I write to you today in comlpaint of recent unfortunes. However, pointing out the splinter in your eye would be ignoring the plank in mine. I shall be frank:
We're not supporting the arts enough.
There are many reasons for this. The first, the foremost, the most essential: Money. The arts needs money to survive, we don't always have money to give them. Budgets are tight, no one knows that more than me. $10 for a really cheap show in Kansas City can seem like an unnecessary luxary. But then when it gets up to $15? $20? $30??? Please. Not to mention the gas, especially if you live in the suburbs. It just doesn't seem necessary or plausible to go see every show or view every art gallery in Kansas City.
But when a theater company or any other arts company goes under because too many people said they would support it, but then didn't ...Well, there's another issue.
Theatre. Is. Dying. It's a dying art. The movie industry and music industry have nothing to worry about in regards to money. I don't care how much they bitch and complain about "pirating", they're still raking in ridiculous amounts of cash. It doesn't matter how many people promise Paramount Pictures they'll come see their next new big-budget film; chances are, they're still going to make a killing off of it. But if 50 people promise their friends in a theater company they'll come see a show, or visit their friend's art gallery, and only about half of those people actually go... Well, needless to say there's major losses taken.
We can use any excuse we want: There isn't enough time, My weekend is booked, I don't have that kind of money right now, Why would I want to go see that, etc etc etc. But never forget what the arts is here to do: Open our eyes, educate us, elighten us, entertain us. Maybe you owe it to yourself to go see more art. Maybe you haven't even realized yet how important a role it can play in your life.
Or maybe you'll read this article and not have changed a bit.
The risk all artists run when they create something to be consumed.
Thanks anyway,
Corbin
