EARTH WITHOUT ART IS JUST EH

starving artists, nepo babies, and imagine if the government actually valued art?

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about what I read in one of Anne Helen Petersen’s latest posts. In her essay titled “This is How We Fall Out of Love with the World,” she begins with an anecdote about when an Irish author told her why Ireland produces so many artists:

“I keep thinking of a conversation I had last month with Caroline O’Donoghue, the brilliant author of The Rachel Incident. We were talking about the route she took to writing the book, and the prevalence of Irish authors in pop culture. She stopped the wandering conversation in the way you do when you want someone to be very clear about how things actually work. It’s not that Irish people have more historical trauma to mine, she said, or that Americans love Irish shit. It’s that her civilization believes art matters — and funds it accordingly, as part of public infrastructure. They believe art makes life navigable. Its actual value is beyond measure, and like a lot of invaluable things, its survival hinges on public support. Americans, by contrast, will say that art absolutely matters — but balk at the prospect of funding it in ways other than owning it. Art is truly only valuable, in other words, when it can be a profit center.”

I’ve been living that “American artist moonlighting as a barista” life for the past two years, and there’s always a moment every few months when I feel a real sense of discontent and confusion about how I spend my time. When I’m in those more creative spaces, I really enjoy it. I love meeting with my friends to work on our scripts, talk about movies and dream big together. So much so that when we had scheduling conflicts that prevented us from meeting for the better part of a month, I noticed a real shift in my mood. I love when I feel inspired to write on my Substack, even more when that niche interest seems to resonate with others. I love turning on a movie that I’ve been hearing good things about, or that has been on the list for years, and almost studying what it is about it that has captured audiences.

But when I’m standing at work, or picturing where I might be in a year, or thinking about how much I would need to make to move out, I start to feel like I’m holding out for something that might never happen. Like I’m wasting my time. Simply because what I want to do doesn’t make any money.

The idea that everything you do should make money is an inherently capitalistic one. To not be productive is to waste your time. I hate this idea on principle, which unfortunately doesn’t impact the reality that making money doing something is a prerequisite for living comfortably. The world doesn’t really give a shit if you enjoy the thing you do that makes money. And who’s to say that I deserve to do what I’m passionate about when most of the world simply does what they have to do to survive and doesn’t complain? But the whole goal of pursuing a passion as a career is to hopefully merge the economic necessity of making a living with the emotional necessity of honoring your passions.

Unfortunately, that perfect combination isn’t exactly a realistic or common one. As stated in the quote above, we’ve created a society in which making art is not considered, and is therefore not treated like, a worthwhile use of time unless you profit from it. We cherish artists who are able to both create and succeed financially, without acknowledging how tough it was to get to that point.

In Josh O’Connor and Daniel Craig’s Actors on Actors discussion this year, they both spoke about just how tough those years working retail or customer service are when your heart and your desires lie elsewhere. Bridgerton’s Nicola Coughlan lived in London for six months trying to pursue acting while working as a waiter before she moved back home due to just how difficult it was. It’s no wonder there are so many nepo babies in the arts: they rarely have to deal with the same financial barriers to entry as those who are starting without that baseline. Plus with someone in their family in the industry, they not only provide them with connections but also with the constant reminder that what they’re pursuing is possible.

This discrepancy has created a world in which a lot of the artists we see in the public eye (mostly actors) are from a certain social class, but what about the arts for those who just enjoy them? Or who just want to have something fun and creative to do in their free time? James McAvoy, a Scottish actor, spoke about this “class ceiling” on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert nearly a decade ago. In his case he was speaking about the hoard of British actors who have all come out of very prestigious private schools in England and have had access to art education, while regular schools have had the funding for their art programs cut.

“The government isn’t allowing state pupils to have access to art and educational art. I don’t really care if you become an actor, but I do think it’s important to educate children artistically because it’s the one thing that, I think, increases the chance of social mobility and stops you from just sticking where you are. I truly believe that if you want your kids to have a better life than you’ve got, a really good way to do it is to expose them to art because it makes them see beyond their limitations and see new horizons. Even if they can’t physically leave their little town where they were born… I think it’s a system of control to keep people where they are, to cut funding of the arts in education specifically.”

With the current administration looking to dismantle the Department of Education, shifting the burden of public education to the states, one side effect of that already hideous decision would be funding for art programs. Say goodbye to reading, writing and creating!

We’re taught that majoring in history or anthropology or going to a liberal arts college, in general, is a waste of time and money simply because historians or anthropologists or critical thinkers are not as high in demand as engineers or coders or [insert non-artistic occupation here]. If you can’t turn it into a career––preferably one that makes buckets of money, then what’s the point? We’re taught that singing, dancing, painting, writing, acting won’t pay the bills, so what’s the point of spending your time on it? As if listening to your favorite song or watching your favorite TV show or reading a book or a magazine or listening to a podcast or admiring the photographs, the murals and the graffiti in your neighborhood is a waste of time. As if those moments don’t make your day, your week, your year, your life better.

Imagine eternally silent car rides or identically monotonous houses or impossibly boring evenings. Imagine a world in which all anyone ever did was wake up, go to work to make money they would have nothing to spend on (food is art, entertainment is art, clothing is art, architecture is art, music is art, books are art…) and then go to sleep immediately because what would be the point of remaining conscious (consciousness doesn’t make money, after all)?

Artistic pursuits make life worth living. The life that capitalists paint, a life that only exists to produce and make profits, is not a sustainable one. It’s the life of robots. Any time someone creates, especially when they create for no monetary reward at all, they are resisting that capitalistic vision. It’s becoming harder and harder for folks from all walks of life to contribute to that resistance. Art should be hard for internal reasons, like creating the thing you want isn’t working out because it’s not living up to the idea you have of it in your head. It shouldn’t be hard because you physically can’t put food on the table if you spend your time on it.

Don’t allow your pursuit of a stable life to deprive you of your chance to also bring joy into that life. Make art! Even if you stink! Even if it doesn’t make money! Art requires participation from everyone. As Irish actor Anthony Boyle quoted in his acceptance speech for the Rising Star Award at this year’s Irish Film & TV Academy Awards, “The arts are not a prerequisite for the privileged few. Nor are they a playground for the intelligentsia. The arts are for everyone. And failure to include everyone diminishes us all.”

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who wrote this?

Simone Toney is a writer based in New Jersey, USA. She loves to use her BA in psychology and cinema & media studies to analyze her favorite content. She writes about movies, TV, and the current zeitgeist on her Substack “pop culture junkie.” You can also find her on TikTok @simonedanielle01 𓆩♡𓆪