Crisis As Opportunity

By: Eric Booth*

This blog is published as part of the #KeepMakingArt campaign. The curated series features voices in the arts/culture, education, and social change sectors to capture the deep thinking and innovation occurring as a result of the COVID-19 global pandemic.

In the first weeks of his breakthrough election, U.S. President Barack Obama was slammed with the worst financial crisis in this country since The Great Depression. 

His response? “A crisis is too good an opportunity to waste.” 

That isn’t the message of a fluffy optimist; it’s the enthusiasm of an irrepressible creator. In chaotic times, people become more open to innovation; change becomes more possible. I hear Obama’s statement as a call to teaching artists to use this opportunity of time and of disrupted norms to disrupt the entrenched status quo. That’s what artists do—make stuff they care about. 

And what do teaching artists do?  As John Dewey says, we activate the artistry of others so that they, and their communities, can make more stuff that matters—so that they can imagine the world as if it were otherwise, and instigate their creating it. 

The Urgency to Create Change

I have the COVID-19 virus as I write this from quarantine, and I feel an Obama-esque urgency for us to use this rare liminal time to create some change. 

I’m going to recommend three kinds of change you might go for and will leave it to you to make what matters to you. 

1.     Build the network. Teaching artists, community artists, social practice artists, participatory artists, whatever we are called, are good at building community. We can bring groups together into focus and action, we can do it remarkably quickly, and we can do it with diverse groups (an extraordinary skill in countries where that rarely happens).

But we are much less dedicated and skilled at building our own community. If we were better connected, we would become more visible, more influential, and thus better funded. Use this time to connect with colleagues in whatever way works for you. Reach out to people you’ve always felt you should be in touch with. Have a Zoom lunch with three like-spirited colleagues. Have an afternoon Facetime glass of wine with someone from an organization you want to learn about.  And don’t waste that time grousing about current difficulties—that’s not what Obama did. Learn. Think together. Enjoy the invigoration of fresh connections that we reliably provide for our participants, and build us a stronger field.

 

2.     Learn... There was a tenfold increase in registrations on Kadenze (the largest online platform for arts learning) in the first weeks of the pandemic. Now is the time to invest in your own learning, to feed your career. You know that idea that has been lurking in the back of your mind?—Feed it time and attention in these disrupted weeks. 

…And experiment. Artists are doing generous, beautiful work in sharing their art. Teaching artists, in my view, not so much—yet. The rush to find ways to authentically adapt our in-person work to online practice has been admirably active, but it reveals to me that we haven’t done our advance homework in exploring ways to deliver in virtual workshops what teaching artists can do in the flesh. I see engagement online, and in video games I see amazing entertainment; I see communication and instruction via the internet. But I don’t see much activating the artistry of others—the thing that makes us an irreplaceable workforce. Now is the time to experiment with rediscovering the effective, transformative use of your teaching artist power tools online. We can make breathtaking artworks like this:

And we can try good experiments like this from Lincoln Center Education. What’s your experiment? How can you break new ground? 

3.     Engage in the active advocacy you know you should do. Sure, it is something to sign a petition, but get off your duff and actually be heard.  Contact your elected representatives and tell them what you think they should prioritize.  It takes so few minutes—you have those few minutes. If we did this in the numbers our field actually has, we would become visible and heard. I write 20-30 emails, postcards, and letters to decision-makers and influential people every week. Will you please do one a week? Maybe like this campaign from Creative Generation; write your letters to shed light on the crucial role of teaching artists. 

Why and What Now?

Teaching artists are the most economically vulnerable group in the disruptions of the arts industries. That’s not just my opinion; that’s the conclusion of one of the leading consultants in the arts. 

What are we going to do in this vulnerable time? Let’s do what we know how to do, as the artists/teaching artists that we are: create forward movement for our own passionate interests, and activate the passion of others.  

*Eric Booth

In 2015 Eric Booth was given the nation’s highest award in arts education, and was named one of the 25 most influential people in the arts in the U.S.  He began as a Broadway actor, and became a businessman (his company became the largest of its kind in the U.S. in 7 years), and author of seven books, the most recent are Playing for Their Lives (the only book on the global growth of El Sistema) and Tending the Perennials.  He has been on the faculty of Juilliard (12 years), Tanglewood (5 years), The Kennedy Center (20 years), and Lincoln Center Education. He serves as a consultant for many arts organizations (including seven of the ten largest U.S. orchestras), cities, states and businesses around the U.S.. A frequent keynote speaker, he founded the International Teaching Artist Conferences and launched the ITAC Collaborative (the first global network of artists who work in schools and communities) in 2019--join free at https://www.itac-collaborative.com/. Website filled with lots of free stuff : ericbooth.net