It is time to have a word about
something nasty creeping into our community. It carries a death
warrant for all of the things artists hold dear, inspiration,
creativity, and freedom. It's cash elitism.
Last week we had a visit from the
sailing ships, billed as The Festival of Sail, it should have been an
adventure for the family, a unique opportunity for artists and a boon
to the community...it was none of these. Instead it was an
over-priced, poorly executed, money pit, into which the community
poured money, money which could have gone for things which would
energize the whole community and not just the fortunate few, the cash
elite.
This would be bad enough in a community
as small, economically depressed and educationally challenged as
ours, but it is unfortunately typical of most of the events in this
area.
Let's be frank, there is no future if
we do not get the younger folks involved.
Sure the school kids are important but
their parents count too. The parents struggling to raise four or five
kids on twenty-five thousand a year. Yes, you can make an argument
that they should have thought about that before they became a parent,
but honestly the process of becoming a parent does not lend itself to
time for deep thinking. If we gave it any thought at all before hand
we go and buy a BMW. (The cost is about the same as having a child
and in five years when you are sick to death of it you can trade it
for a Lexus.)
Now maybe the struggling parents have
no one to blame, but themselves, but maybe they could use a hand
anyway. Just being cash strapped doesn't mean you stop dreaming,
hoping, pushing a better life for the kids.
So how do they, trying desperately to
keep the lights on, expose their children to things which would open
their minds, expand their dreams and make them long for the wider
world than just Coos County?
Not with the Tall Gyps charging for
parking, then adding a nine dollar admission fee and offering fifty
dollar “cruises”.
And if the Tall Gyps were the only
villain in the story, it could be overlooked as just a bad moment and
we'll move on to better things, but it isn't. Most of the events in
the local area which offer a view of vistas wider that the local
horizon cost far too much for struggling people to afford. Barbecue
Blues and Brews, The Clambake Jazz Festival and The Oregon Coast
Music Festival are just a few of the events which economically
exclude all, but the cash elite.
As a community artists have an
obligation to always seek ways to include all people, but especially
those people who may think art is a waste of time. If the classes at
the college or at the art museum or at the various gallerys and music
venues are too expensive for the least able, then how can we hope to
engage the next generation or the generations of working poor who
make up so much of this community?
We have no fear the comfortable will
support the arts, this community has a rich and long established
record of supporting the arts and the cash elite make up a very large
part of that and we are most grateful to them for their generous
sharing of resources. It is however not enough.
There must be programs, affordable
programs, understandable programs, engaging programs for all of the
community.
John Beane at So It Goes coffee shop
has made a heroic efforts to provide this community with programs
which engage all of the community and which can be enjoyed without
neglecting the light bill. We should applaud him, support him and
encourage him, but it is not enough.
With all of the artists living in Coos
Bay and the surrounding cities, there is almost nothing being
targeted at the youth market or at the working folks who do not think
they have time or understanding enough for some artsy-fartsy crap.
And yes, they do think it is pointless,
useless, wasteful CRAP.
And you can never change that if you do
not engage them with something they can understand, enjoy and admire.
As an artist we all want to find the
lightning and ride that bolt to the unique, unusual, and (modestly)
brilliant image we see in our mind. But we could also use that same
flash of lightning to make something that the non-artist can find
passion and meaning in.
Why is there no annual comic book art
show? One look through the Coos Art Museums Biennial Art Exhibit will
show you dozens of anime and comic images, but these artists of next
year can only show their work every two years and then only as part
of a larger show where the traditional often swamps the inspired.
If we, as a community want to grow and
replenish the base for arts in our community we must make the best
available at prices everyone can afford, at places where everyone can
go and in a form that everyone, not just artists and the cash elite
can enjoy.
The empty buildings of downtown tell
the story of failure to keep the life of the community vital and
vibrant.
