Will the arts ever be the front page? A question I frustratedly ask myself as I hear yet another comment about pursuing theatre for a career. I was taught from a pretty early age that the arts will pretty much always be overlooked. I think that my first year of high school solidified the struggle that would follow me for my entire life: the attempt to bring the arts to “center stage”. My first year of high school defined society's relationship with the arts in major ways for me. High school informed me quickly on how the arts get swept aside, how they are considered “play” or “fun”, and not “serious”. It made me realize that I’d always be flipping through the paper for the arts section, normally toward the back. That I may not be taken seriously, that I may be made fun of. Growing up in a community that values sports more than anything else isn’t the ideal environment for a budding artist. That being said, I think I did alright. That doesn’t take away from all the things the artist in me went through to find myself where I am today. It’s hard to look out into the audience of a high school auditorium and see ¼ of the students from the student section of last nights football game supporting your musical, concert, or dance show. It’s difficult to not be taken as seriously as the basketball players at your art show in the gym. It’s not easy to watch track athletes and soccer players leave school early for away games, but the crew of the school musical be denied early dismissal to finish the set for a performance that night. It is not easy to watch people push down the arts everywhere; in the real world, in the college world, in the halls of your high school. But that is exactly what makes the arts so incredibly admirable to me.
We all make it out. As artists, we are wired to push past the people who censor art, who push it away, who deny its importance. We make it out of the high school that spends money for coach buses for the football team and buys them states rings, but forgets about the jam packed theatre trophy case near the auditorium. We make it to another place. Perhaps a college or a university, where we can study what we love, surrounded by people who KNOW the worth of the things we love. People who realize it is not high school sports that will change the world, but art. People who have equal appreciation for students in all majors, in all activities, doing the things that they love. It’s passionate and outrageous and you can see the fire inside of every student whose realized that they’ve elbowed their way out of a daily struggle to have their voices heard. The oppression of the arts isn’t over for me. In life, pursuing the arts will always be one of the hardest things anyone can do, but if you have the passion and the commitment it will also be the most rewarding.
I’ve made it to my little haven of artistry. At school, in my program, everyone I’m surrounded by is an incredible artist. We all know that we will always be looked at by people in other majors as kids from “another world” because we take our shoes off in class and call our professors by their first name. But that doesn’t change the honest, soul searching, explosive work we do everyday. It doesn’t change the fact that I get to wake up every single day and be surrounded by the art and the artists that will change the world. I hope every kid from my high school who lies awake at night thinking of their future knows that there is a place for the young artists in the world to thrive, we just have to work hard to find it.
The arts will probably never be the front page. It’s something that I’ve learned to accept. There will always be people who think other things are more important. Who don’t want to accept the truth: that things like Hamilton: The American Musical DO change the world. The world that ignorance thrives in, the world that is revolutionized everyday by artwork, theatre, literature, and music. It’s a shame that not everyone will ever be able to realize the importance of art. Some people will never realize the way that art explores new things, pushes boundaries, and makes important statements. I only wish they could. Especially in today’s world, one where more than anything, we need the hope that art gives us to survive. One of my biggest hopes for the future is that people begin to realize the value of art in this world. That it isn’t something that we have in the world to enjoy as entertainment, it is something we need to survive. The arts may never be the front page for you, and that’s okay. But I sure hope you’ll find yourself in a situation one day where art changes the way you see the world, and you have a desire to make the arts the front page- just as I do.
