Do we agree that there should be full-time artists? And not just the pop-star sort but also an ecosystem of local artists producing all manner of non- and semi-commercial work? Does society need artists anymore? Has their value been rendered superfluous by the likes of YouTube and Overwatch? Or perhaps we are all artists now — with our Instagram filters and T-Pain auto-tune apps? Maybe there’s just so much awesome media out there that we don’t need as many “professional” artists as we used to?
My hunch is that most people still believe that a thriving artist caste is vital to the fabric of our society. However, while it might seem important and obvious that we need artists, how does this play out in a society that does not support its artists?
San Francisco once had a reputation the world over as a locus for artistic foment. Oakland and Berkeley weren’t so shabby either. Nowadays that reputation is running on fumes. We’re still here, but it’s hardly the robust scene it used to be.
The “Free” Market Is Coming for Us
Imagine San Francisco et al bereft of its vaunted artists—no more young, edgy, aspiring creatives moving here to follow their noncommercial dreams, and all the established artists getting priced out of their studios. Anyone who hasn’t crossed over into tech (designing advertisements, scoring video-game soundtracks, etc.) or married a techie — the free market is coming for us.
It doesn’t matter how many beautifully designed consumer products come out of the Bay Area milieu. Or how gorgeous the graphics are for some hot new app. The energy and vibrancy of full-time, noncommercial working artists is a different thing. I think it’s an important thing. And it’s a thing that is going to be extinct in the near future.
Except for the highest echelons of the art world (e.g., SF Symphony, Metallica), everyone who lives and creates work here is struggling to hold on. It fundamentally doesn’t pay enough to be a working artist to live here. Sure, you can keep it real and live in your rent-controlled studio apartment and eat burritos forever—but forget about ever raising a family or owning a home.
Art 2.0
If you attend performances in the Bay Area, here are names you’ll never see on the funders’ list: Google, Twitter, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce, Uber and so on and so forth, ad infinitum. These techno-libertarian types are all too overworked “saving” the world to meddle in local arts affairs. They probably think that tech is Art 2.0 and that we 1.0 types are getting phased out like rotary telephones.
It doesn’t matter how many beautifully designed consumer products come out of the Bay Area milieu. Or how gorgeous the graphics are for some hot new app. The energy and vibrancy of full-time, noncommercial working artists is a different thing. I think it’s an important thing. And it’s a thing that is going to be extinct in the near future.
Not that there won’t be performances filling our theaters and concert halls. There will still be plenty to see and hear. Touring artists, DJs in clubs—that sort of thing. My biggest fear is that most busy folks won’t even notice the difference. On the surface, it will seem like the Bay Area is still happening. They won’t miss the artists dedicated to working in the community and working with kids, the works by marginalized and underrepresented populations—those myriad tiny artistic actions whose sum total reverberates out to the larger world in ways that cannot be measured.
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Hewlett. That name ring a bell to you? As in the guy who wasn’t Packard? Start reading plaques around here, and you’ll notice “William and Flora Hewlett Foundation” all over Bay Area buildings and parks. The foundation was established in 1966 by engineer and entrepreneur William R. Hewlett and his wife, Flora Lamson Hewlett. They wanted to give back to the community, which had supported them in becoming very, very, very wealthy.
The Hewlett Foundation already gives a lot of money to arts and many other causes — $20 million a year to Bay Area arts nonprofits and $335 million to the arts over the course of its 50 years. This new initiative, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the foundation, is a new giant money bomb of support. They are granting $8 million dollars over the course of five years — 50 awards to local organizations working with a diverse group of local and international artists. It is (by their own accounts) the largest commissioning initiative of its kind in the United States.
The first cohort of 10 announced today includes internationally renowned musicians and composers such as Meredith Monk, Terence Blanchard and DJ Spooky, along with locals such as Korean shamanic performance artist Dohee Lee and contemporary opera composer Jake Heggie (Dead Man Walking).
Your Days Are Numbered
For the past 70-plus years, the Bay Area was the world’s dream place for artists to live and work and make things happen. But the cost of living has thoroughly outstripped that outdated reality. In 2017, there is no sustainable path. Unless you already own a house and unless you’re never planning to have a family, the reality is that your days are numbered in the Bay Area. Maybe not this year, but soon it’s going to be time to face reality and move on to a locale with a realistic cost of living.
UNLESS!
Unless the unthinkable happens, and dot-com companies follow the lead of granddaddy Hewlett and toss a few crumbs to us starving artists.
Hewlett’s $8 million is going to have a powerful impact. Beyond the big-name lead artists, many local organizations, collaborating artists, schoolkids and so many others are going to benefit. When these projects start coming to fruition, there will be a noticeable activation of exciting events happening all over the Bay Area.
Eight million is chump change for any of these multibillion-valued orgs. If every tech company did its due diligence, if they would toss some pittance of support our way, the arts community would be awash in funds, and the Bay Area would once again be resplendent in vibrant, risk-taking, diverse art making. Personally, I believe every local tech company should grant some arts funding toward offsetting gentrification and also to generally make the Bay Area more awesome.
A Minuscule Gesture
Tech and the arts can coexist. These two interests shouldn’t be at odds. They complement each other. A dozen companies deciding that this is important and making a Hewlett-esque financial gesture would put the entire ecosystem back into balance. If we had a thriving tech biz and a sustainable arts scene here in the Bay Area, there’s no doubt this would be the most amazing place in the world in which to live. If SF becomes a dystopian bedroom community for pampered techies, it will not be the most amazing place in the world to live. Why would anyone want that? Choose art!
