Suzanne Harrington: 'The arts are under-represented, under-reported and under-valued'
Brendan Gleeson attends "The Banshees of Inisherin" UK Premiere at the 66th BFI London Film Festival at The Royal Festival Hall on October 13, 2022 in London, England.
Brendan Gleeson says that: “The arts are there largely to make people feel like they are less alone.”
Anyone who has ever read a book or listened to a song will already know this, but he’d like our connection with the arts to be a bit more concrete.
A bit more normalised, to perk up our souls and make us think of stuff beyond the everyday. To connect us, rather than divide us. His idea is genius in its simplicity — put the arts on The News. Make it a news segment, like sport.
When we tune into The News, its daily compilation of awfulness leaves us feeling horrified, enraged, afraid, frustrated, isolated.
This daily onslaught is followed by sport, as a kind of neutralising balm. Sport is great for this if you care about sport, which most of us do to some degree, but does sport speak to the soul the way the arts do? Maybe if you’re an ultra, but what about everyone else?
Which is why Gleeson’s idea of a dedicated arts section in The News to “levitate it in the national conversation” is such a good one.
The arts are under-represented, under-reported and under-valued.
Viewed as the preserve of the middle classes, even though creativity is core to all of us from the moment we first pick up a crayon. We are all creative beings. We all respond to creative expression, from babies to Category 1 prisoners.
The arts are a masterclass in empathy, in how we see ourselves in others. Films, books, songs, paintings, plays — it’s how we access the inner lives of ourselves and others. How we relate.
‘Art for all’ has always been the slogan of artists Gilbert & George, yet we often regard the arts as elitist, expensive, and inaccessible.
A private pursuit behind a posh paywall guarded by people with names like Arabella and Ariadne, Benedict and Barnaby. A luxury we cannot afford. The title of Kneecap’s debut — Fine Art — drips with sarcasm.
Gleeson suggests we dismantle this thinking by making the arts part of the daily national conversation. Mainstream it.
As well as talking about how Spurs went out on penalties to PSG despite being 2-0 up in the 85th minute, we could also talk about which plays are opening, which galleries are showing what, maybe with a round-up of current music and film events — similar to the daily summary of what’s happening in sporting leagues.
Why do we hear about sporting events and competitions as a matter of course, yet only hear about the arts if they involve major money-spinners such as the Oasis reunion tour, or if there’s a celebrity angle that shoves it into the mainstream news?
Bringing the arts into focus with a short daily national TV segment would do wonders for us, individually and collectively. Instead of manufactured culture wars orchestrated by terrible people to further divide us, we could be talking about actual cultural events designed to unite us in conversation.
Instead of filling the end of The News with a disposable item of sentimental whimsy — a skateboarding dog, a long lost library book — the slot could be filled with current events in music, literature, poetry, dance, theatre, film.
Something to think about, and something to talk about, that connects us all. Normalise that.
