I also want to say that it is the same in publishing. When I was a school librarian, I welcomed a slew of new voices from black and queer authors when there was very little out there to buy or read. My students were hungry for it. But like sharks in the water smelling blood, the publishers found a new wave of profitability from these writers to the exclusion of other new voices. They were heralded by the cancel culture crowd. And now, I can't pick up an interesting title without an LQBTQIA protagonist or theme. The glut is neaseating and tiresome. And this is what creates backlash.
I'm returning to the classics. One book I can recommend bc it stuck in my mind all these years is "From a low and quiet Sea" by an irish writer Donal Ryan from 2018.
Excellent essay, Kevin! This floored me: "In one recent application, artistic merit accounted for only 25% of the evaluation rubric." Wow. Rooting for you and Lud-in-the-Mist!
Thank you for reading! I was supposed to get feedback on why that grant was turned down yesterday. I scheduled the appointment a month ago. The day before the meeting they cancelled and told me to reschedule. The next available date is one month away.
First-class writing, thinking and explication regarding a convoluted and controversial topic - bravely done!
Your discussion balances cultural and political issues with plenty of concrete examples, and you deftly deploy the cards/wager metaphor throughout.
I agree that when the criteria for awarding arts grants depend on what you are rather than on what you do, quality devolves into slogans and victimology. One irony is that this policy undermines the token artists it rewards: it causes the awardees to question their talent when they suspect that their recognition isn’t based on their ability and hard work but only on the skin color or sexuality they never chose. A Latin Juilliard student once confided to me, “Am I just a counted bean?”
Artists and audiences can sense when the art is simply a billboard that is presented through the luck of the draw, and they lose confidence in the work’s - and the field’s - integrity. That’s when people’s engagement with art erodes, and everybody loses.
Thank you some much for taking time to read it and post a wonderfully thoughtful response. ❤️ I was worried it was too long, but it’s a tangled issue so I thought I might as well just put all my cards on the table and see if it resonates with anyone else. Thanks for letting me know it did. I really appreciate the support!
You're not a hypocrite. You fit the criteria they require, and you are doing what you need to do because the work is your first and foremost important to you. I find it sadly hilarious that people promoting a singular ideology don't realize that THAT one commonality may be the only commonality. In other words, they fund you because you are gay, and may even write from that gay perspective, but that label does nothing to define you as a person, how you feel, or how you think about anything else, enough so that their requirements prompted you to write this essay.
"What troubles me most is that identity seems to have become the most valuable chip in the arts funding game at the exact moment when I’ve become least interested in my own identity."
I think this is the mark of a good artist. Unfortunately, this subject matter now seems tired and dated, and it's because of the emphasis on identity in the arts over the past decade that has given us such garbage as that play about a non-binary Joan of Arc and "A Strange Loop," which sucks balls in 100% the wrong way. Even material that explores identity in a novel way will be misconstrued through the uninteresting lens of a waning zeitgeist. One of the things I resent the most about the TQ juggernaut is that it has made it impossible to explore the topic of gender in art anymore without the weight and distortion of the popular dogma.
Excellent essay. Thanks for highlighting this regressive trend of "equity through exclusion". Keep going. Hopefully the pendulum will swing back to sanity soon.
Privilege is a funny thing, it comes and goes (saying that as one who had genuine white privilege in Apartheid era South Africa). The way I've rationalized it is - what do you do with the privilege that comes your way? Do you maintain your integrity, and use that privilege to benefit the out-group?
Well, from what you've written I think you have passed that test.
Here in the UK, it seems there are many forms of privilege that affect how far people get in the theatre business... usually money and connections, but sometimes it's just a case of being in the right place at the right time which even if pretty random itself a privilege.
I also want to say that it is the same in publishing. When I was a school librarian, I welcomed a slew of new voices from black and queer authors when there was very little out there to buy or read. My students were hungry for it. But like sharks in the water smelling blood, the publishers found a new wave of profitability from these writers to the exclusion of other new voices. They were heralded by the cancel culture crowd. And now, I can't pick up an interesting title without an LQBTQIA protagonist or theme. The glut is neaseating and tiresome. And this is what creates backlash.
Yes I have a hard time finding new fiction to read. I did enjoy Lionel Shriver’s new book A Better Life, but since then nothing new has caught my eye.
I'm returning to the classics. One book I can recommend bc it stuck in my mind all these years is "From a low and quiet Sea" by an irish writer Donal Ryan from 2018.
Excellent essay, Kevin! This floored me: "In one recent application, artistic merit accounted for only 25% of the evaluation rubric." Wow. Rooting for you and Lud-in-the-Mist!
Thank you for reading! I was supposed to get feedback on why that grant was turned down yesterday. I scheduled the appointment a month ago. The day before the meeting they cancelled and told me to reschedule. The next available date is one month away.
First-class writing, thinking and explication regarding a convoluted and controversial topic - bravely done!
Your discussion balances cultural and political issues with plenty of concrete examples, and you deftly deploy the cards/wager metaphor throughout.
I agree that when the criteria for awarding arts grants depend on what you are rather than on what you do, quality devolves into slogans and victimology. One irony is that this policy undermines the token artists it rewards: it causes the awardees to question their talent when they suspect that their recognition isn’t based on their ability and hard work but only on the skin color or sexuality they never chose. A Latin Juilliard student once confided to me, “Am I just a counted bean?”
Artists and audiences can sense when the art is simply a billboard that is presented through the luck of the draw, and they lose confidence in the work’s - and the field’s - integrity. That’s when people’s engagement with art erodes, and everybody loses.
Thank you some much for taking time to read it and post a wonderfully thoughtful response. ❤️ I was worried it was too long, but it’s a tangled issue so I thought I might as well just put all my cards on the table and see if it resonates with anyone else. Thanks for letting me know it did. I really appreciate the support!
You're not a hypocrite. You fit the criteria they require, and you are doing what you need to do because the work is your first and foremost important to you. I find it sadly hilarious that people promoting a singular ideology don't realize that THAT one commonality may be the only commonality. In other words, they fund you because you are gay, and may even write from that gay perspective, but that label does nothing to define you as a person, how you feel, or how you think about anything else, enough so that their requirements prompted you to write this essay.
Thanks so much Tina! I really appreciate the support.
"What troubles me most is that identity seems to have become the most valuable chip in the arts funding game at the exact moment when I’ve become least interested in my own identity."
I think this is the mark of a good artist. Unfortunately, this subject matter now seems tired and dated, and it's because of the emphasis on identity in the arts over the past decade that has given us such garbage as that play about a non-binary Joan of Arc and "A Strange Loop," which sucks balls in 100% the wrong way. Even material that explores identity in a novel way will be misconstrued through the uninteresting lens of a waning zeitgeist. One of the things I resent the most about the TQ juggernaut is that it has made it impossible to explore the topic of gender in art anymore without the weight and distortion of the popular dogma.
Excellent essay. Thanks for highlighting this regressive trend of "equity through exclusion". Keep going. Hopefully the pendulum will swing back to sanity soon.
Privilege is a funny thing, it comes and goes (saying that as one who had genuine white privilege in Apartheid era South Africa). The way I've rationalized it is - what do you do with the privilege that comes your way? Do you maintain your integrity, and use that privilege to benefit the out-group?
Well, from what you've written I think you have passed that test.
Here in the UK, it seems there are many forms of privilege that affect how far people get in the theatre business... usually money and connections, but sometimes it's just a case of being in the right place at the right time which even if pretty random itself a privilege.
This is why I sold all the books I had on writing books and used the small proceeds to buy a copy of The Killing Joke.
It's not going to happen for me even if things change. So...I'll find something else to do with the last 2/5 of my life.
Because if the rest of us even try it it's cultural appropriation, offensive and doesn't represent lived experience.
So t's up to you.
Hell, it's the only reason you get paid anyway.
Don't bite the hand that feeds you. You've got the market all to yourself, don't mess it up!
When the dancing monkey gets paid to dance, you dance.
Dance, monkey, dance.