-rescued-the-arts-in-this-budget-there-are-some-winners-but-not-much-has-changed-160195">Has the government rescued the arts in this budget? There are some winners but not much has changed</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>If our appetites for <a href="https://thinktv.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Netflix-and-TV_Fast-Facts-002.pdf">Netflix</a> and <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1220754/new-zealand-spotify-monthly-downloads/">Spotify</a> are anything to go by, we turn to the creative arts every day. They are a fundamental part of our lives, identities and ways of seeing the world.</p>
<p>We could learn from Te Ao Māori (the Māori world) where everything is interconnected and the creative arts are integral, not just “cultural relief” to ease our daily toils as workers or part of a temporary COVID recovery package.</p>
<p>In Te Ao Māori the arts help communicate who we are, our spirituality, our well-being and our whakapapa. They are an essential part of our tikanga that we use to navigate existing together as whanau, communities, iwi and hapū.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Jacinda Ardern meeting the cast of Mary Poppins on stage" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400417/original/file-20210512-15-15cf15f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400417/original/file-20210512-15-15cf15f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400417/original/file-20210512-15-15cf15f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400417/original/file-20210512-15-15cf15f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400417/original/file-20210512-15-15cf15f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400417/original/file-20210512-15-15cf15f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400417/original/file-20210512-15-15cf15f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The arts are integral: Prime Minister and Associate Arts Minister Jacinda Ardern meets the cast of Mary Poppins in Auckland during the 2020 election campaign.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">GettyImages</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>We need the arts more than ever</h2>
<p>It’s not that the government doesn’t acknowledge the role of the arts in the nation’s health and well-being. Prime Minister and Associate Minister for Arts Jacinda Ardern has spoken and <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/pm-jacinda-ardern-why-i-want-arts-and-culture-integrated-into-all-areas-of-nz-society/RX67ZXPXUKXQG4AM5M6J3W6VRE/">written</a> publicly about this on several occasions. </p>
<p>The government has also used temporary support packages to help arts organisations and professionals through the pandemic. However, there have been no significant long-term funding increases for arts practitioners, nor for arts education, and most COVID grants are limited to building commercial capacity.</p>
<p>What to do? The government needs to consult with practitioners, researchers and experts across all genres of arts practice to determine how and where to invest for the best returns, and how to build a sustainable life as an artist.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/artists-welfare-why-its-time-to-act-100736">Artists' welfare: why it's time to act</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>For too long arts practitioners have been told what they need by central and local government and arts managers, or asked repeatedly to prove the value of what they do. As my colleague Molly Mullen has <a href="https://artsaccess.org.nz/do-we-really-need-more-research-on-arts-benefits">argued</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What is needed in Aotearoa is not another blunt impact assessment tool, but an informed, critical conversation about what resources, support, tools and knowledge are needed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>With current existential crises such as COVID-19, climate change, growing inequality, housing security and populist politics, we need the creative arts more than ever to make sense of the world and how to live in it.</p>
<p>Now is the time for our government to show the value it places on that vital function.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160761/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Harvey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Investment in the arts is also an investment in economic growth, health and well-being – but arts practitioners won’t be holding their breath at budget time.Mark Harvey, Senior Lecturer in Creative Arts, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata RauLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1489402020-11-02T14:50:03Z2020-11-02T14:50:03ZGhana’s politics has strong ties with performing arts. This is how it started<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366847/original/file-20201101-15-13x5wrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Tempos band were known for their political songs</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">JCollins-BAPMAF Archives</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Towards the end of the Kwame Nkrumah era in 1966, a number of highlife artists wrote songs critical of him as Ghana’s president. But during the period leading up to independence in 1957 and the early years of independence, most Ghanaian popular artists and entertainers wholeheartedly backed Nkrumah and his Convention People’s Party. </p>
<p>It is on this support by local popular artists for the independence struggle, as well as Nkrumah’s Pan African and “African Personality” ideals, that this article focuses. </p>
<p>In the late 1940s and early 1950s, “concert party” popular theatre groups staged pro-Nkrumah plays. Among them were the Axim Trio and Bob Ansah’s. Bob Vans actually changed the name of his Burma Trio concert party to the Ghana Trio in 1948. This was nine years before “Ghana” became the country’s official name. </p>
<p>In 1952 the guitarist E.K. Nyame formed his Akan Trio concert party, which for the first time fully integrated guitar band highlife into the concert dramas and performed exclusively in the vernacular. His motives were partly political. As he once told me, he wanted to get away from the “colonial ideology and British mind”. </p>
<p>E.K. Nyame’s guitar band also wrote and released on record 40 highlifes in support of Nkrumah. </p>
<p>Some of the other highlife guitar bands that supported Nkrumah were those of Kwaa Mensah, I.E. Mason, the Fanti Stars, Bob Cole, Yaw Adjei and Otoo Larte. </p>
<p>Moreover, the highlife influenced Ewe borborbor drum and dance music created in the Kpandu area around 1950 became so closely identified with his political party that this neo-traditional recreational music became known as “Nkrumah’s own borborbor”.</p>
<p>The more urbanised and prestigious highlife dance bands also supported Nkrumah: like Broadway, Squire Addo’s London Rhythm Band, the Modernaires, the Red Spots, Joe Kelly’s band and E.T. Mensah’s Tempos, which played at Convention People’s Party rallies and released records like <em>Kwame Nkrumah</em>, <em>General Election</em> and <em>Ghana Freedom Highlife</em>. </p>
<p>Not only did the Tempos record pro-Convention People’s Party highlifes, but the band’s brilliant blend of highlife and jazz, as well as its use of sophisticated up-to-date imported instruments to play African songs, became the sound-symbol or zeitgeist (“spirit of the age”) for the early optimistic independence era.</p>
<h2>Nkrumah’s quid pro quo</h2>
<p>Nkrumah recognised the vital role of local popular entertainment in the independence struggle and the creation of an African identity. This led him to endorse numerous state and parastatal highlife bands and concert parties. These included the Cocoa Marketing Board, Black Star Shipping Line, State Hotels, Armed Forces, the Workers Brigade and the Farmers Council. </p>
<p>The coup in 1966 led to some interesting dynamics. One was that the military National Liberation Council that overthrew Nkrumah showed it understood the power wielded by the popular artists. This was demonstrated by the case of Ajax Bukana. A Nigerian musician and comedian, he came to Ghana in 1952 and literally became Nkrumah’s personal “court jester”. As a result of his close association with Nkrumah, Bukana was briefly imprisoned by the police criminal investigation department immediately after the 1966 coup. </p>
<p>Indeed the link between popular artists and Nkrumah was so strong that after the anti-Nkrumah coup the new government not only dissolved the two entertainment unions but also put a three week ban on the movement of touring concert parties. </p>
<h2>Other reasons for Nkrumah’s support</h2>
<p>Besides the active role of highlife bands and concert parties in Ghana’s independence struggle there were a number of other reasons why Nkrumah supported the popular performance as a third prong of his national performing arts policy. </p>
<p>Firstly, as Ghana’s independence movement was spearheaded by the mass Convention Ppeople’s Party, it is not surprising that the popular music and drama of the masses was also drawn into the struggle. Indeed the so-called “veranda boys” from whom Nkrumah drew so much of his backing were of the same “intermediate” class from which most Ghanaian (and other African) popular musicians and actors were drawn. These “intermediates” were neither elite nor peasant, but cash-crop farmers and newly urbanised Africans who performed semi-skilled work. In short the same rural and urban masses that the Convention People’s Party drew its main support from. </p>
<p>Yet another reason for Nkrumah’s endorsement of the popular arts is that, compared to ethnic based traditional music, highlife music and the concert party were “non-tribal” art forms popular throughout Ghana. For instance, although the text of highlife songs and concert party dramas was mainly in the Akan and Ga languages, the Ewe, Hausa and Pidgin English languages were also sometimes used. Local popular dance music and drama therefore provided an artistic lingua franca suitable for Nkrumah’s trans-ethnic nation building policy for polyglot Ghana. </p>
<p>Yet another was the pro-Convention People’s Party concert musician and actor Bob Cole, who in 1961 wrote a song that lamented the assassination of Nkrumah’s Congolese colleague Patrice Lumumba. Other pan-African highlife themes are found in some of the releases of E.K. Nyame, Otoo Larte, the Builder Brigade band, S.S. Ahima, the Ramblers, Broadway – and the Uhuru dance band which derives its name from the East African Swahili word for “freedom”. </p>
<p>Several highlife bands accompanied Nkrumah and represented Ghana at Pan African and international events. One particular case was that of the Tempos, who visited Guinea just after its independence in 1958 when, as E.T. Mensah told me, he was gifted money by President Sekou Touré. At that time Ghanaians were particularly popular in Guinea, as the country had received a substantial loan from Nkrumah to overcome its initial problems at independence. The French colonial government had sabotaged the new nation’s infrastructure before quitting.</p>
<p>On this theme of pan-Africanism it should also be noted that Ghanaian highlife music is not only “non-tribal”, it has some roots and extensions in other West African countries (particularly Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria). Indeed during the 1950s highlife music spread throughout sub-Saharan Africa.</p>
<p>In short, highlife not only provided Nkrumah with a readymade artistic vehicle that projected trans-ethnic national aspirations, but also became a Pan African artistic idiom that symbolised the birth of sub-Saharan Africa’s first modern independent nation. </p>
<p>_
<em>This material was culled from Professor John Collins’ work ‘Nkrumah and Highlife’. New Legon Observer, Ghana, vol. 2, no. 7, pp. 5-7</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148940/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Edmund John Collins does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ghana’s history shows a strong connection between music and politics that has evolved over six decades.Edmund John Collins, Professor, Department of Music, University of GhanaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1460682020-09-15T20:24:33Z2020-09-15T20:24:33Z4 lessons from the NBA bubble for the future of live arts performance<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358143/original/file-20200915-20-43zzwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C6%2C4377%2C2632&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Toronto Raptors' Norman Powell goes up for a shot with Boston Celtics' Kemba Walker in tow during an NBA conference semifinal playoff game, Sept. 11, 2020, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>“I’m so glad I saw it live!” </p>
<p>That’s what I said after the nerve-wracking Game 6 of the NBA Eastern Conference Playoff Series between the Toronto Raptors and Boston Celtics that I watched with socially distanced fans at a drive-in parking lot in Toronto. </p>
<p>The Raptors’ <a href="https://www.tsn.ca/toronto-raptors-outlast-boston-celtics-in-double-overtime-thriller-to-force-game-7-1.1521877">125-122 win at the end of two (two!) overtime periods was an instant classic.</a> </p>
<p>From within our respective cars, the shared excitement felt a lot like being back in Scotiabank Arena. Of course, I didn’t see the game “live.” But for a brief moment there was a palpable feeling of <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-the-north-the-toronto-raptors-playoff-success-represents-a-shift-in-canadian-identity-117962">“we” back in “We the North.</a>” </p>
<p>It’s been six months since COVID-19 emerged in North America, causing theatres to close. In the United States, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the now-familiar director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, recently predicted that <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CE7tWzinTI8">theatres may remain closed until a year after a vaccine is discovered</a>. Artists and arts organizations are asking: What is the future of live performance? The <a href="https://www.nba.com/article/2020/07/22/new-look-new-nba-game-experience">NBA’s #WholeNewGame</a> may provide important lessons for performing artists and their organizations. </p>
<h2>Sports: Much in common with the arts</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A basketball player shooting the ball." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358208/original/file-20200915-18-1ydpwx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358208/original/file-20200915-18-1ydpwx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358208/original/file-20200915-18-1ydpwx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358208/original/file-20200915-18-1ydpwx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358208/original/file-20200915-18-1ydpwx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1239&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358208/original/file-20200915-18-1ydpwx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1239&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358208/original/file-20200915-18-1ydpwx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1239&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart shoots during Game 6 of the Raptors-Celtics semifinal playoffs, Sept. 9, 2020, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Decades of researching performance — and watching basketball — have taught me how much sports have in common with the arts: dedicated showings (game times), specific costumes (uniforms) and established conventions for both performer and audience behaviours. </p>
<p>One can point to any number of rivalries to see how professional sports blurs into drama. (As Raptor Norman Powell and Celtic Marcus Smart shouted at one another at the end of Game 6, an announcer remarked, “<a href="https://clutchpoints.com/nba-video-marcus-smart-norman-powell-jawing-at-each-other-nearly-causes-mosh-pit-celtics-raptors-game-6">This is great theatre!</a>”). </p>
<p>Theatre artists have often admired and emulated popular sports. German <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zwmvd2p/revision/1">playwright Bertolt Brecht</a> <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780809005420">thought theatre should work like a boxing match</a>. British <a href="http://www.roh.org.uk/people/sarah-kane">playwright Sarah Kane</a> envied sports’ unpredictability, saying: “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/jan/12/sarah-kane-theatre-football-blasted">I’ve never left a football match early, because you never know when a miracle might occur</a>.” </p>
<p>Beyond sports fans, arts and entertainment enthusiasts miss <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-has-dimmed-the-lights-on-live-entertainment-what-now-for-event-managers-134374">attending public performances and wonder how they will evolve</a>. As someone who enjoys both basketball and theatre, I’ve watched carefully as the NBA re-opened its season.</p>
<h2>Weird, wonderful NBA bubble theatre</h2>
<p>Fans like me have followed with some degree of awe and fascination the details of the NBA bubble — a zone <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/29697975/the-nba-had-positive-test-bubble-guests-concern">for 22 teams on a campus at the Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Fla.</a>.</p>
<p>The achievements of the enterprise became evident as the playoff games got underway. The bubble games blended theatre and sports to create a hybrid performance space that offered a great “live” experience while protecting performers and audiences. Curtains and video screens masked empty seats in the auditorium. Digital logos and ads, lighting effects on the court and amplified soundtracks with music, sound effects and fan noises mimicked the feel of live games both for the players and those watching at home. </p>
<p>The league also created “<a href="https://www.nba.com/article/2020/08/10/virtual-fans-help-restart-atmosphere">virtual fans,” people who could log onto a designated site and appear as a composite “crowd</a>” on the courtside screens. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1302779173157572609"}"></div></p>
<p>Due to the NBA’s excellent stagecraft, bubble games have felt a lot like watching games before COVID-19 closed arenas. Here are four lessons the arts can take away from the basketball bubble.</p>
<h2>1. The future is hybrid</h2>
<p>Theatre and media are often seen as competitors. Early filmmakers distinguished their new art form by rejecting theatricality. </p>
<p>Film artist Hans Richter described <a href="https://www.press.umich.edu/8532648/performance_and_media">theatre as a “contaminant” of film, yet today theatre and film are closer than ever</a>. Just ask anyone who has <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1125194">seen a Broadway stage version of a popular film</a> or the <a href="https://www.disneyplus.com/en-gb/movies/hamilton/3uPmBHWlO6HJ">film version of a popular show</a>. </p>
<p>The NBA used theatricality to replicate the essence of a live game — fans cheering, sound effects, music — and gave viewers the opportunity to be visible to both the players and to themselves in the live performance space. As performing arts venues make decisions about the future, creating hybrid events that include virtual presence and audience recognition will be important for developing investment in their work.</p>
<h2>2. Audience investment matters</h2>
<p>What Brecht and Kane envied among sports audiences wasn’t just their enthusiasm, but their deep and often emotional investment in the stakes of the game as something bigger and more important than the game itself. The <a href="https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2020/8/26/21403189/nba-boycott-player-strike-milwaukee-bucks-lakers-george-hill">NBA players</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/nba-playoffs-to-resume-after-boycott-over-jacob-blake-police-shooting-145150">became involved with the Black Lives Matter movement</a> and used their games as a platform for social justice.</p>
<p>This engagement was as integral to the sense of audience investment as the digital tools. How artists, like professional athletes, communicate the stakes of their work to dispersed audiences and give them meaningful opportunities to shape hybrid performance and its larger impact will be crucial.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358153/original/file-20200915-14-1shv56y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358153/original/file-20200915-14-1shv56y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358153/original/file-20200915-14-1shv56y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358153/original/file-20200915-14-1shv56y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358153/original/file-20200915-14-1shv56y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358153/original/file-20200915-14-1shv56y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358153/original/file-20200915-14-1shv56y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Los Angeles Clippers pay tribute to the Black Lives Matter movement prior to their NBA first round playoff game against the Dallas Mavericks on Aug. 30, 2020, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ashley Landis)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. Media is mobile</h2>
<p>As sports photographers know, the essence of any basketball game is movement. Memorable moments are replayed from many angles, circulating now on both TVs and mobile phones. </p>
<p>Creating both diverse social media perspectives and dynamic visuals is part of the successful formula. International <a href="https://www.blasttheory.co.uk">companies like the United Kingdom’s Blast Theory</a> have been experimenting with mobile device performances for over 20 years. </p>
<p>Live arts will need to innovate not only by using current social media platforms, but also by building novel and distinctive ones that capture the aesthetic and social dimensions of performances in motion. </p>
<h2>4. It’s better together</h2>
<p>The pleasure of the drive-in game — like <a href="https://www.driveinmovie.com/Canada">drive-in movie theatres across Canada</a> — isn’t about seeing the game on a larger screen, it’s about experiencing the game as part of an energetic, focused and horn-honking crowd. </p>
<p>Many speculate about <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/theatre-and-performance/article-will-canadian-audiences-return-to-the-theatre-this-fall-in-quebec">when audiences will return to theatres</a>, but both theatregoers and sports fans know the difference between sitting in a packed arena and an empty house. Even in a neighbourhood sports bar, the shared experience of a televised game can be worth the cost of over-priced beer. Theatres of the future will similarly facilitate audience connections with each other before and after the live event.</p>
<p>It’s likely that health and safety will remain challenges for live sports and the performing arts for years. But whereas a basketball game requires 10 people on the court, artistic performances can be staged in many ways: from <a href="https://www.folda.ca/event/podplays-2020-theatre-to-the-power-of-one">one-person shows</a> to <a href="https://www.foxla.com/news/see-saws-at-the-u-s-mexico-border-connects-two-nations-with-joy-and-excitement">art installations across borders</a> to <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-08-08/covid-live-theater-outdoor-godspell-berkshire">performers separated by Plexiglas partitions</a>. </p>
<p>Theatre, dance and music can do more than just adapt to current constraints; they can create new productions that rewrite the rules. The NBA has successfully learned how to put on a great digital show. Now, theatres can learn from this success to enhance and sustain the future of the performing arts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146068/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Bay-Cheng is Dean of the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design at York University. </span></em></p>The successes of the NBA’s #WholeNewGame provide important lessons for performing artists about audience investment and hybrid digital-live events.Sarah Bay-Cheng, Dean of the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design and Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1454612020-09-08T04:15:54Z2020-09-08T04:15:54ZAs COVID wreaks havoc in the performing arts, do we still need a national opera company?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356672/original/file-20200907-111007-1k057zp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Opera singer Natalie Aroyan poses for a photograph ahead of the 2020 season launch of Opera Australia's Attila in Sydney last year. Performances were cancelled due to COVID-19 in March this year.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bianca De Marchi/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Anyone looking for evidence of just how devastating the COVID-19 pandemic has been to Australia’s performing arts industry need look no further than its flagship company, Opera Australia.</p>
<p>Only last year it was <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/opera/opera-australia-coffers-swelled-by-45m-in-bequests-20190502-h1e0tk.html">boasting an operating surplus</a>. Last month, however, Chief Executive Rory Jeffes announced an organisational restructure, which <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/opera/opera-australia-to-be-taken-to-fair-work-over-redundancies-20200903-p55s4p.html">the industry union claims could result in up to 25% of permanent staff</a> losing their jobs. </p>
<p>The aim of this restructure, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/opera/opera-australia-sells-up-to-stem-losses-caused-by-pandemic-20200821-p55o7j.html">employees were told</a>, was to better align the organisation to the changing environment of COVID-19 with a new operating model. But what, exactly, should that model be? </p>
<p>Certainly, redundancies were inevitable. Jeffes had already called <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/link/follow-20170101-p55gof">an abrupt end to the company’s 2020 season</a>. Even where governments have allowed entertainment venues slowly to reopen, the economics of “socially distanced” opera going simply do not support the budget models of old.</p>
<p>The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, however, has described the proposed changes as “<a href="https://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/news/union-dubs-opera-australia-redundancies-a-disgrace/">a disgrace</a>”, citing a lack of staff consultation among other grievances. In response, <a href="https://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/news/union-dubs-opera-australia-redundancies-a-disgrace/">a spokesperson for Opera Australia </a> said last week the 25% figure refers to administration staff only, and consultations are happening with employees in the rest of the organisation.</p>
<p>The dispute, now before the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/opera/opera-australia-to-be-taken-to-fair-work-over-redundancies-20200903-p55s4p.html">Fair Work Commission</a>, will be followed with interest and concern across the industry. Opera Australia is Australia’s largest, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/does-opera-deserve-its-privileged-status-within-arts-funding-84761#:%7E:text=This%20amount%20was%20divided%20between,state%20government%20grants%20in%202016">most lavishly publicly funded</a> performing arts company and many livelihoods are at stake. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/does-opera-deserve-its-privileged-status-within-arts-funding-84761">Does opera deserve its privileged status within arts funding?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356671/original/file-20200907-111007-4tw69q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356671/original/file-20200907-111007-4tw69q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356671/original/file-20200907-111007-4tw69q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356671/original/file-20200907-111007-4tw69q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356671/original/file-20200907-111007-4tw69q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356671/original/file-20200907-111007-4tw69q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356671/original/file-20200907-111007-4tw69q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356671/original/file-20200907-111007-4tw69q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Musicians from Opera Australia at a protest rally in March.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joel Carrett/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A city artform</h2>
<p>Opera is especially exposed because it is so closely connected to the places where pandemics have the greatest impact — large cities. Opera is an urban art form par excellence. By the mid-19th century, it had become a principal medium through which burgeoning urban populations might hear and see stylised representations of their lives (albeit filtered through the lens of historical or mythic subjects). It’s not for nothing, for instance, that so many operatic heroines die of “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuberculosis_in_human_culture#Opera">consumption</a>”, a preeminently urban disease.</p>
<p>Now, however, under the shadow of COVID-19, the future of the city itself is <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/nyc-dead-forever-heres-why-james-altucher/">under question</a>; the rise of video platforms like Zoom seems to make the necessity of “being there” no longer a necessity. This idea has been refuted by others who highlight <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-i-moved-to-the-suburbs-and-lived-to-regret-it-20200904-zboer5sju5ak7ohpblbhow3q3e-story.html">the human yearning for togetherness</a>. The general manager of New York’s Metropolitan Opera, Peter Gelb, similarly has <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2020/06/28/will-streaming-be-theaters-death-or-its-savior.html">said</a> that while it may be soothing to watch opera streamed at home, it is ultimately a “one dimensional experience”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-where-is-the-great-australian-opera-96908">Friday essay: where is the Great Australian Opera?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Nevertheless, with theatres unable to return to full capacity for the indefinite future, and public funding bodies becoming strapped for cash, a return to anything like our pre-COVID operatic culture is unlikely. The current crisis does, however, offer a chance to think afresh about opera’s place (literally as well as figuratively) in our society.</p>
<p>Do we now have an opportunity, as Michael Volpe, the director of London’s Opera Holland Park, has <a>suggested</a>, “for the opera ecology to remodel itself into something that’s more cost effective and fleet of foot”?</p>
<p>Volpe calls for an “opera socialism”. What he is advocating is a return to something closer to opera’s own origins as a performance culture more directly connected to, and supported by, the local communities in which it is based. </p>
<h2>Local, not global?</h2>
<p>Until the pandemic hit, Opera Australia worked within an industry dominated by a global commerce in “star” singers, conductors, and directors, typically managed by a system of international artist agencies. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356673/original/file-20200907-18-1ila2g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356673/original/file-20200907-18-1ila2g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356673/original/file-20200907-18-1ila2g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356673/original/file-20200907-18-1ila2g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356673/original/file-20200907-18-1ila2g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356673/original/file-20200907-18-1ila2g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356673/original/file-20200907-18-1ila2g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356673/original/file-20200907-18-1ila2g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Teddy Tahu Rhodes performs during the final dress rehearsal of Opera Australia’s Il Viaggio a Reims in Sydney last year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dan Himbrechts/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Now that system is in a state of collapse. In recent weeks, two of the largest classical music agencies, the US-based <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020/08/29/business/ap-us-classical-agency-shuts.html">Columbia Artists Management</a> and the UK’s <a href="https://www.rhinegold.co.uk/classical_music/hazard-chase-ceases-trading-due-to-covid-19/">Hazard Chase</a> have announced they are shutting their doors. </p>
<p>Is it now time for us to reconsider the need for a national opera company in turn? The economic impact of Opera Australia touring main-stage productions, even just to Melbourne, puts it under significant operational stress. But it also doesn’t allow the company to develop strong local connections outside its Sydney home.</p>
<p>A fully decentralised model might, in fact, be better able to support the operatic “ecology”. Many smaller professional, semiprofessional, and amateur operatic companies already operate successfully in our major metropolitan centres with little or no public funding. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/opera-is-stuck-in-a-racist-sexist-past-while-many-in-the-audience-have-moved-on-120073">Opera is stuck in a racist, sexist past, while many in the audience have moved on</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>They are also currently much more likely than Opera Australia to mount productions of new Australian operas, or works outside the mainstream repertoire. </p>
<p>While Opera Australia’s Artistic Director Lyndon Terracini said back in 2014 that he was <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/stage/opera-must-become-more-accessible-in-order-to-survive/news-story/413b300efa92d94e7ae3e31de911dd90">“desperate to create new work that is relevant to a significant audience,”</a> he also conceded the company’s operating model does not give it the financial resources to do more than produce mostly a narrow range of traditional works, supplemented by productions of commercial musical theatre.</p>
<p>Maybe it is now time for both federal and state governments to consider focusing more on a civic based or “ground-up” institutional foundation for opera rather than sustaining a nationally based “top-down” one. </p>
<p>The 2016 <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/sites/default/files/national_opera_review_final_report.pdf">National Opera Review</a> ducked considering such a possibility. But a new <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House/Communications/Arts/Terms_of_Reference">parliamentary inquiry</a> into Australia’s creative and cultural industries and institutions is underway. Now is the opportunity for us to contemplate a new place, and indeed new places, for opera in Australia.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145461/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Tregear has performed over the years with both Victorian Opera and Melbourne Opera. He is also the co-founder of Melbourne-based IOpera.</span></em></p>Opera Australia has been hit hard by the pandemic’s economic impact. It’s time to rethink our approach to funding opera, with a focus on local companies.Peter Tregear, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1417962020-07-03T10:02:23Z2020-07-03T10:02:23ZCoronavirus: theatres are already closing – the UK government needs to act now<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345495/original/file-20200703-33909-k6j7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5751%2C3828&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">More tragedy than drama: the fate of UK theatres hangs in the balance thanks to COVID-19.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Fer Gregory via Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The executive director of Manchester’s Royal Exchange theatre, Steve Freeman, could have been speaking for the whole performing arts industry <a href="https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/manchesters-royal-exchange-theatre-enters-18523199">when he said recently</a>: “The current economic landscape is desperate for theatres up and down the country.” </p>
<p>Announcing that the theatre, which in better times has an annual turnover of more than £10 million, was entering into redundancy discussions with staff, the company forecast it might have to make as many as 65% of its permanent staff redundant.</p>
<p>Hot on the heels of that announcement came the news that Nuffield Southampton Theatres (NST) is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/jul/02/nuffield-southampton-theatres-to-permanently-close-as-uk-arts-crisis-deepens">to close permanently</a>, with the loss of 86 jobs. The theatre company, one of the leading arts institutions in the south of England, went into administration in May but no buyers have been found and administrator Greg Palfrey announced the closure on July 2.</p>
<p>As of 2014, more people go to see a London theatre show than <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/11001177/Almost-twice-as-many-people-visit-the-theatre-than-attend-Premier-League-games.html#:%7E:text=The%20analysis%20showed%20there%20are,England's%20Premier%20League%20football%20games.">attend a Premier League football match</a>. In 2018, UK theatres <a href="https://solt.co.uk/about-london-theatre/press-office/solt-and-uk-theatre-continue-to-work-with-government-to-find-solutions-for-the-theatre-industry/">generated ticket revenue of £1.28 billion</a>, employing 290,000 workers. Many of those jobs are now at risk, with an estimated 70% of theatres due to close by the end of the year without urgent financial support.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345490/original/file-20200703-29-156adbh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C0%2C2041%2C1361&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345490/original/file-20200703-29-156adbh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345490/original/file-20200703-29-156adbh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345490/original/file-20200703-29-156adbh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345490/original/file-20200703-29-156adbh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345490/original/file-20200703-29-156adbh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345490/original/file-20200703-29-156adbh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A vital part of Manchester’s arts scene.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Royal Exchange Theatre</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“We know we can’t operate as a venue while social distancing measures are still in force,” <a href="https://www.walesartsreview.org/the-future-of-theatre-in-wales/">Peter Doran</a>, the artistic director of the Torch Theatre in Milford Haven, recently told Wales Art Review. </p>
<p>“At two metres we could have about 20% of our seats available and at one metre, it’s still only about 30%, meaning it’s impossible to make it work financially; so unless there is a big change in the thinking around social distancing, we probably won’t be able to operate for a while.”</p>
<p>On June 25, I attended a “townhall meeting” held by Wales’s largest producing theatres and companies via Zoom for theatre freelancers. Here, the artistic directors of <a href="https://www.theatrclwyd.com/">Theatr Clwyd</a>, Cardiff’s <a href="https://www.shermantheatre.co.uk/homepage/">Sherman Theatre</a> and <a href="https://www.torchtheatre.co.uk/">the Torch</a> laid out the existential crisis they faced.</p>
<p>One of the big concerns was the fate of their Christmas shows, which produce substantial income. In order to create these large-scale shows in December, theatres need to invest the money in July. </p>
<p>Should another coronavirus wave cancel these shows, such investments could cause immediate bankruptcy. This is why theatres such as the Torch and Sherman theatres have had to make the agonising decision to cancel this much-needed source of income.</p>
<p>The case for emergency support is compelling. The creative industries have been growing faster than any other sector of the economy, contributing <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uks-creative-industries-contributes-almost-13-million-to-the-uk-economy-every-hour">over £111 billion in 2018</a>. The public support underpinning that growth has been vital, enabling creative talent across all social classes to make Britain a world leader in the arts, to the benefit <a href="https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/sites/default/files/CIF_Arts_and_Growth.pdf">of the whole country</a>.</p>
<p>In 2018, theatres across the UK attracted <a href="https://www.thecreativeindustries.co.uk/industries/arts-culture/arts-culture-facts-and-figures/the-economic-contribution-of-the-arts">more than 34 million visitors</a>. In 2019, the audience in London theatres alone was 15.3 million, nearly a million higher than New York, establishing London “<a href="https://www.thecreativeindustries.co.uk/uk-creative-overview/news-and-views/news-london-is-global-theatre-capital">as the world’s leading theatre destination</a>”.</p>
<p>Theatres are also crucial to the UK’s TV and film sector. One striking example is the phenomenally successful BBC series Fleabag, whose creator, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, has since written Killing Eve and co-written for the Bond film, No Time To Die. But Fleabag <a href="https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/how-fleabag-got-made-70994/">owes its life to a ten-minute slot in a live comedy show</a> to an audience of 70. </p>
<p>From this, it grew into an hour-long Edinburgh Fringe play, produced by DryWrite Theatre, resulting in a <a href="https://www.edfringe.com/take-part/awards/theatre#:%7E:text=The%20Scotsman%20Fringe%20First%20Award,Scotland's%20national%20newspaper%2C%20the%20Scotsman.">Fringe First Award</a>, a London transfer and the BBC commission. Like Waller-Bridge, many freelancers who write and act on our screens are only able to do so by supplementing this with live theatre – and by developing their skills onstage.</p>
<p>But the benefits of a vibrant creative sector are more than economic. “Arts and culture will be needed more than ever as we re-emerge,” <a href="https://jerwoodarts.org/2017/11/13/lilli-geissendorfer-announced-new-director-jerwood-charitable-foundation/">Lilli Geissendorfer</a>, director of Jerwood Arts said. </p>
<p>“Artists, curators and producers of all kinds contribute immense joy, compassion, and meaning to our communities and are critical to alleviating the social, health and wellbeing challenges of COVID-19. They are going bust now.”</p>
<h2>Quality of life</h2>
<p>A growing body of studies reveals this positive impact of creative culture on quality of life. <a href="https://www.gov.scot/publications/healthy-attendance-impact-cultural-engagement-sports-participation-health-satisfaction-life-scotland/">One survey</a> of 10,000 respondents found that – even when allowing for age, income, area deprivation, qualifications, disability or longstanding illness – those who’d attended a cultural place or event in the previous 12 months were almost 60% more likely to report good health than those who had not. Those who had participated in a creative activity were 38% more likely to report good health.</p>
<p>Despite government intervention, many creative freelancers have no access to support because more than 50% of their income is taxed as PAYE. This disqualifies them from the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-a-grant-through-the-coronavirus-covid-19-self-employment-income-support-scheme">Self-Employment Income Support Scheme</a>, despite being on insecure short-term contracts. </p>
<p>TV presenter Jodie McCallum has <a href="https://www.change.org/p/uk-parliament-allow-paye-freelancers-to-receive-uk-government-s-covid-19-self-employed-grant?signed=true">started a petition</a> asking Downing Street to extend its support, noting that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>People that are working class aren’t going to be able to afford to survive. It’s going to affect the diversity, and it’s just devastating for these people who have worked really hard and paid their taxes to be discriminated against simply for the way that we’re taxed.“</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In Germany, the response has been dramatic. Berlin’s city council alone committed €1.4 billion of grants (£1.24 billion), while the federal government has produced a <a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/german-bailout-50-billion-1815396">€50 billion bailout package</a> for freelancers and small businesses, including artists. </p>
<p>But in the UK, with public arts spending already <a href="https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/sites/default/files/download-file/Arts_culture_Sector_exit_from_EU_NOV_16.pdf">lower than France, Germany and the EU average</a>, the country’s creative industries – including theatres – need all the support they can get.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141796/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Tim Rhys is a member of the Writers' Guild of Great Britain.</span></em></p>The theatre industry is facing an existential crisis and government action is urgently needed to ensure its survival.Tim Rhys, Lecturer, School of English, Communication and Philosophy, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1414442020-06-25T02:44:06Z2020-06-25T02:44:06ZThe arts needed a champion – it got a package to prop up the major players 100 days later<p>It is now over 100 days since the country went into lockdown as a result of COVID-19. Overnight, all arts venues had to close, and arts activities essentially ceased because of the need for social distancing. </p>
<p>On March 19, three days after the lockdown, the Federal Arts Minister Paul Fletcher <a href="https://minister.infrastructure.gov.au/fletcher/media-release/communique">convened a meeting</a> with state arts ministers to talk about the dire situation facing thousands of unemployed arts workers. </p>
<p>In late March, we waited for an announcement that the federal government would be offering targeted forms of support. We knew already that the sector provides enormous economic value to the country because the government <a href="https://www.communications.gov.au/departmental-news/economic-value-cultural-and-creative-activity">published figures</a> saying so. </p>
<p>And we waited. </p>
<p>Yet apart from <a href="https://minister.infrastructure.gov.au/fletcher/media-release/targeted-support-indigenous-arts-regional-arts-and-respected-charity-support-act">a package announced</a> in early April, of A$27 million for regional artists, indigenous visual arts organisations and mental health, the federal government announced nothing. Until now. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-25/arts-industry-to-receive-250-million-coronavirus-rescue-package/12390282">A new directed package</a>, part of the JobMaker scheme, has been allocated $250 million. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Our JobMaker plan is getting their show back on the road, to get their workers back in jobs … This package is as much about supporting the tradies who build stage sets or computer specialists who create the latest special effects, as it is about supporting actors and performers in major productions.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There is an emphasis in this statement that workers in the creative economy are not just “artistic” types, but seemingly more palatable “workers”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/government-unveils-250-million-for-creative-economy-141383">Government unveils $250 million for 'creative economy'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What’s in it for the sector?</h2>
<p>There are five aspects to the package:</p>
<ul>
<li>$75 million in competitive grant funding, providing capital for performing arts events (Seed Investment) </li>
<li>$90 million in concessional loans through commercial banks to assist new productions and events in job creation (Show Loans) </li>
<li>$50 million to support local film and television production and administered by Screen Australia (Kick Start)</li>
<li>$35 million to provide financial assistance to support significant Commonwealth-funded arts and culture organisations to be delivered by the Australia Council (Supporting Sustainability)</li>
<li>a Creative Economy Taskforce to partner with the government and the Australia Council to implement the JobMaker plan for the creative economy.</li>
</ul>
<p>This package, while clearly welcome, preferences larger events, significant arts organisations (read organisations included in the major performing arts framework) and film and television production. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1275952865941413888"}"></div></p>
<p>These packages will boost employment for artists and arts workers in the longer term. Given how the packages are described though, it is unlikely small to medium arts organisations will receive much benefit. </p>
<p>It is good the federal government has finally responded to pleas from the arts sector for help. It is disappointing it has taken so long and doesn’t acknowledge the breadth of the sector. </p>
<p>Fletcher adds in the press release that the federal government is providing $100 million per month to the arts sector through the JobKeeper program and other cash flow assistance. What this entails is hard to calculate. </p>
<p>We know many artists and arts workers have been unable to access JobKeeper. Many arts workers fell through the gaps of both schemes, given the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-says-artists-should-be-able-to-access-jobkeeper-payments-its-not-that-simple-138530">nature of employment</a> in the sector, which relies on short term contracts and often multiple sources of employment. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-says-artists-should-be-able-to-access-jobkeeper-payments-its-not-that-simple-138530">The government says artists should be able to access JobKeeper payments. It's not that simple</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>While aware of these anomalies, the government rejected a <a href="https://greensmps.org.au/articles/govt-must-do-more-australian-artists-and-creatives">move by the Greens</a> to widen eligibility for JobKeeper. </p>
<h2>State support</h2>
<p>All the states have provided <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/may/26/australias-cultural-sector-is-haemorrhaging-money-but-its-not-the-federal-government-stemming-the-flow">additional support</a> to the arts sector, but some are offering a great deal more than others. </p>
<p>Both Victoria and Queensland, and more recently New South Wales, have offered generous support to both individuals and arts organisations. Until now, South Australia and Western Australia have offered very little. </p>
<p>The Australia Council <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/may/26/australias-cultural-sector-is-haemorrhaging-money-but-its-not-the-federal-government-stemming-the-flow">redirected $5 million of its funding</a> towards special grants (of $5,000 to $10,000) for individual artists and small organisations. </p>
<p>Though these small grants are unlikely to make a massive difference overall, the council has been trying in other ways: running training webinars for artists and arts workers to upskill themselves in the digital arena. It has also been more flexible in managing its grant agreements. </p>
<p>Yet in early April 2020, the council cut funding to over 30 small-to-medium arts organisations, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/apr/06/we-are-witnessing-a-cultural-bloodbath-in-australia-that-has-been-years-in-the-making">bringing the toll</a> to more than 90 organisations cut over the past four years. </p>
<p>The ability of artists to adapt creatively to the changing situation is laudable, but they may have been too generous in this process, by <a href="https://theconversation.com/giving-it-away-for-free-why-the-performing-arts-risks-making-the-same-mistake-newspapers-did-139671">giving away</a> their talent for free. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/70AKjJOxLYY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">In March, industry leaders said $850 million in assistance was needed.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The federal government’s slow response has caused many commentators to argue it <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-politics-of-dancing-and-thinking-about-cultural-values-beyond-dollars-139839">doesn’t seem to value either arts or culture</a>. </p>
<p>Further, the <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/5676.0.55.003Main%20Features7June%202020?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=5676.0.55.003&issue=June%202020&num=&view=">latest figures from the ABS</a> note that 78% of the sector has had a major decrease in income and only around 18% of the sector is operating normally. The capacity for parts of the sector to reactivate are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2020/jun/25/the-arts-and-recreation-sector-stimulus-was-long-promised-it-is-probably-too-little-far-too-late">now bleak</a>. </p>
<h2>Don’t call it culture</h2>
<p>This latest announcement signals the government is more comfortable if the sector is framed as the “creative economy” rather than arts and culture. </p>
<p>Raising the cost of tertiary creative arts and humanities education implies the government believes they are expensive indulgences and <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-the-government-listened-to-business-leaders-they-would-encourage-humanities-education-not-pull-funds-from-it-141121">not to be taken seriously</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343893/original/file-20200625-190478-1u2f4gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343893/original/file-20200625-190478-1u2f4gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343893/original/file-20200625-190478-1u2f4gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343893/original/file-20200625-190478-1u2f4gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343893/original/file-20200625-190478-1u2f4gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343893/original/file-20200625-190478-1u2f4gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343893/original/file-20200625-190478-1u2f4gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343893/original/file-20200625-190478-1u2f4gz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Anthem, performed at the Melbourne International Arts Festival in 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pia Johnson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The devastating destruction of unique indigenous cultural heritage and the threat of further destruction by mining companies, with no formal protest from government, is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/17/culture-warriors-obsessed-with-statues-ignore-rio-tintos-vandalism-of-indigenous-heritage">another warning sign</a>.</p>
<p>The hits keep coming with job cuts at the <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/jobs-and-content-cut-in-abc-shake-up-designed-to-save-40-million">ABC</a> and the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-23/national-gallery-australia-to-cut-jobs-union-calls-for-help/12384150">National Gallery of Australia</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-politics-of-dancing-and-thinking-about-cultural-values-beyond-dollars-139839">Friday essay: the politics of dancing and thinking about cultural values beyond dollars</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Through this period of lockdown, we have all benefited by the books we could read, the music we could listen to, the exhibitions we could visit online and the films and television we could watch. </p>
<p>This work is made by artists and facilitated by arts workers. They have our support, they deserve government support too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141444/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jo Caust has received funding from the Australia Council and Arts SA previously. She is a member of the Arts Industry Council (SA) and NAVA. </span></em></p>The arts and cultural sector was plunged into crisis three months ago and pleaded for help. Now a federal rescue package has been announced – but who is it for and is it enough?Jo Caust, Associate Professor and Principal Fellow (Hon), School of Culture and Communication, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1325162020-06-18T20:05:15Z2020-06-18T20:05:15ZFriday essay: training a new generation of performers about intimacy, safety and creativity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340839/original/file-20200610-34696-tptqz6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C7%2C1755%2C978&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNjdlOWYwZjYtMmE5Mi00NGRkLTk1YmYtMGY5ODYyZjExYjkzXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTMxMTUxNDI@._V1_SX1777_CR0,0,1777,999_AL_.jpg">Normal People/IMDB</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In his surprisingly dark and often shocking account of life at a New York performing arts school, Alan Parker’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080716/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">Fame</a> (1980) exposes the way youthful exuberance and vulnerability are easy prey for those who manipulate and abuse their position. </p>
<p>The fim depicts public humiliation, shaming, racism, attempted suicide, drug abuse and homophobia. But perhaps the most horrific sequence is when aspiring actress Coco (played by Irene Cara) is preyed on by a sleazy filmmaker. She turns up for a sham screen test and is coerced into removing her blouse. </p>
<p>“You’re acting like a dumb school kid … I thought you were a professional,” the older man cajoles as he manipulates her inexperience to achieve his own ends. The film’s narrative treats such behaviours as the inevitable reality of a highly competitive and hierarchical working environment. </p>
<p>“Performers aren’t safe,” declares one of Coco’s fellow students shortly after her trauma. “We’re the pie in the face people remember.”</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/i4mkRwkQRoQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Fame exquisitely captured the vulnerability of creative students in 1980.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Forty years since Fame hit screens, in the wake of the #MeToo movement and as we <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/no-sex-please-were-skittish-film-and-television-enter-postvirus-world/news-story/3ce672203499d543e244b2543a2d2a52">emerge from COVID-19 physical distancing measures</a>, there is still more that can be done to protect those seeking to pursue careers in the performing arts. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-stand-so-close-to-me-understanding-consent-can-help-with-those-tricky-social-distancing-moments-139293">Don't stand so close to me – understanding consent can help with those tricky social distancing moments</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Harrassment and power</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/acting-unpleasantly-why-harassment-is-so-common-in-the-theatre-87374">High-profile cases</a> in the industry as well as more recent <a href="https://www.thestage.co.uk/news/2018/third-performing-arts-students-sexually-harassed-survey/">incidents</a> in the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/15/education-sector-yet-learn-lessons-metoo-critics-say">training sector</a> locate sexual harassment and exploitation within hierarchical power structures that provide a fertile breeding ground for abuse. </p>
<p>Within the context of performer training, the blurred boundaries between personal and professional modes of communication – together with a tendency to confuse the need for “professional discipline” with “passive obedience” – produces an atmosphere of uncertainty and self-doubt. Students can feel completely disempowered. </p>
<p>While abusive behaviours are by no means exclusive to the entertainment industry or performing arts education, traditional power structures and outmoded values provide a natural home for offenders.</p>
<p>According to a <a href="https://www.ism.org/images/images/Equity-ISM-MU-Dignity-in-Study-report.pdf">British Dignity in Study</a> survey conducted of 600 students at
specialist drama schools, music colleges, conservatoires,
dance colleges and universities in 2018, a staggering 57% had experienced inappropriate behaviour. And 57% of those students did not report the behaviour. </p>
<p>Some perceived it as “culturally acceptable”; others feared the perpetrator or reputational damage. Of the students who did report concerns, 48% remained dissatisfied with the outcome and 79% of this group indicated no corrective action was taken.</p>
<p>If the situation in the UK feels alarming, then that in Australia offers <a href="https://witnessperformance.com/luckily-i-had-a-breakdown-sexual-harassment-in-australian-performing-arts/">little evidence to the contrary</a>. </p>
<p>Performer Candy Bowers has written about <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/topics/voices/culture/article/2018/11/13/australian-theatre-we-have-problem">sexually abusive behaviour</a> as a student. When she reported the incident – unwanted comments about her body by an older man who then forcibly tongue-kissed her onstage without consent – her tutors urged to “get used to it, stop being so sensitive, toughen up”, and even to “take it as a compliment”.</p>
<h2>Inside the actors’ studio</h2>
<p>A number of professional organisations and training institutions have developed detailed codes to confront the issues faced, notably <a href="https://assets-us-01.kc-usercontent.com:443/89c218af-4a5a-00a2-9d83-3913048b3bc7/8aed35e5-c92c-4096-a89d-b2343c6ce0c3/1.%20Screen%20Industry%20Code%20of%20Practice.pdf">Screen Producers Australia</a>, the <a href="https://royalcourttheatre.com/code-of-behaviour/">Royal Court Theatre in the UK</a> and the <a href="http://sydney.edu.au/policies/showdoc.aspx?recnum=PDOC2018/470&RendNum=0">University of Sydney</a>. But little work has been done to develop practice-based, experiential approaches to enable and empower the most vulnerable. </p>
<p>Training institutions have tried to communicate standards via lectures, handouts, and pre-rehearsal briefing sessions. </p>
<p>Reams of detailed legal documentation or standardised presentations may reassure institutions they’ve met their duty of care obligations – but how many 18-21-year-old dancers, singers, actors or technicians will actually take the time to fully engage with or read through a litany of complex clauses or phrases, let alone understand them? </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342335/original/file-20200617-94101-17q94qr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342335/original/file-20200617-94101-17q94qr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342335/original/file-20200617-94101-17q94qr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342335/original/file-20200617-94101-17q94qr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342335/original/file-20200617-94101-17q94qr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342335/original/file-20200617-94101-17q94qr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342335/original/file-20200617-94101-17q94qr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342335/original/file-20200617-94101-17q94qr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Performing arts students have unique tools at their disposal for exploring uncomfortable terrain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMWZhYmY2ZGMtY2NmMC00OWU2LThkZmItZDZjNmViOTA3OGZmXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjc5Mjg0NjU@._V1_.jpg">Rise/IMDB</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If we are genuinely to change the pervading culture, alternative strategies are needed. These strategies should not be solely dependent on intellectual processes, but also engage physicality and the use of gesture, the senses, and emotional intelligence. Sexual harassment, objectification, bullying, humiliation, homophobia and racism are all forms of oppression to be addressed in real, not academic, terms.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/acting-unpleasantly-why-harassment-is-so-common-in-the-theatre-87374">Acting unpleasantly: why harassment is so common in the theatre</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Empowering change</h2>
<p>Acclaimed Brazilian theatre practitioner <a href="http://augustoboal-oppression.weebly.com/biography.html">Augusto Boal</a> developed forms of theatre practice to bring about social and political change. </p>
<p>Known as the <a href="http://www.actingnow.co.uk/what-is-theatre-of-the-oppressed/#:%7E:text=The%20Theatre%20of%20the%20Oppressed,the%201950'ps%20and%201960's.&text=From%20his%20work%20Boal%20evolved,thinking%2C%20action%2C%20and%20fun.">Theatre of the Oppressed</a>, the technique utilises live facilitation, imagery, dialogue and role play to empower communities and find solutions to social problems, such as homophobia. </p>
<p>Using this kind of approach to illustrate, unpick and interrogate the hierarchical structures in our training institutions – between those who have status and power (including professional practitioners, producers, teachers) and those who do not (students, technicians, supporting staff) – could prove vital in moving us forward. </p>
<p>And we can do it with what we do best. Performance has momentum. Using the medium to speak with those who are training in the performing arts could provide the platform from which to initiate change.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qTA1b4rlTXI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Theatre of the Oppressed tackles homophobia.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At Edith Cowan University’s Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), we are currently in discussion with the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) to look at developing experiential, practice-based approaches to #MeToo training for performing arts students. </p>
<p>Those who deliver training at WAAPA will complete #MeToo and intimacy training. Interactive role-play and assertiveness coaching will build emotional intelligence and develop confidence in transactional communication. By “acting out” scenarios of harassment, coercion, or sexism we can experience their impact, test practical responses and make explicit what is not acceptable. </p>
<p>These steps will impart agency to young performers, but also help ensure their safety and welfare. Training that is genuinely creative and empowering liberates self-belief and the confidence to speak. </p>
<p>Instead of assuming that performing arts students are innately possessed of such qualities, we need to think about imparting them from the moment they arrive. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/y7XkD9d5sY0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Drama students at York University discuss intimacy choreography and score the intensity of intimacy scenes and actions.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Action on set</h2>
<p>The training sector must embrace the important role of the <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/intimacy-directors-choreograph-sex-scenes_n_5b0d87dae4b0fdb2aa574564">intimacy director</a>. Like fight directors, choreographers or stunt co-ordinators, this role focuses on the need to remove risk and ensure the highest possible standards of safety on film and theatre sets as well as in the TV studio. </p>
<p>Excellent work is being done in this area by organisations such as <a href="https://www.intimacyonset.com/">Intimacy on Set</a> which offers a range of training packages as well as advice on ensuring safe working practices and protocols. </p>
<p>Ita O’Brien, the organisation’s founder, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-03/normal-people-game-thrones-sex-violence-ethics-film-tv/12205914">stresses</a> the importance of establishing a safe working environment: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>An injury can go from purely physical, to emotional and psychological – when someone’s body has been handled and touched in a way that is not suitable for that person … intimacy coordination work is about everybody being in agreement and consent … and about absolutely every detail serving character, serving story telling. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Referring to <a href="https://www.vogue.co.uk/arts-and-lifestyle/article/how-do-sex-scenes-work">her work as Intimacy Coordinator</a> on the BBC/Hulu adaptation of Sally Rooney’s award winning novel, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p089g8rs">Normal People</a>, O’Brien points to the vulnerability of the drama’s young leading actors (Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal) and offers an insight into how she approached early rehearsals. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Actors want to give their best. They want to say yes, but we had to create an atmosphere where they didn’t just say yes because they felt like they needed to …Everyone had the novel, so they knew what was required, but were they happy with it? </p>
<p>In my first rehearsal with director Lenny Abrahamson, and leading actors Daisy and Paul, I gave a presentation and showed all of them our intimacy guidelines. Then we worked on a scene that felt like a body dance. When we were done, everybody left knowing that everything would be handled in a professional way.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Locally, actor Michala Banas is working behind the scenes at Melbourne Theatre Company <a href="https://www.mtc.com.au/discover-more/mtc-now-2020/the-intimate-details/#:%7E:text=Netflix%2C%20Amazon%20and%20the%20BBC,acknowledged%20leader%20in%20the%20field.">as an intimacy coordinator</a> and cites O'Brien as a mentor. </p>
<p>If we are to guarantee the physical, emotional and psychological safety of our students during rehearsals and performances, then the guidance of an Intimacy Director is no longer an optional extra, but an absolute necessity.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZTPJrhtxuQc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Intimacy coordinator Ita O'Brien conducted workshops with actors in Australia last year.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Safe space</h2>
<p>Fear for our safety or for those around us can only ever be negative and destructive. </p>
<p>In the performing arts, we require those whom we train to be imaginative, courageous and sensitive. We ask them on a daily basis to take risks, to be experimental, to make new discoveries and to trust in the collective power of the ensemble. </p>
<p>Ensuring the establishment of clear and unambiguous boundaries between the personal and professional, together with a working environment that respects the rights of the individual can only ever liberate the work. The right to liberty and security of person is a <a href="https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/">universally declared human right</a>. The right to resist, openly challenge and report inappropriate or abusive behaviour in the workplace is not a favour that is bestowed upon us by tutors or institutions.</p>
<p>A safe space does not exclude the ardours of rigour and tenacity or even the quest for virtuosity and eminence. Moreover, it does not stifle creativity or artistic freedom. How could it? On the contrary, the freedom, security and trust that a genuinely safe space engenders makes the pursuit of performance excellence tangible and achievable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132516/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Shirley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Forty years since Fame showed the vulnerability of performing arts students, we can still do more to protect them. As we resume physical contact, we can use performance to renegotiate safe intimacy.David Shirley, Edith Cowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1396712020-06-03T20:09:44Z2020-06-03T20:09:44ZGiving it away for free – why the performing arts risks making the same mistake newspapers did<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339077/original/file-20200602-95024-12mltta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C130%2C1916%2C1493&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sydney Chamber Opera's Breaking Glass online performance from Carriageworks. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel Boud</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There’s a long-running adage about working for free in the performing arts. “The problem with working for exposure,” it goes, “is you can die from exposure”.</p>
<p>Only partly a joke, the saying is also a sober warning to performers. Work in the cultural industries is precarious, and performers rely on a combination of short-term gigs, casual contracts, and “day jobs” to make ends meet. Unpaid work is a common feature of the market, and performers often find themselves working without remuneration in order to make connections or add a line to their resume.</p>
<p>COVID-19 has exposed the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-says-artists-should-be-able-to-access-jobkeeper-payments-its-not-that-simple-138530">true insecurity of the cultural workforce</a>, and now we’re seeing the double-edged sword of “exposure” also extending to arts organisations. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-says-artists-should-be-able-to-access-jobkeeper-payments-its-not-that-simple-138530">The government says artists should be able to access JobKeeper payments. It's not that simple</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>All the web’s a stage</h2>
<p>Since March 2020, there has been a <a href="https://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/on-with-the-show/">worldwide influx</a> of digital arts content. Forced to shutter live seasons, performing arts organisations collectively jumped on the digital bandwagon. From live-streaming events to archival production footage, audiences are inundated with virtual performance events. </p>
<p>In most cases, this content has been offered for free. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Opera Australia, New York’s The Metropolitan Opera, and the UK’s National Theatre, among many others, have streamed live or prerecorded performances on digital platforms for no charge. </p>
<p>Companies without access to archival footage have posted free offerings of different kinds. The Melbourne Theatre Company, for example, has posted behind-the-scenes features, play readings, and artist interviews.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339076/original/file-20200602-95065-1xqzgqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339076/original/file-20200602-95065-1xqzgqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339076/original/file-20200602-95065-1xqzgqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339076/original/file-20200602-95065-1xqzgqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339076/original/file-20200602-95065-1xqzgqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339076/original/file-20200602-95065-1xqzgqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339076/original/file-20200602-95065-1xqzgqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339076/original/file-20200602-95065-1xqzgqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Australian Chamber Orchestra has announced a new digital season commemorating 30 years of artistic direction under Richard Tognetti.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ACO</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the beginning of the shutdown, digital platforms were a critical tool for audience engagement. Arts organisations could communicate the importance of the arts as a source of comfort and inspiration during a time of crisis, while simultaneously reaching <a href="https://www.thestage.co.uk/news/tens-of-millions-watching-streamed-theatre-shows-worldwide">a far wider audience</a> than their physical spaces could ever hold.</p>
<p>But it’s increasingly clear the <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/culture/theatre/let-us-open-our-theatres-companies-ask-government-20200602-p54ysp.html">return to live performance</a> may be a matter of months or even years.</p>
<p>For starters, safety is a major concern. A number of genres, including opera and musical theatre, pose particular risks to both performers and audience members due to <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-song-in-your-heart-shouldnt-lead-to-an-infection-in-your-lungs-reasons-to-get-with-online-choirs-137705">singers’ potential role as super-spreaders</a>. The risks posed by, and to, dancers, instrumentalists, and spoken theatre artists remains uncertain. </p>
<p>From a business perspective, financial viability is also of grave concern. Under social distancing guidelines, performing arts venues will be limited <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/may/29/theatre-post-lockdown-spaced-seating-berliner-ensemble-germany">to a fraction </a> of their standard audience capacity. In a sector reliant on box office sales to maintain the bottom line, theatres may find it cheaper to simply <a href="https://www.gramilano.com/2020/05/la-scala-would-lose-e50000-a-day-if-it-reopened/">stay closed</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CAxj0LKDYWX","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/home-of-the-arts-inside-an-arts-centre-keeping-body-and-soul-together-138801">Home of the Arts – inside an arts centre keeping body and soul together</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A problematic precedent</h2>
<p>In this climate, digital content may be the only means for sustaining the sector in the medium-term. But a problematic precedent has been set. </p>
<p>In the initial panic of moving their artistic offerings online, companies have undervalued their own product. In this regard, we can see clear parallels with the newspaper industry’s shift to online platforms over the last decade. After initially offering online news for free, the industry is still struggling to shift consumer expectations, <a href="https://theconversation.com/digital-only-local-newspapers-will-struggle-to-serve-the-communities-that-need-them-most-139649">with major repercussions</a> for both journalists and papers.</p>
<p>To survive, arts organisations must establish a monetised business strategy for online performances and presentations. But this shift must be navigated carefully, particularly by companies that began with an open-access model and now risk alienating audience members.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339075/original/file-20200602-95009-irxmuf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339075/original/file-20200602-95009-irxmuf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339075/original/file-20200602-95009-irxmuf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339075/original/file-20200602-95009-irxmuf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339075/original/file-20200602-95009-irxmuf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339075/original/file-20200602-95009-irxmuf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339075/original/file-20200602-95009-irxmuf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339075/original/file-20200602-95009-irxmuf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Claire Foy and Matt Smith will perform a socially distanced version of Lungs at London’s Old Vic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://twitter.com/i/events/1266034423419539456">Twitter/The Old Vic</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Several arts organisations have already experimented with different ways of monetising digital content. In the UK, the Old Vic theatre is live-streaming a socially distanced version of <a href="https://www.oldvictheatre.com/whats-on/2020/lungs-in-camera">Lungs</a> for £10-65 (A$18-120) per “ticket”. In Australia, the <a href="https://melbournedigitalconcerthall.com/">Melbourne Digital Concert Hall</a> is producing virtual concerts for a paid audience, with all ticket proceeds going to the performers. </p>
<p>Many companies, like New Zealand’s <a href="https://www.tempo.co.nz/">Tempo Dance Festival</a>, are making shows available online but asking for donations. <a href="https://www.redlineproductions.com.au/">Red Line Productions</a>’ online readings have featured marquee names like Alec Baldwin and Rose Byrne, and also asked for donations. Based out of New York, <a href="https://marathon2020.bangonacan.org/">Bang on a Can</a>’s June marathon promises six hours of streamed live music with a request to “consider” purchasing a ticket or paying extra to commission a new piece. But voluntary contributions can’t sustain the operating costs of these companies long term.</p>
<p>Depending on how various models develop, there will be unavoidable impacts on performers. At present, there are no standardised rates for artist compensation for digital work, whether participating in a prerecorded performance or generating new content for a company to post online. </p>
<p>We’ve already seen how artists’ passion for their craft can be exploited for a cause. The Metropolitan Opera cancelled contracts for its principal singers and union orchestra and chorus in March 2020, only to have them perform for free as part of the company’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/arts/music/met-opera-at-home-gala.html">digital fundraising gala a month later</a>. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra similarly stood down its instrumentalists in April 2020 but has since asked them to participate in <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/culture/music/musicians-say-breakdown-with-mso-management-irreparable-20200529-p54xqi.html">social media marketing campaigns without pay</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/B-4FgISnCXA","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/there-is-no-easy-path-out-of-coronavirus-for-live-classical-music-138207">There is no easy path out of coronavirus for live classical music</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Bottom line</h2>
<p>While involvement in promotional activities is standard practice for contracted artists, it’s impossible to ignore the problematic power dynamic now at play. Companies are asking unemployed artists to provide free labour to support organisations that may or may not employ them in the future. And because performers love what they do and want to support the struggling sector, they agree. </p>
<p>While there are <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/arts-fund-the-show-must-go-on/news-story/9e6e2fa745bc0ffc82f00e510d8c29b1">reports</a> the government is working on an arts rescue package, the message being sent is one the sector has heard time and again. The arts are important, and artists should be compensated … but only when it’s financially convenient. </p>
<p>Arts organisations cannot survive from digital exposure and goodwill alone. They must develop new business models for online platforms. But companies must also tread carefully to ensure they don’t ultimately undermine the value of the arts – or their artists.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/139671/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caitlin Vincent is a member of OPERA America and Victorian Opera's Peer Review Panel.</span></em></p>COVID-19 has exposed the insecurity of the cultural workforce. Making the performing arts freely available online may further diminish their value, right when the sector is arguing its worth.Caitlin Vincent, Lecturer in Creative Industries, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1379972020-05-25T05:13:11Z2020-05-25T05:13:11ZPerformers and sole traders find it hard to get JobKeeper in part because they get behind on their paperwork<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/337280/original/file-20200525-55461-10qa4an.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=113%2C210%2C3225%2C1644&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>JobKeeper is working out awfully for performers.</p>
<p>Although the arts industry has been hit <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/6160.0.55.001Main%20Features5Week%20ending%202%20May%202020">harder</a> than any other apart from tourism according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, performers are finding it <a href="https://www.meaa.org/mediaroom/government-must-revisit-jobkeeper-debacle-in-the-arts-and-entertainment/">hard</a> to get JobKeeper.</p>
<p>Many are <a href="https://www.ato.gov.au/Business/Starting-your-own-business/Before-you-get-started/Choosing-your-business-structure/Sole-trader/">sole traders</a>, providing services engagement-by-engagement. </p>
<p>Sole traders are meant to have access to the $1,500 per fortnight payment if their turnover has fallen or is likely to fall <a href="https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-04/Fact_sheet-Support_for_sole_traders_1.pdf">30% or more</a>, assuming their turnover is less than $1 billion.</p>
<p>The fact many haven’t got it may be in part because they are behind in their paperwork.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-3-in-4-australians-employed-in-the-creative-and-performing-arts-could-lose-their-jobs-136505">Coronavirus: 3 in 4 Australians employed in the creative and performing arts could lose their jobs</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Behind on paperwork</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/337275/original/file-20200525-55441-1ea0gen.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/337275/original/file-20200525-55441-1ea0gen.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/337275/original/file-20200525-55441-1ea0gen.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337275/original/file-20200525-55441-1ea0gen.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337275/original/file-20200525-55441-1ea0gen.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337275/original/file-20200525-55441-1ea0gen.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337275/original/file-20200525-55441-1ea0gen.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337275/original/file-20200525-55441-1ea0gen.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Business Activity Statement, of the kind sole traders fall well behind on.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Australian Tax Office</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sole traders behind on their quarterly <a href="https://www.ato.gov.au/Business/Business-activity-statements-(BAS)/">Business Activity Statements</a> who seek help from the <a href="https://www.business.unsw.edu.au/about/schools/taxation-business-law/unsw-tax-clinic">University of NSW Tax Clinic</a> are on average seven years behind. </p>
<p>We’ve seen some up to 20 years behind (that is, up to 80 statements behind).</p>
<p>If a business is cash-strapped and the owner is struggling financially and psychologically struggling, a visit to a tax accountant tends not to be high priority, if indeed the business has the cash to pay the agent.</p>
<p>In practice, our clinic supervisors are seeing many financially vulnerable sole traders opt instead for the lower-paying JobSeeker. </p>
<p>It means many of the most financially-vulnerable small businesses are slipping through the cracks because they can’t afford an accountant.</p>
<p>Being behind on tax returns can prevent access to other Centrelink benefits including child support.</p>
<h2>Behind means further behind</h2>
<p>It puts people who were already in financial hardship at a further disadvantage, one that is set to grow.</p>
<p>By the end of the year, deferred mortgages, loans and rent payments will recommence. This will happen at the same time as JobKeeper and the JobSeeker Coronavirus Supplement <a href="https://theconversation.com/whatll-happen-when-the-moneys-snatched-back-our-looming-coronavirus-support-cliff-138527">run out</a> (both of which can incur tax).</p>
<p>Many financially vulnerable people will have used up their superannuation savings to pay off things like credit card bills when they could have been eligible for hardship variations or waivers on those debts.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/whatll-happen-when-the-moneys-snatched-back-our-looming-coronavirus-support-cliff-138527">What'll happen when the money's snatched back? Our looming coronavirus support cliff</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It builds a powerful case for providing good quality independent tax advice to those who are most likely to need it and can least afford it.</p>
<h2>Free advice is the best way out</h2>
<p>To its credit, the Commonwealth government funds a relatively new <a href="https://www.ato.gov.au/General/Gen/National-Tax-Clinic-program/">National Tax Clinic Program</a> launched in 2019 following the successful prototype set up by Curtin University in 2018.</p>
<p>Operating out of <a href="https://www.ato.gov.au/General/Gen/National-Tax-Clinic-program/">ten universities</a>, students studying tax-related courses assist qualified professionals in providing tax advice.</p>
<p>These clinics help address the tax advice gap between free tax help offered by the
Australian Tax Office and independent advice normally only available for a fee – a gap that is likely to grow in the downturn ahead.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/arts-need-a-covid-stimulus-package-heres-what-it-should-look-like-133803">Arts need a COVID stimulus package. Here's what it should look like</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>One of the hopes for the program is that it will act as a bellwether for issues affecting often-marginalised and silent Australians, bringing their problems into the open and fuelling research. </p>
<p>Many also need financial counselling, and so the program has partnered with Financial Counselling Australia and the state financial counselling associations in Victoria, NSW, Queensland, South Australia, the Northern Territory and Western Australia.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>For further details please see: Kayis-Kumar, Noone, Martin and Walpole, “Pro Bono Tax Clinics: An international comparison and framework for evidence-based evaluation” (2020) <a href="http://sites.thomsonreuters.com.au/journals/category/australian-tax-review/">Australian Tax Review</a> (forthcoming).</em></p>
<p><em>If you are in genuine financial hardship and need tax advice but cannot afford it, please contact: <a href="https://www.business.unsw.edu.au/about/schools/taxation-business-law/unsw-tax-clinic">UNSW Tax Clinic</a>: (02) 9385 8041, <a href="mailto:taxclinic@unsw.edu.au">taxclinic@unsw.edu.au</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137997/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Ann Kayis-Kumar is Founding Director of UNSW Tax Clinic, which receives funding from the Federal Government as part of the National Tax Clinic Program.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Walpole is Head of the School of Tax and Business Law at UNSW Business School. The School hosts the UNSW Tax Clinic which receives funding from the Federal Government via the Australian Taxation Office and Michael is a co-founder of the UNSW Tax Clinic</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fiona Anne Martin and Jack Noone do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Sole traders helped by UNSW Tax Clinic who were behind on their quarterly Business Activity Statements were on average seven years behind.Ann Kayis-Kumar, Senior Lecturer and Tax Clinic Director, School of Taxation & Business Law, UNSW SydneyFiona Anne Martin, Professor, School of Taxation and Business Law, UNSW SydneyJack Noone, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Social Impact, UNSW SydneyMichael Walpole, Professor and Head of School of Tax and Business, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1388012020-05-20T20:03:26Z2020-05-20T20:03:26ZHome of the Arts – inside an arts centre keeping body and soul together<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336246/original/file-20200520-152338-ykmbbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C16%2C3699%2C2457&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cockfight by The Farm </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kate Holmes/HOTA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>While discontent at the federal government’s lack of support for the cultural sector during the coronavirus epidemic continues to grow, the few people still in jobs are readying for the optimistically termed “recovery period”. </p>
<p>Physical access to arts events is becoming a possibility. Now cultural leaders must discern, through a mazy gloom of stalled budgets and frayed nerves, what challenges the future holds.</p>
<p>A significant proportion of Australia’s cultural sector is made up of 150-plus performing arts centres in our cities and regions. Though a national figure is hard to obtain, an estimate can be derived through the Victorian Association of Performing Arts Centres, Circuit West, Stage Queensland and Create NSW websites.</p>
<p>It is performing arts centres – more than the museums and galleries, where social distancing measures can be readily enforced – that will be hardest hit by COVID-19: the first to close, the last to reopen. </p>
<p>Examining the fortunes and pressures facing Gold Coast’s Home of the Arts (HOTA) helps us understand the challenges for this part of the sector.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336241/original/file-20200520-152288-qp7fak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C23%2C1742%2C1153&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336241/original/file-20200520-152288-qp7fak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C23%2C1742%2C1153&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336241/original/file-20200520-152288-qp7fak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336241/original/file-20200520-152288-qp7fak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336241/original/file-20200520-152288-qp7fak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336241/original/file-20200520-152288-qp7fak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336241/original/file-20200520-152288-qp7fak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336241/original/file-20200520-152288-qp7fak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Home of the Arts on the Gold Coast.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">HOTA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-we-turn-to-creativity-in-isolation-the-coronavirus-is-a-calamity-on-top-of-an-arts-crisis-134230">As we turn to creativity in isolation, the coronavirus is a calamity on top of an arts crisis</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Safety first</h2>
<p>There is no such things as a typical performing arts centre. But a median band might include HOTA, established in 1986. </p>
<p>Operating two theatres, two cinemas, an outdoor stage and several function rooms, construction is underway on a A$60.5 million gallery. Total visitor numbers in 2019 were 652,251. The forecast turnover for 2020-21 was $21 million. It is anyone’s guess where those figures will land now. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336238/original/file-20200520-152284-yur0ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336238/original/file-20200520-152284-yur0ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336238/original/file-20200520-152284-yur0ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336238/original/file-20200520-152284-yur0ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336238/original/file-20200520-152284-yur0ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336238/original/file-20200520-152284-yur0ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336238/original/file-20200520-152284-yur0ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336238/original/file-20200520-152284-yur0ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The good old pre-COVID days at Home of the Arts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">HOTA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“The last time we programmed anything was March 12th,” says Criena Gehrke, HOTA’s CEO. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Artists were starting to get uncomfortable performing. A couple of events had the HOTA choir in them so ‘at risk’ community members were involved. And audiences started to react in an uncertain way. We wanted everyone to be safe, so we closed a week before the government asked us to.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Within days, HOTA was delivering $1000 rapid artists’ response grants. Gehrke describes the roller-coaster of the shutdown:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Along with the most heartbreaking decision of my professional life – standing-down the HOTA team, and the companies and artists due to perform here – the proudest I’ve been is how quickly we turned the situation around. We stuck to what we said we were going to do: give artists notification within a week of applying, put the money in the bank in a few days and ask for no more than three or four-days’ work. It shows it is possible to be tapped into the world in which our community lives, and what artists desire and require. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>As a subsidiary of the Gold Coast City Council, none of HOTA’s 112 full and part-time staff or its 152 casuals were eligible for JobKeeper. As a result, 85% were stood down. Now, the centre comprises Gehrke, her assistant, a skeleton programming and operations team, two finance officers, and a lone ghost light on the theatre stage. Gehrke comments: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>When it turned out we weren’t eligible for JobKeeper it threw into sharp relief what I call the Emperor’s New Clothes Syndrome. As a sector we’ve been pretending we are wearing elaborate clothes. But when you strip it back, the issues are a huge casual work force and artists getting lost in the hell we currently find ourselves in. </p>
<p>Is the modelling around subsidised art sustainable? How do you value arts and culture but not escalate ticket prices and block admission to them? Instinct says, ‘we need to get commercial’. But I think we need to get subsidised in a smarter way. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Resuming normal programming</h2>
<p>HOTA hopes to do some light programming by October, with a return to a full schedule in April 2021. This optimistic scenario is underpinned by advantages both natural and human. </p>
<p>A big plus is the 7.5 hectares of parkland around it, where its outdoor stage is situated. Another is the Gold Coast’s sunny weather. The immediate future, Gehrke says, “looks like limited numbers of people having exquisite picnics and listening to gorgeous music”.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336242/original/file-20200520-152292-1jcdj6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336242/original/file-20200520-152292-1jcdj6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336242/original/file-20200520-152292-1jcdj6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336242/original/file-20200520-152292-1jcdj6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336242/original/file-20200520-152292-1jcdj6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336242/original/file-20200520-152292-1jcdj6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336242/original/file-20200520-152292-1jcdj6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336242/original/file-20200520-152292-1jcdj6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">HOTA’s outdoor stage might help facilitate a return to performing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">HOTA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>HOTA’s new gallery is due to open in early 2021. The centre has announced it will commission up to 20 Australian artists to <a href="http://hota.com.au/opencall/">create new work</a> for the opening. Strong support from the Gold Coast Council is a major reason it remains on schedule - though it helps to have research biologist Ned Pankhurst as Chair of the board in what Gehrke calls “a Renaissance model” of management.</p>
<p>For HOTA and performing arts centres like it, the pandemic raises deep questions about their role in the community and the value they contribute. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/artists-shouldnt-have-to-endlessly-demonstrate-their-value-coalition-leaders-used-to-know-it-136608">Artists shouldn't have to endlessly demonstrate their value. Coalition leaders used to know it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Against the federal government’s business-as-usual talk, Gehrke sees the future as more fragile, in large part because the audiences HOTA serves are more fragile. It is not a simple government-is-bad/culture-is-good binary. Rather, there is need for more honesty on both sides. Gehrke is interested in how we can have a different conversation. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The JobKeeper exclusion reflects a lack of government understanding about how our sector works. But empathy and kindness are everything. I am more forgiving of our politicians now because what I deal with is nothing compared to trying to save hundreds of thousands of people from dying. </p>
<p>We need to say to the government, ‘this was a sliding doors moment: Australia could have looked so much better coming out of COVID-19 if the cultural sector hadn’t been completely annihilated’. But we also need to take a hard look at ourselves too. We can’t claim to be the mirror held up to society and not gaze in the mirror ourselves.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For the moment, the conversation between the federal government and the cultural sector continues to be a numbing one. As generous assistance is extended to many parts of the economy, it seems not to apply to the arts. </p>
<p>When the bill finally arrives, in the form of higher taxes, government cuts or both, will it also carry a “but not the arts” rider? For the sake of those at HOTA and 150 other performing arts centres, it bloody well should. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Artists on the Gold Coast haven’t stopped creating despite COVID. The <a href="http://interconnectivity.com">Interconnectivity Gold Coast</a> project explores connections between the people, places and nature of the city.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138801/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julian Meyrick does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Performing arts centres will be hardest hit by COVID-19. Looking at the fortunes and pressures facing Queensland’s Home of the Arts can help us understand the challenges faced by around 150 centres.Julian Meyrick, Professor of Creative Arts, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1305422020-02-05T19:01:25Z2020-02-05T19:01:25ZWhat is the place of the performing arts fair in the age of the internet?<p><em>Review: Platform Papers 62: Performing Arts Markets and their Conundrums, by Justin Macdonnell (Currency Press)</em></p>
<p>The performing arts may be a public good that serve to enrich Australia’s cultural imagination, but they are also a product competing for audience share and government, corporate and private support.</p>
<p>Established in 1994, the <a href="https://apam.org.au/">Australian Performing Arts Market (APAM)</a> has aimed to facilitate one aspect of this “arts market” by hosting biennial trade fairs that connect national and international producers and programming venues. </p>
<p>From 2020, APAM will move from hosting these biennial conferences to “<a href="https://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/international/australian-performing-arts-market-apam/">gatherings</a>”, dividing its promotional activity across existing arts events such as Darwin Festival and Melbourne’s AsiaTOPA. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313626/original/file-20200205-20048-g5om4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313626/original/file-20200205-20048-g5om4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=922&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313626/original/file-20200205-20048-g5om4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=922&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313626/original/file-20200205-20048-g5om4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=922&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313626/original/file-20200205-20048-g5om4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1159&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313626/original/file-20200205-20048-g5om4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1159&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313626/original/file-20200205-20048-g5om4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1159&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In light of this, APAM’s future is the subject of the latest Platform Paper from Currency House: <a href="https://currencyhouse.org.au/node/288">Performing Arts Markets and their Conundrums</a>. </p>
<p>Author Justin Macdonnell brings a commanding insider’s perspective to the topic. He has worked in and around touring arts companies for several decades, and is currently executive director of arts industry advocacy organisation <a href="http://www.anzarts-institute.com/index.htm">Anzarts</a>.</p>
<p>Noting APAM’s new model might lessen the intensity and impact of its work – especially given that overseas producers are unlikely to make multiple excursions to Australia a year – Macdonell asks whether the arts fair has outlived its usefulness. </p>
<p>This might seem at best an issue of marginal concern to people who work outside the performing arts industry. However, Macdonell argues the current system has led not so much to “good art” but “convenient art” being promoted to Australian audiences.</p>
<p>Given the significant role that public funding and public bodies such as the <a href="https://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/">Australia Council</a> play in supporting the performing arts and arts venues, his question deserves wider attention. </p>
<p>Frustratingly (but, no doubt, diplomatically), Macdonnell does not offer concrete examples of “convenient art”. He nevertheless argues that the “dominating presence of state and federal agencies” in the Australian arts market has led to the stifling of independent arts managers and small-scale producers, and also of innovative and risky projects.</p>
<p>It is time we asked, he suggests, whether an arts fair is necessary, let alone desirable, in today’s digitally empowered, globalised marketplace.</p>
<h2>An online world</h2>
<p>Macdonnell notes trade fairs are at odds with calls to curb air travel due to its <a href="https://theconversation.com/sustainable-shopping-is-it-possible-to-fly-sustainably-88636">environmental impact</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sustainable-shopping-is-it-possible-to-fly-sustainably-88636">Sustainable shopping: is it possible to fly sustainably?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>He also wonders if touring itself is so desirable or necessary in the age of YouTube and teleconferencing: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>This is not to say that these means have replaced seeing a work or meeting the artist in person. In all probability, they never will. But they have revolutionalised <em>access</em> to knowledge of the work and are creating and maintaining contact about it. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In this digitally enabled market, companies and individual artists can also now bypass the traditional arts brokers and gatekeepers such as arts agencies, or indeed APAM itself, and promote themselves directly to producers. </p>
<p>APAM, he further observes, has “never has been the practitioner’s market”, rather it has “come to be about just one part of the industry (non-profit)”. Presenters and producers might attend to seek out new and innovative work, but they are not given a comprehensive overview of what might actually be available. </p>
<h2>Left unsaid</h2>
<p>Although Macdonnell does not explore this, such institutionalised impediments to free choice may help explain the growing trend towards <a href="http://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2005.06.002">homogenisation</a> in major arts programming across the developed world. </p>
<p>Artistic directors of major performing arts festivals, in particular, can appear impregnable to pitches from outside established promotional routes. </p>
<p>But if, as Macdonnell notes, “anyone, anywhere in the world at any time can now see the newest show on YouTube”, why would we seek to rely on the filter of agents or industry bodies to select what we will see or hear? </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/with-culture-on-the-free-trade-agenda-we-must-protect-our-own-22084">With culture on the free trade agenda, we must protect our own</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The potential for market distortion under the current system can be made worse by horsetrading behind the scenes. The most powerful artist agencies routinely leverage access to their most profitable performers or productions to make hiring companies and venues take on other acts they represent, with little regard for local circumstances.</p>
<p>To my mind, the major buyers in the arts marketplace – artistic directors, festivals and venues – should be specifically resourced and encouraged to look for acts outside these existing industry networks.</p>
<p>Wesley Enoch’s provocative 2014 Platform Paper, <a href="https://currencyhouse.org.au/node/42">Take Me To Your Leader</a>, however, suggested we lack this kind of cultural leadership across the Australian performing arts: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>With the growth of government-led cultural leadership we have seen the voices of the mob, the dissenters and the opposition slowly becoming tamed and included in a sort of official culture […] Government champions the arts more these days than artists do.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Enoch asked whether those who run subsidised organisations might be brave enough to bite the hand that feeds them. </p>
<p>Macdonnell refrains from concluding his platform paper with similarly provocative statements. </p>
<p>But he has done a useful service to both the arts industry and the wider Australian public by asking us to consider whether there might be better ways for our major performing arts institutions to seek out, and promote, their wares.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130542/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Tregear had a Platform Paper published by Currency House in 2014 (PP38 'Enlightenment or Entitlement: Rethinking Tertiary Music Education').</span></em></p>A new quarterly essay looks at changes in how we market Australian performing arts – but is this necessary in a globalised digital marketplace?Peter Tregear, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1207042019-09-30T11:25:05Z2019-09-30T11:25:05ZLeave ‘em laughing instead of crying: Climate humor can break down barriers and find common ground<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294487/original/file-20190927-51414-12basr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5274%2C3645&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Protest in Gauhati, India, on Sept. 20, 2019, part of worldwide demonstrations ahead of a U.N. summit in New York. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/India-Climate-Protests/e3c41f66711c4df1b2e158056421dcdb/34/0">AP Photo/Anupam Nath</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Climate change is not inherently funny. Typically, the messengers are serious scientists describing how rising greenhouse gas emissions are harming the planet <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-climate-change-report-underscores-the-need-to-manage-land-for-the-short-and-long-term-121716">on land</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/another-grim-climate-report-on-oceans-what-will-it-take-to-address-the-compounding-problems-123894">at sea</a>, or assessing what role it played in the latest <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-and-wildfires-how-do-we-know-if-there-is-a-link-101304">wildfire</a> or <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/03/climate/hurricane-dorian-climate-change.html">hurricane</a>.</p>
<p>Society may have reached a saturation point for such somber, gloomy and threatening science-centered discussions. This possibility is what inspires my recent work with colleague <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/theatredance/beth-osnes">Beth Osnes</a> to get messages out about climate change through comedy and humor.</p>
<p>I have <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=aW3k5WMAAAAJ&hl=en">studied and practiced climate communication</a> for about 20 years. My new book, “<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/earth-and-environmental-science/environmental-policy-economics-and-law/creative-climate-communications-productive-pathways-science-policy-and-society?format=PB&isbn=9781316646823">Creative (Climate) Communications</a>,” integrates social science and humanities research and practices to connect people more effectively through issues they care about. Rather than “dumbing down” science for the public, this is a “smartening up” approach that has been shown to bring people together around a highly divisive topic.</p>
<figure>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/353857643" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">University of Colorado-Boulder students act out a comedy skit set on a pedal-powered airplane.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why laugh about climate change?</h2>
<p>Science is critically important to understanding the enormity of the climate challenge and how it connects with other problems like disasters, food security, local air quality and migration. But stories that emanate from scientific ways of knowing have failed to significantly engage and activate large audiences. </p>
<p>Largely gloomy approaches and interpretations typically stifle audiences rather than inspiring them to take action. For example, novelist Jonathan Franzen recently published an essay in The New Yorker titled “<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/what-if-we-stopped-pretending">What If We Stop Pretending?</a>” in which he asserted: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The goal (of halting climate change) has been clear for thirty years, and despite earnest efforts we’ve made essentially no progress toward reaching it.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Social science and humanities research have shown that this kind of framing effectively disempowers readers who could be activated and moved by a smarter approach.</p>
<p>Comics took a different path when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report in 2018 warning that the world <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/">only had until about 2030</a> to take steps that could limit warming to manageable levels. Trevor Noah, host of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” observed:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“You know the crazy people you see in the streets shouting that the world is ending? Turns out, they’re all <a href="http://www.cc.com/video-clips/5cj6l9/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-the-u-n--issues-an-alarming-climate-report---banksy-shreds-his-painting">actually climate scientists</a>.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>On ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” Kimmel commented: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“There’s always a silver lining. One planet’s calamity is another planet’s shop-portunity.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>He then cut to a going-out-of-business advertisement for Planet Earth that read: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Everything must go! 50% of all nocturnal animals, insects, reptiles and amphibians … priced to sell before we live in hell. But you must act fast because planet Earth is over soon. And <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/10/arts/television/jimmy-kimmel-climate-change-earth.html">when it’s gone, it’s gone</a>.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1175099462626074625"}"></div></p>
<h2>It’s getting hot in here</h2>
<p>Social science and humanities scholars have been examining new, potentially more effective ways to communicate about climate change. Consistently, as I describe in my book, research shows that emotional, tactile, visceral and experiential communication meets people where they are. These methods <a href="https://tinyurl.com/cccbook2019">arouse action and engagement</a>. </p>
<p>Scholars have examined how shows like “<a href="https://youtu.be/07oe1m67eik">Saturday Night Live</a>,” “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjuGCJJUGsg">Last Week Tonight</a>,” “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UCdFbyL8y0">Jimmy Kimmel Live</a>,” “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJO0XoakOJQ">Full Frontal</a>” and “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRGgbcU7FmI">The Daily Show</a>” use jokes to increase understanding and engagement. In one example, former Vice President Al Gore appeared on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” in 2017 and took turns with Colbert serving up climate change pickup lines over saucy slow-jam background music:</p>
<p>Gore: “Are you climate change? Because when I look at you, the world disappears.” </p>
<p>Colbert: “I’m like 97% of scientists, and I can’t deny … it’s getting hot in here.” </p>
<p>Colbert: “Is that an iceberg the size of Delaware breaking off the Antarctic ice shelf, or are you just happy to see me?” </p>
<p>Gore: “I hope you’re not powered by fossil fuels, because you’ve been running through my mind all day.”</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FCXxT94NJmA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Former Vice President Al Gore and late night comedy host Steven Colbert trade climate change pickup lines.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Comedian Sarah Silverman took time during her 2018 Hulu show “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKzW9Ls3E9Q">I Love You America</a>” to address the need for climate action. In her monologue, she focused on how climate change is driven “by the interests of a very small group and absurdly rich and powerful people.” She added: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The disgusting irony of all of it is that the billionaires who have created this global atrocity are going to be the ones to survive it. They are going to be fine while we all cook to death in a planet-sized hot car.” </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Breaching barriers and finding common ground</h2>
<p>Research shows that in a time of deep polarization, <a href="https://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/students/envs3173/chattoo2017.pdf">comedy can lower defenses</a>. It temporarily suspends social rules and connects people with ideas and new ways of thinking or acting. </p>
<p>Comedy exploits cracks in arguments. It wiggles in, pokes, prods and draws attention to the incongruous, hypocritical, false and pretentious. It can make the complex dimensions of climate change seem more accessible and its challenges seem more manageable. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287915/original/file-20190813-9409-mbn425.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287915/original/file-20190813-9409-mbn425.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287915/original/file-20190813-9409-mbn425.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=927&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287915/original/file-20190813-9409-mbn425.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=927&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287915/original/file-20190813-9409-mbn425.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=927&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287915/original/file-20190813-9409-mbn425.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1165&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287915/original/file-20190813-9409-mbn425.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1165&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287915/original/file-20190813-9409-mbn425.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1165&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 2019 climate change comedy night at the University of Colorado at Boulder.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ami Nacu-Schmidt</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many disciplines can inform comedy, including theater, performance and media studies. With my colleagues <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/theatredance/beth-osnes">Beth Osnes</a>, <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/ebio/rebecca-safran">Rebecca Safran</a> and <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/cmci/people/communication/phaedra-c-pezzullo">Phaedra Pezzullo</a> at the University of Colorado, I co-direct the <a href="http://www.insidethegreenhouse.org/">Inside the Greenhouse</a> initiative, which uses insights from creative fields to develop effective climate communication strategies.</p>
<p>For four years we have directed “Stand Up for Climate Change,” a comedy project. We and our students write sketch comedy routines and perform them in front of live audiences on the Boulder campus. From those experiences, we have studied the content of the performances and how the performers and audience respond. Our work has found that humor <a href="https://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/2018.10.pdf">provides effective pathways</a> to greater awareness, learning, sharing of feelings, conversations and inspiration for performers and audiences alike.</p>
<p>A comic approach might seem to trivialize climate change, which has life-and-death implications for millions of people, especially the world’s poorest and most vulnerable residents. But a greater risk would be for people to stop talking about the problem entirely, and miss the chance to reimagine and actively engage in their collective futures.</p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120704/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maxwell Boykoff receives funding from private donors to support Inside the Greenhouse activities at the University of Colorado. </span></em></p>‘Two polar bears walk into a bar …’ is an unlikely opener for a joke, but memes and parodies are surprisingly effective ways to get people talking about climate change.Maxwell Boykoff, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and Director, Center for Science and Technology Policy Research, University of Colorado BoulderLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1102812019-01-23T02:50:11Z2019-01-23T02:50:11ZHenrietta Baird’s The Weekend proves the enduring power of solo performance<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254892/original/file-20190122-100295-7f8r74.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Shakira Clanton in Henrietta Baird's The Weekend.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> Jamie James/Courtesy of Moogahlin</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: The Weekend, Sydney Festival</em></p>
<hr>
<p>If this year’s Sydney Festival is any indication, the monologue is back. So far, I have seen Adam Lazarus’s Daughter, Joel Bray’s Biladurang, Omar Musa’s Since Ali Died, Tara Beagan’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/deer-woman-is-a-work-of-immense-power-and-artistry-110096">Deer Woman</a>, and now Henrietta Baird’s The Weekend.</p>
<p>Not that the monologue ever really went away. Indeed, it has a long history in both Western and non-Western performance genres. But critical opinion about solo performance has waxed and waned over the past fifty years. </p>
<p>On the one hand, supporters argue it’s been an important vehicle for artists who have historically been excluded from the theatre to <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/500099/pdf">tell their stories</a>. On the other, critics worry the monologue might be part of the memoir boom and a “<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/01/25/but-enough-about-me-2">wider culture of self-discussion and self-exposure</a>”, symptomatic of a self-involved society. Yet these arguments fade into the background when you’re in the hands of a skilled storyteller like Henrietta Baird and a talented performer like Shakira Clanton.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254883/original/file-20190122-100276-m0nbi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254883/original/file-20190122-100276-m0nbi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254883/original/file-20190122-100276-m0nbi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254883/original/file-20190122-100276-m0nbi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254883/original/file-20190122-100276-m0nbi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254883/original/file-20190122-100276-m0nbi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254883/original/file-20190122-100276-m0nbi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254883/original/file-20190122-100276-m0nbi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">At this year’s Sydney Festival, the monologue is back.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jamie James/Courtesy of Moogahlin</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Weekend begins in relative silence. There is the sound of drumming, slow and steady like water dripping, and little else. The set is similarly stripped back, consisting of little more than a grey floor, two milk crates downstage, and a mirror with three panels upstage.</p>
<p>Clanton steps out from behind the mirror wearing purple tights and a black singlet. Later she’ll don a blue sleeveless hoody. She dances: bending her knees, flicking her hands upwards, and sometimes straightening her limbs like a martial artist. Choreographed by Vicki Van Hout, with whom Baird has previously danced, this section also reminded me of Dalisa Pigram’s martial arts-inflected choreography in her solo show Gudirr Gudirr.</p>
<p>The protagonist, Lara, is a dancer from Sydney working in Cairns for a few weeks. That is, until she receives a phone call from her youngest son Kyle, telling her that he and his brother Charlie are hungry because their dad hasn’t been over for more than two days and there’s no food in the house. Lara immediately gets on a plane. From the moment it lands, she’s on a mission to find her former partner Simon and “give him a growling”, as my mother might say. </p>
<p>In her pursuit across Redfern, Lara meets several women who have been similarly betrayed by him and his drug habits. She also finds they each have a habit of their own. Clanton plays all these women, as well as the two boys and an officious taxi call centre operator, with great skill.</p>
<p>The first woman we meet is Ronnie, a woman in her mid-40s, who is “not Simon’s type”, Lara <a href="https://australianplays.org/sydney-festival-2019/read-it">reassures herself</a>. While at Ronnie’s place she also meets Courtney, a sweet fifteen-year-old who is addicted to heroin. Then Betty arrives, agitated and desperate for some meth. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254887/original/file-20190122-100264-qqnscp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254887/original/file-20190122-100264-qqnscp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254887/original/file-20190122-100264-qqnscp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254887/original/file-20190122-100264-qqnscp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254887/original/file-20190122-100264-qqnscp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254887/original/file-20190122-100264-qqnscp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254887/original/file-20190122-100264-qqnscp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254887/original/file-20190122-100264-qqnscp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Shakira Clanton plays a dancer on a mission to find her former partner in The Weekend.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jamie James courtesy of Moogahlin</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Lastly, we meet Ronnie’s sister DD. Chaos and comedy ensue but the possibility of tragedy is ever present: as soon as Lara agrees to carry Ronnie’s bum bag, spectators are audibly concerned; when she realises her boys have been by themselves for hours, we share her sweaty panic. Like Lara, we are constantly worried that something, somewhere is going to go horribly wrong. </p>
<p>Baird has a good ear for vernacular speech and her characters speak with both poetry and fury: telling jokes, swearing liberally, and coining phrases such as “<a href="https://australianplays.org/sydney-festival-2019/read-it">she kicks them out before they even get a chance to pick up after themselves</a>”.</p>
<p>She also has an eye for detail, especially fashion, as evidenced by Lara’s descriptions of what each character is wearing. Ronnie has “a big green jumper and track pants on with fluffy slippers. Like she’s still in the same clothes from the 80s”; Courtney is wearing “the shortest shorts. You know those sexy ones with the pockets that hang out the bottom”; and DD is “mutton dressed as lamb. Big hair and little sun dress like she’s a teenager in the 90s!”. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254881/original/file-20190122-100261-lxioda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254881/original/file-20190122-100261-lxioda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254881/original/file-20190122-100261-lxioda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254881/original/file-20190122-100261-lxioda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254881/original/file-20190122-100261-lxioda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254881/original/file-20190122-100261-lxioda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254881/original/file-20190122-100261-lxioda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254881/original/file-20190122-100261-lxioda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Baird’s characters speak with both poetry and fury.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jamies James/Courtesy of Moogahlin</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most of all, Baird writes with compassion: every character is given a backstory that contextualises their addiction and it’s clear that every one of them is simply doing their best.</p>
<p>This combination of humour and compassion also structures Clanton’s playful but careful performance. Ronnie has a strong, stern voice but speaks of her children with a throaty grief; Betty’s voice is high and her physicality is agitated; Courtney speaks in a slow whisper and with a gentle smile; and DD snaps her fingers, playfully slaps her own arse, and spins on her heels.</p>
<p>Like the rest of the production, the lighting design (Karen Norris) is understated. A string of lights frames each of the mirror’s sections, with different colours conjuring different locations. The lights are green when Lara is in the grimy lift, for instance, and later flash red and blue when the police are nearby. The concrete carpark is suggested through a grey and streaky light. </p>
<p>The sound design (Nick Wales and Rhyan Clapham) is similarly low-key, with the drums continuing through the entire performance. When the music swells with danger, it is all the more effective. These directorial decisions by Liza-Mare Syron allow the script and performer to shine.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254890/original/file-20190122-100267-wd6kn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254890/original/file-20190122-100267-wd6kn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254890/original/file-20190122-100267-wd6kn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254890/original/file-20190122-100267-wd6kn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254890/original/file-20190122-100267-wd6kn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254890/original/file-20190122-100267-wd6kn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254890/original/file-20190122-100267-wd6kn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254890/original/file-20190122-100267-wd6kn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The lighting in The Weekend uses colour to conjure different locations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jamie James/Courtesy of Moogahlin</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Perhaps the monologue is back for political reasons, or perhaps it is simply a matter of economics, since solo shows are cheap to produce when compared with other epic festival fare. Or perhaps it indicates that a new generation of writers is emerging: artists often start with semi-autobiographical material before moving onto bigger, more complex pieces. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leah_Purcell">Leah Purcell</a>, for instance, started with Box the Pony in 1997; 20 years later she is about to film her award-winning adaptation of The Drover’s Wife. For this reason, I can’t wait to see what Baird does next. </p>
<p>The Weekend was staged as a work-in-progress in 2017 at the biennial Yellamundie National First Peoples Playwriting Festival, where it was one of the hits of that year, as recorded in Maryrose Casey’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/joyous-comic-and-grim-the-best-new-indigenous-playwrights-72369">review</a>. Later this week, the 2019 iteration will get underway. If you want a glimpse of what you might be seeing at the Sydney Festival in 2021 – and of the future of Australian theatre more generally – I suggest you get along to listen.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/events/the-weekend">The Weekend</a> is being staged as part of the Sydney Festival until January 23. The script is available to read until the end of January <a href="https://australianplays.org/sydney-festival-2019/read-it">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110281/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caroline Wake receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Debates about the place of the monologue in theatre fall away when you have a show as compassionate and funny as The Weekend.Caroline Wake, Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Performance, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/977822018-06-11T20:36:40Z2018-06-11T20:36:40ZTo fix gender inequity in arts leadership we need more women in politics and chairing boards<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221894/original/file-20180606-119870-15j3miu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dancers rehearse at a 2016 media call for The Australian Ballet's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Of our 28 major performing arts organisations, only three have female artistic leaders.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Women are the major consumers as well as the largest percentage of employees in the arts. Yet their presence as artistic leaders remains low or, in some sectors, non-existent.</p>
<p>Of the 28 organisations presently funded under the Australia Council framework of the major performing arts, only three, Black Swan Theatre Company, Orchestra Victoria and the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, have female artistic leaders. </p>
<p>These 28 organisations include ballet, dance, theatre, opera, orchestras and a circus. In practice this means that almost 90% of the artistic leaders of our major performing organisations are male. These organisations receive the majority (<a href="http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/about/annual-report-2016-17/">at least 62%</a>) of arts funding allocated by the Australia Council.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-major-dance-companies-need-to-step-up-on-gender-equality-97464">recent Australian study</a> found the role of women as artistic leaders and choreographers of dance and ballet companies is minimal – despite the fact that they dominate the industry. The findings are consistent with international studies of the role of women in dance and ballet. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-major-dance-companies-need-to-step-up-on-gender-equality-97464">Australia's major dance companies need to step up on gender equality</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Another <a href="http://nyti.ms/2egaaaM4">recent international study</a> considered the leadership of the top 12 art museums in the world. At the time of the study, all were led by men. </p>
<p>If we then look at the leadership of the six major state art galleries in Australia as well as our national gallery, a similar picture emerges. Only one state art gallery (the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery) has a female leader, although the Art Gallery of South Australia has a woman in the “co-acting” directorial role while a new leader is being sought.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221888/original/file-20180605-119885-lcswuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221888/original/file-20180605-119885-lcswuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221888/original/file-20180605-119885-lcswuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221888/original/file-20180605-119885-lcswuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221888/original/file-20180605-119885-lcswuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221888/original/file-20180605-119885-lcswuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221888/original/file-20180605-119885-lcswuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221888/original/file-20180605-119885-lcswuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The late Betty Churcher: a rare example of a woman running a major cultural institution.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Tsiavis/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Historically, the picture is not much better. A woman has occasionally been the leader of a major Australian cultural institution (for instance, Betty Churcher at the National Gallery from 1990-1997, or Paula Latos-Valier at the Art Gallery of Western Australia from 1990-1997), but examples of women as leaders are the exception, not the rule.</p>
<p>These figures might not be so shocking in traditionally male-dominated fields such as mining or manufacturing. But the arts sector is one where women represent the majority of consumers and participants. Evidence that Australian women in senior roles in the arts earn <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/what-arts-bosses-in-australia-earn-and-how-women-get-less-20160603-gpahfn.html">38% less</a> than male colleagues who occupy similar positions further compounds this inequality.</p>
<p>There are big issues that need to be tackled by agencies involved in leading, supporting, training and funding the arts in this country. It has been noted already in gender research that to change an existing homogeneous model of leadership, attention needs to be paid to ensuring <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37882461-arts-leadership-in-contemporary-contexts">different values and cultures</a> are represented in any selection process. Selection panels are <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/joe.21413">more likely to choose a candidate who reflects the values that they believe in or exemplify</a>, even if a male candidate is less qualified or less experienced than the female equivalent.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-gender-pay-gap-is-wider-in-the-arts-than-in-other-industries-87080">The gender pay gap is wider in the arts than in other industries</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In this country, as in many others, the leadership of art institutions is determined by a board of management or, in the case of government agencies, by the minister concerned. If the chair of the board or the politician is male, then they may be less likely to associate leadership with a woman.</p>
<p>At present across the country, seven ministers are responsible for arts, culture or creative industries in their portfolio. Five of the current ministers are male. </p>
<p>If we look at who chairs the 28 major performing arts organisations, 20 are male. If we look at the chairs of the six state art galleries and the national gallery, five are male. Thus, the decision-makers for senior arts appointments are predominantly male.</p>
<p>If the present demographic of arts leadership is to change, then gender equity at every level needs to be addressed. In a sector where women represent the majority audience as well as the majority of its participants, the low level of female artistic leadership is significantly out of tune with contemporary expectations.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Jo Caust’s book <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37882461-arts-leadership-in-contemporary-contexts">Arts Leadership in Contemporary Contexts</a> has just been released.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97782/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jo Caust has received funding from the Australia Council. She is a member of the Arts Industry Council in South Australia and the National Association of Visual Artists (NAVA). </span></em></p>Women make up the majority of arts consumers and employees, but men dominate at every level of arts leadership.Jo Caust, Associate Professor and Principal Fellow (Hon), The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/937672018-04-04T13:20:22Z2018-04-04T13:20:22ZGerman politicians invest in opera when seeking re-election – here’s why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211700/original/file-20180323-54863-ztqef1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yossi Zwecker/Wikipedia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In virtually all rich democracies, governments subsidise expensive highbrow culture, such as theatre and opera. And they hire artists to work for these theatres and operas as public employees. At first sight, this might seem to pose a puzzle. After all, highbrow culture is elitist. And it seems electorally irrelevant. </p>
<p>Parties don’t really compete on culture in elections. It’s unlikely that hiring artists to turn them into grateful voters (patronage) makes electoral sense. Even if it did, the number of actors, singers, dancers and musicians working in these roles is simply too small to make any meaningful electoral impact. In fact, even the number of voters who actually go to the opera and theatre seems too small to make a difference in elections.</p>
<p>In our <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2296877">research</a>, Markus Tepe, from the University of Oldenburg, and I try to make sense of this puzzle. We offer a theory of political and sociological multiplier effects to do so.</p>
<p>We believe that politicians will strategically manipulate subsidies for highbrow culture and hire more artists when they are aiming to be reelected. They do this because they want to use artists as conduits of indirect competence signals aimed, through them, at their audiences. In other words, politicians want to please highbrow culture consumers by hiring more artists for them to watch or hear – during election times.</p>
<p>These audiences – highbrow culture-consuming voters – are obviously more numerous than the artists themselves. But they are politically even more important than their numbers.</p>
<p>Sociologically speaking, highbrow culture consumers are what we call “high-multiplier” voters. Theatre and opera visitors are more likely to be consummate “political animals” themselves. Compared to other demographics, they are particularly likely to turn out to vote and to otherwise actively participate in politics.</p>
<p>These people may even be unusually influential in shaping other voters’ political behaviour. They are more interested in politics and they have more social network ties with other voters. So, impressing opera and theatre goers should be especially attractive to politicians in times of elections – at least, that is our theory.</p>
<p>We took our theory to the opera in Germany by using data on artist hiring between 1993 and 2010.</p>
<h2>Is there a multiplier in the audience?</h2>
<p>In German federalism, together with education and domestic security, culture is one of only three policy domains that are still decided largely at the state rather than federal level. German state-level and local-level politicians have joint legal and funding authority for theatres and operas.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211704/original/file-20180323-54898-15tv3rj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211704/original/file-20180323-54898-15tv3rj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211704/original/file-20180323-54898-15tv3rj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211704/original/file-20180323-54898-15tv3rj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211704/original/file-20180323-54898-15tv3rj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211704/original/file-20180323-54898-15tv3rj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211704/original/file-20180323-54898-15tv3rj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Berlin Konzerthaus, a rich source of electoral support.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ABerlin_Konzerthaus_.JPG">JosefLehmkuh/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the period 1993-2010, there were on average only around 12,000 people working as dancers, singers, actors or musicians in public theatres and orchestras in all of Germany. </p>
<p>Using <a href="https://www.gesis.org/en/allbus/allbus-home/">German General Social Survey</a> data, we found that even after controlling for a whole array of socio-economic variables, Germans who consume more highbrow culture in their leisure time tend to go voting more frequently. They also more frequently tend to actively participate in politics in their leisure time. For instance, increasing the frequency of highbrow cultural leisure time from its minimum to its maximum corresponds with an average increase in personal political activism by 23 percentage points, and in voting likelihood by 20 points. Compared to the impact of core socio-economic control measures such as age (35 points) and income (38 points), this indicates a considerable direct effect of highbrow culture consumption on active political engagement.</p>
<p>And, as we suspected, German highbrow culture consumers also turn out to be political multipliers. They are much more interested in politics and have more social network ties with whom they might discuss politics. Increasing the frequency of highbrow cultural activities from its minimum to its maximum corresponds with an average increase in interest in politics by 19 percentage points, in spending one’s leisure time with friends, neighbours and acquaintances by 8 points and with family by 5 points.</p>
<p>The number of actors, singers, dancers and musicians employed in German public theatres and orchestras tends to increase during state-level and municipal-level election years. So it does indeed look like local politicians fine-tune their hiring of artists according to the electoral cycle.</p>
<p>Interestingly, in line with our theory, we have also found evidence of similar tactics in the remaining two “localised” policy domains of German federalism: education and domestic security. German local politicians also time the public hiring of teachers and of police officers to coincide with election periods.</p>
<p>Power politics permeates policymaking even when one least expects it. You are on the receiving end of electioneering even as you enjoy a night out at the opera.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93767/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pieter Vanhuysse MAE does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Opera goers are high multiplier voters. Win them over and you might get a few more supporters along the way.Pieter Vanhuysse MAE, Professor of Comparative Welfare State Research, University of Southern DenmarkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/862122017-12-06T19:15:36Z2017-12-06T19:15:36ZOut of character: how acting puts a mental strain on performers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197728/original/file-20171205-23018-13okxx4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Actors are often required to tap profound emotions in their performance, which is one of the reasons for poor mental health in the industry. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Performers are twice as likely as the general population to experience depression, according to the 2015 <a href="http://www.equityfoundation.org.au/equity-news/the-australian-actors-wellbeing-study.html">Australian Actors’ Wellbeing Study</a>. Many suffer from performance anxiety and report high levels of stress arising from work-related pressures such as low income and job insecurity.</p>
<p>Research over many years has acknowledged that those drawn to working in the arts tend to be highly vulnerable to depression and anxiety. However, there are contributing factors to the strikingly high levels of anxiety and stress specific to the acting community. These include the deep emotions they are often required to access and express when playing a role and the strong identification they can form with their characters.</p>
<p>I recently conducted research into the stresses incurred by acting students at the country’s leading drama schools. Most of the acting teachers I interviewed acknowledged that their students did not take the time and space to separate themselves from their roles. This resulted in emotional hangovers, which often caused extreme moods and difficulties in their personal lives.</p>
<p>Although it became clear that more still needs to be done to safeguard these acting students’ wellbeing, mental health issues in the arts – along with other stressful workplace environments – are fortunately now being given more significance. Many performing arts schools and companies are actively seeking to address their artists’ mental health and wellbeing concerns.</p>
<h2>Getting in character</h2>
<p>Getting into character is not just as simple as “putting on” or “taking off” a role. <a href="http://www/academia.edu/244485">Performing arts scholar Mark Seton</a> argues that playing a character is a complex process that cannot be separated from the life of the actor.</p>
<p>Sometimes actors are unable to let go of the emotions associated with their characters. This boundary blurring can result in them carrying the role into everyday life – with negative effects.</p>
<p>One acting teacher described how a gentle, polite male student became rude and aggressive during the time he played one of the men involved in a re-enactment of the Anita Cobby murder. The teacher had to point out to him that “seepage” seemed to be taking place between him and the character.</p>
<p>Actors frequently tap into their personal histories to evoke the emotions required to play a role. This can be traumatic if it triggers deep issues or elicits difficult experiences and memories. </p>
<p>One drama school director disclosed that he had to be very careful when choosing plays if they involved domestic violence or sexual assaults because he was aware some of his students had lived through these experiences. It could be emotionally dangerous for them to act out such scenes.</p>
<p>The 2015 Australian Actors’ Wellbeing Study found that almost 40% of actors surveyed had difficulty shaking off intense emotional and/or physical roles.</p>
<p>Although strategies have been developed to help actors detach from the roles they play – to de-role – in my experience and in my research, actors or acting students rarely use these practices. It has long been acknowledged that heading to the bar for a drink after a performance is the traditional way for actors to unwind after performances. The <a href="http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=499926749273237;res=IELHSS">2015 study</a> found that, perhaps unsurprisingly in light of this fact, actors’ alcohol consumption was high.</p>
<h2>How to de-role</h2>
<p>There are many ways to warm down from a performance. Actors can participate in a brief feedback session with cast members. This can involve sharing how the performance has gone as well as other procedures such as deep breathing, visualisations or physical releases.</p>
<p>Other de-roling suggestions include ritualistically disrobing in order to consciously let go of the costume and the character by leaving them both on the rack. Any post-performance sense of closure that actors can create is helpful if it assists them in leaving their characters in the dressing room.</p>
<p>It could involve the use of a symbolic talisman that is carried only when playing the role and left backstage, or the singing of a little tune that represents to them a sense of completion. Whatever works!</p>
<p>The teachers I interviewed maintained that more needed to be done to help acting students better differentiate between the theatre space and the space outside the stage door. This would reinforce healthier work habits, which could eventually transfer into the profession.</p>
<h2>Performing arts companies paying attention</h2>
<p>The 2015 study resulted in the establishment of an Actors Equity Wellness Committee. Its aim is to educate the industry about mental health and wellbeing while providing resources for those who may be at risk.</p>
<p>More performing arts companies are employing psychologists. The Australian Ballet and contemporary dance company CO3 have resident psychologists to assist with dancers’ mental wellbeing.</p>
<p>Theatre productions are more frequently using the services of psychologists – particularly if the subject matter is dark or difficult and likely to trigger psychological or emotional reactions in the actors. Cases in point are recent productions of Sarah Kane’s 4.45 Psychosis, an exploration of mental illness, and a dance-theatre production, Good Little Soldier, which dealt with the family of a Vietnam vet suffering from PTSD.</p>
<p>Drama schools tend to rely on their instructors and affiliated university counselling services to help students with mental health issues. Sydney drama school NIDA has had a resident counsellor one day per week for many years – and he is always booked out. My research suggests that specialised counselling services are an essential backup for students in all areas of the performing arts.</p>
<p>In the future artists will hopefully suffer a little less for their art in order to provide audiences with their best work.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86212/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leith Taylor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While we appreciate an actor’s craft on the stage, the deep emotions they draw on in performance take their toll on mental health. Actors need to “take off” their characters to return to normal life.Leith Taylor, PhD graduate, W.A.Academy of Performing Arts, Edith Cowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.