Is the Government Quietly Killing Art? Why So Many Creatives Are Giving Up, Gin Hammond reveals
Other cultural shifts that I’m seeing are how the government is making it harder and harder for artists to do their jobs, right, especially if our work is collaborative. And the less we’re in touch with each other, the more our ability to express things and express them well and profoundly and in a unified way, the more that’s weakened, you know. So many people, we have our echo chambers, right?
But instead of shifting the narrative, we need to look at the framework, the world in which the narrative is happening, right?
And I feel like one difficulty that a lot of artists and a lot of, you know, political artists too especially have is in finding where are these places where it’s worth it to give a little for the greater good. I am a person who believes in the greater good. I don’t associate the word compromise only with negativity, right?
The first time I ever came across somebody who thought the word compromise was a negative thing, it took me a while. I always thought it was a positive thing, it’s the way, you know, we find a way.
But yeah, it’s a lot of, I was talking with my agent, a lot of actors seem to be regarding acting or treating it more as a hobby because they’re juggling so many other survival jobs. And what does that do? That impairs their work. I mean, you know, there’s commercial stuff, but there’s also other things, right? So it’s interesting to see the direct impact that what’s going on now in our country is having.
That said, these things can be like a grit in an oyster shell, right?
There’s so many Soviet artists, you know, I studied in Russia for a bit. There’s so many artists who, once the wall fell and perestroika started to take place and all of that, they’re like, I don’t know what to write about anymore. There’s a great play at Seattle Rep. Mother Russia, where there was a singing star because she was singing against the government and oppression and the regime.
And then come perestroika, she’s like, now I’m just a school teacher because all this stuff that I was singing about is moot.
So it could be one of these never waste a good crisis moments, but we just have to get our brains there faster, I think, for our own survival.