FTH Ep. 101 - Why Can't It Be Art? with Gavin Lodge

Executive Director Gavin Lodge introduces 4A Arts and explores a new age of arts advocacy, where art shapes identity, economy, and democracy.

4A Arts believes that arts and culture are basic human rights and powerful tools for building a whole and healthy society.

Please follow our efforts and growth to change the narrative around American creativity and consequently to increase support from elected officials at the local, state, and federal levels.

Please sign up for updates of our movement to change the narrative around American creativity and consequently to increase support from elected officials at the local, state, and federal levels.

We would appreciate your support in our efforts.

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/company/4aarts/

FB: https://www.facebook.com/4AArts.Org

IG: https://www.instagram.com/4aarts/

Transcript

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Welcome to Framing the Hammer, the podcast produced by 4A Arts American Alliance of Artists and Audiences. We aim to change the narrative around arts, culture, design, and craft for American society to ultimately influence how elected leaders at the local, state, and federal levels support and fund them. On Framing the Hammer, we chat with artists from throughout the creative economy to advance this social movement. We hope you'll sign up and join us at 4aarts.org. everyone. Welcome to Framing the Hammer, the podcast produced by 4A Arts, the American Alliance of Artists and Audiences. For now, I'm your host, Gavin Lodge. I'm the executive director of 4A Arts. It is my extreme pleasure to be in this position and also to be podcasting with you because I love talking arts, I love talking culture and I kind of love talking, too. I particularly love interviewing people and finding out what makes them tick and what drives their passions. And that's what this podcast is really gonna be about, about people who work in the creative industry of all sorts and of all types, kinds, breeds, all of the above. I'd love to be able to talk to docents at museums or security guards at theaters or what have you, the people who bring greater perspective and context and depth and richness to what makes the American creative economy. So. A brief intro about 4A Arts. We were founded just a few years ago by a visionary leader in the modern dance world, Charlie Reinhart. I already interviewed him and he will be our first interview here. So check that interview after this introduction. He, at his 80th birthday party when he was being celebrated by frankly all of the American modern dance world, said, okay, I don't need to make speeches up here. I just want somebody out there in the audience to start an organization that's like the AARP of arts and culture, an organization like the AARP that has changed the dialogue around how a certain demographic or certain population or certain industry is valued by American society and therefore by American government. AARP did that for senior citizens. And we want to do that for arts and culture. We want to change the way American society sees and values arts and culture in its everyday lives. And we hope that by that will then change, bring change to the way American government prioritizes both at the local state and federal level. Ultimately, we want to work towards a secretary of arts and culture as well. But even if we had a department, uh U S department of arts and culture, we would still need advocacy on the daily so that artists can get the support they need and so that audiences get the access to the educational informational and entertaining aspects of arts and culture that make not only our lives more rich and more worth living but also drive the economy because arts and culture is absolutely an economic engine that makes our economy run. Let me share with you just a few statistics that back up why we feel so strongly in this regard that that Arts and culture is not just about enriching our lives and entertaining us, though we sure as heck know that that is the case. And by the way, let me jump in right here to myself in saying that we believe art is not about Hollywood, it's not about Picasso paintings, it's not just about modern dance, it is about all of the things that make American identity and American culture relevant and creative. It informs our creativity. It informs our freedom of expression. And whether you are part of a quilting bee, whether or not you draw posters for your high school student council, whether or not you are a lowrider painter who decorates cars for a living, whether or not you are a potter, whether or not you just get dressed in the morning in a way that makes you feel good, you are a creative person and you are an artist. Every single...so many aspects of our everyday lives are creative. It's not about fancy, what is perceived as fancy art like Broadway and, and fancy museums. No, we are here to let every American know that they are part of an audience and that they are artists themselves. And they want to be part of a movement that not only enriches their lives, brings people together, but also, let's face it, makes our economy run. The statistics I was talking about, 96% of Americans value art in their lives, but only 27% think that artists bring actual value to our society. We all know that that's not the case, right? Artists bring un-immeasurable value to our society. Also, 4.6 million workers are part of the creative economy. That's down from 5.2 from 2019, by the way, but still a significant population. 1.65 million small businesses are in the creative economy, comprising 5% of all American small businesses. There's 877 billion in value added to the American economy. There are 4.2%, excuse me, 4.2% of the entire American GDP is made up of the creative economy. We, creative economy, is the fourth largest employer in the United States and the third largest in terms of compensation. It's the third largest industry in the United States, an industry that's larger than transportation and agriculture combined, which is $747 billion, and nearly as large as construction,$893 billion. And yet it has no place in the presidential cabinet with other industries that contribute far less to the American economy. Isn't it time we had uh a secretary of arts and culture? I like to argue that this is so much about our economy, but it's also about our identity. And it's also about our perception overseas. I mean, we stand as uh a pinnacle of uh creativity and expression and America has sometimes done some not so great things in the world, but bringing art and expression and a freedom to be just be you is a very American ideal. And I think so much of that comes from our creativity and from our arts. I also think that I don't think nuclear weapons won the cold war. I think it was Levi's and Pepsi and Michael Jackson and to secure a place for freedom and expression in a world that is facing an awful lot more authoritarianism and misinformation, we gotta be able to express ourselves artistically and America needs to prioritize that. I wanna share with you our mission, vision and values. Our mission statement is right now, the mission of 4A Arts is to democratize, catalyze and prioritize arts and culture for American society. I know, catalyze, what, what? But it's an excellent term, acting as a catalyst for change. And in that regard, how do we wanna do those things? Let's see. We wanna democratize with an online platform sharing uh local events and virtual video events that is educational, informational, and financially accessible. That's our website. We wanna cultivate a movement attracting membership, millions of members and influencing elected leaders at the local, state, and federal government. We're not lobbyists, that would be under another nonprofit designation. But we can still help drive the conversation. As a catalyst, we want to influence American national dialogue and thus priority of arts and culture, serve as an intersectional national advocacy clearinghouse, working alongside of many, many arts advocacy organizations that are already out there. And we want to be a content creator, an opinion maker at the national level with our podcast, with a newsletter and robust traditional social media presence. Also, who doesn't want more newsletters and blogs in their inbox, huh? And then we want to prioritize arts and culture, establish a United States department and secretary of arts and culture, and increase funding levels at the local, state, and federal levels. 4A Arts hopes to be a national opinion maker for this effort and we want to become a source for talking points on increasing federal funds and state funds and local funding to levels that are commensurate with equivalent industries like the airline industry or the oil industry or the construction or transportation industries that I was just referencing earlier. So we're really ambitious and we want to get out there and accomplish a lot, which is very much in line with what I think the American public wants. I think the American public often doesn't realize just how artistic it is, how creative it is, that even if you're watching Netflix three hours a night, which I frequently do, although I do have kids, so I have the ambition of watching three hours of Netflix, but then usually I fall asleep within 40 minutes or sooner. Depends on how much Nutella I'm eating straight out of the jar. But we, all Americans are taking part in creativity and and they need to be part of the movement to be educated and informed to realize that even Joe citizen if he's Joe six pack or if she's Joanna from Santa Fe that Americans are all taking part in creativity and they are part of this ecosystem. Our vision statement is,"4A Arts envisions an eventual membership of millions of Americans who value every form of American arts and culture, where arts and culture are considered a systemic element of decision-making at all levels of government, where equitable access to all arts for all Americans is possible, where the arts and artists are engaged in achieving the goals of individuals and communities, where arts and culture are used as tools to solve systemic-wide... problems in seemingly unrelated industries and where the arts are given representation at the federal level with the United States Department of Arts and Culture." One point I want to make there, when we talk about the arts and culture are used as tools to solve systemic wide problems in seemingly unrelated industries. There are so many studies out there. I won't quote them right now because I don't have them off the top of my head, but there are so many industries out there that are better through arts and culture. For instance, piping in the right kind of music into hospitals has proven to be restorative and recuperative for the, not only the patients, but it also reduces stress levels and even rates of suicide for employees of the hospital. Or think about the last time you took a plane. I was just on a plane just a couple of days ago and I went through Houston International Airport and I was stunned by how much art there was in a place that's super stressful and anxiety-ridden like an airport, it's so great to be able to just slow down and appreciate some visual bit of awe or some musical or some whimsical bits of awe. And uh that's what we mean by arts and culture improves other facets of industries that are seemingly unrelated. Then one of our value statements is that 4A Arts believes that equitable access to all arts for all Americans can tackle almost all problems. And somebody once said to me, well, what about hunger? And I would counter, yeah, I think that if we supported arts and culture and creativity in this country, the way it deserves to be treated and respected, that yeah, even hunger could be addressed and perhaps mitigated in a perfect world, but in an ambitious world could be drastically reduced or eradicated because when we bring our expression, our creativity into all decision making, the sky's the limit, but also it shows that where our values are is in the human element. And that's why I think that it can help tackle almost all problems. Let me talk about our values real quick. And I'll let you go in just a second, okay? We believe every person is an artist, every person is an audience and that art is a human right, improves mental, physical, spiritual and societal health, enhances science, politics, spirituality, national pride and health, is egalitarian across media, genre and form, provides tools for all societal problems, should be funded at all levels of government, is often not an end result, but a journey toward greater ends, makes life more meaningful, makes us better people, makes us a better society, makes a better America, and that Americans deserve a Secretary of Arts and Culture. So finally, I want to talk about why I call this "Framing the Hammer". When I was in high school, I had a really impressionable English teacher who one day walked into the classroom with a couple of nails, a frame and hammer. And he put in two nails and then he put the hammer on the wall and then he put the frame around the hammer. And he stepped back and he said, watch what happens when a hammer gets framed. And then he said, is that art? And I remember so vividly my entire class, you we were all little intellectual 17 and eight year olds and we 17 and 18 year olds. And we debated whether or not that could be considered art, whether just because it was two nails, hammer and a frame. Well, that can't be art. It's too simple. And the teacher would say, why not? Or we would say the frame is too simple. The frame over my shoulder is kind of fancy, although dilapidated, literally falling apart. I found it on the road, on the side of the road, and I painted it myself. Why can't a simple frame be considered art? Or the fact that he put it up there so quickly, and so can art be something that can be created quickly? Well, why not? I admit an awful lot of these were my questions that I ran through, or arguments that I ran through, arguing that it was not art. And frankly, maybe it isn't art, but who can define that? Isn't that a magnificent thing about art that it's so subjective? It's wonderfully subjective. But can't we all honor the fact that when somebody makes a creative decision, maybe that just is art. Maybe that's the definition. Nevertheless, when I was in high school, I was arguing, you know, all of these things against it being art. And it was just so stimulating where the teacher would just say, well, why not? It was one of the most impressionable, memorable conversations I ever had in high school. And it was truly stimulating. And that's what's so wonderful about art and why I'm so honored to be here, part of this organization now is that it's thought-provoking, it's bonding. Art can be frustrating. It can make people go at each other, but you never go to war over art. It's something that brings people together. It brings out the humanity in all of us. It's just magnificent. So I hope you will sign up on our website and just stay engaged with our organization as we grow into a membership of millions that will hopefully, dare I say, save the soul of America. It might seem a little hyperbolic, but I mean that. We're in dark times right now. So many things are stressful, anxiety inducing. We're not healthy. And I truly believe that Art is the way that we can save our soul, the soul of our societies, the soul of our country. And without sounding too like America comes out and saves the world, we can be an example for the rest of the world of how a society can heal itself through creative expression that doesn't step on toes, that pushes buttons and makes people think, but also gives us the chance to step back and say, why? Because we so often don't take that time to stop and think why. We may not always like the answer. We may not always like the artwork, but we can recognize that it came from humanity, from creativity, from our hearts, from our good intentions. And uh yeah, it can help us get where we need to go. So thanks for listening to this. Thanks for the little introduction to 4A Arts. I've already talked 14 minutes longer than I was going to. But I hope you'll take this journey and join our movement. Because we need you. You are an artist and you are the audience. Thanks for listening to this episode of Framing the Hammer produced by 4A Arts. You believe the arts deserve more support from elected officials, right? You're listening to this podcast even after the interview, so I'm guessing you do. If you've made it this far, I hope you'll subscribe at 4AArts.org for updates and to support this movement to change the narrative around American arts, culture, design, and craft. And if you're wondering how our podcast got its name, check out our second episode where I chat with my very own high school English teachers about art and inspiration.