Viral arts cuts video

[Marcus Romer]

[Jack J Hutchinson]

Fantastic Marcus, thanks for posting!

[Mark Robinson]

Hmm, to be honest I think this is not the message we need to be getting across, either tactically or of itself. (Apologies if I've had a sense of humour bypass and am taking this too seriously, or missed some something in this video.) We cannot justify public funding for the arts on the grounds that actors will be upset if they have no new scripts or nice sets or costumes. There are plenty of old scripts many actors get fulfillment from are there not? But even if there weren't, the government or public won't devote resources in a supposed time of austerity to new writing for those those reasons. We need to be showing the damage to the public who don't make their living from the arts if they have no new stories to help make sense of the world and their lives and emotions, no new imaginings, kids with no imagination or compassion, no beauty, nothing to confuse and confound them into realisation. Nothing to pass the time between work and sleep. Impovershed landscapes and cityscapes. A London empty of tourists. Straftford-upon-Avon as a ghost town. We need, in short, to concentrate the message on representing the beneficiaries of the arts who will lose out, not the workers in the arts, vital as they are.

I do of course appreciate the importance of investing in innovation, new work, the huge investment individuals working in the arts make, and that the arts can do many other things. I just think that now is not the time for that to be the main message. The tricky sophistication is making the case that the infrastructure enabled by public funding is core to that public benefit - including the thigs the Govt might suspect are not 'frontline', but which make such a difference to adding the public to the real world version of this video - including admin, audience development and other staff. It's not all about actors.

[Marcus Romer]

Take your points Mark, and clearly this is not the only message that this site is pointing to.

What is interesting I think is that as a sector there are ways in which a creative response other than just words on sites can be utilised - as the video from British Columbia shows.

The question for me is what are the responses from the sector that show innovation / art / creativity / that have the ability to move hearts and minds and enable an engaged support from all

Also I don't think the video is about the new work neccessarily, it is that there will be no money for any work to be produced, so the net effect will be that nothing will be made is what I took from it when it was sent to me.

But again good to hear from you and agree that the images and points you make would make a fantastic viral video that would tell the story very succinctly indeed.

M

[Mark Robinson]

I do agree that creative responses can work better than argument. Just not sure this one does it for me, unfortunately.