The Sunday News
Raisedon Baya
Arts and Culture is slowly growing from an informal to a formal sector. A lot of young people are now considering careers in the arts. However, most just dive in without any basic understanding of the sector and, unfortunately, most of those who blindly jump into the sector end up miserable and even leaving the sector for good when reality hits home. This week, through an easy alphabet, we try to unpack some of the popular concepts about arts and culture. Here we go:
A is for art. Art itself is more important than individuals or personalities. Love the art in you and not you in the art. If you come into the arts and culture sector for the wrong reasons you are definitely going to be disillusioned and very miserable. And once that happens the blame game starts. There are a lot of artistes or former artistes who continue to angrily blame others for their own failures. Art is not just about fame or fortune. There is more to it that most people care to know.
B is for business. The current global discourse is about the creative industry or creative economy. Governments are being encouraged to look at the arts and culture sector as an industry — as a sector that can employ people, produce sellable products and contribute seriously to a country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). On a daily basis individual artistes are being encouraged to monetise on their talents. Gone is the concept of arts for arts’ sake. For artists to survive they need to focus on creating brands, products, and markets for their products. In Europe, America, Asia and a few African countries arts and culture is contributing seriously to economic growth. In fact arts and culture are the fastest growing industry in the above mentioned continents. Just think Hollywood, Broadway, American music scene, Bollywood, Nollywood, West End, South African arts scenes and the international festival circuit.
C is for content. Any business venture is about selling particular products. Products = Sales = Income. It is as simple as that. Therefore artistes should always see themselves as businesspeople selling content. Artistes must be very clear about their products and their markets. Artistes must invest in products. Half the time local artistes are selling the wrong things and selling them at the wrong price. We know of many local artistes who have spent the better part of their careers selling themselves or their groups instead of products. People buy products — not people. What will they do with people? An artiste without any products is like a baker who says he is in the business of selling bread but has no bread to sell. Without content an artiste cannot be in business.
D is for dreams. Art is about dreaming and selling dreams. Half the time artistes are selling dreams to their audiences.
Yes. The idea is to sell those dreams that our audiences would love to live but cannot. Art is about making audiences believe their dreams are possible. It is about make belief. Make them believe that someone, somewhere, is living their dream or their nightmare for that matter. To be honest if one cannot dream then they have no business in the arts. For art is for dreamers. Those that can look beyond either the past or future and make sense out of it.
E is for education. For quite a long time the arts have been viewed as a dumping ground for the uneducated. Many people, especially in Africa, still believe it is the case. However, things have changed or at least are changing. Proper education has come to the arts. In the past arts education was informal and haphazard. But this is changing. Formal arts education is coming to revolutionise how we see and relate to the arts. As we write high schools, polytechnics and universities have introduced a variety of courses and degrees in arts. Theatre arts. Applied Arts and Design.
Film. Creative writing. Education is the key to unlock the power and potential of creativity.
F is for financial literacy. Artistes are known for reckless spending. When they have money they want everyone to see they are spending. Unfortunately, it is when then are broke that many people notice. We cannot talk about art as a business without us talking about financial literacy among artists. Sustainability of the arts will only come when the majority of artistes have attained basic financial knowledge. G is for growth. Like in any other sector personal growth is very important. Everyone in the arts sector must grow — intellectually and otherwise. Artistes must know that every individual is responsible for their own growth and must invest in their own personal growth.
H is for human beings. Art and culture is for people and about people. Every product carries a human story.
Remember we are a story people. As we create our art, our content we must never lose sight that is about the people.
We shall stop here for today. More about alphabets in the near future.
