{"id":10248,"date":"2020-07-15T10:59:03","date_gmt":"2020-07-15T09:59:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/?p=10248"},"modified":"2020-07-15T12:55:52","modified_gmt":"2020-07-15T11:55:52","slug":"a-love-letter-for-the-arts-on-bbc-radio-kent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2020\/07\/15\/a-love-letter-for-the-arts-on-bbc-radio-kent\/","title":{"rendered":"A Love Letter For the Arts on BBC Radio Kent"},"content":{"rendered":"
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BBC Radio Kent presenter, Dominic King<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BBC Radio Kent presenter Dominic King<\/strong> has recently launched ‘A Love Letter for the Arts’ on his show, in which creative people from the region are invited to respond to the threats facing the arts during the current times.<\/p>\n

Last night’s show featured Deputy Director of Music, Dan Harding; if you missed the feature, the text is reproduced below, or listen back on BBC Sounds at the 1hr 14mins mark here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Hello.<\/p>\n

Just stop what you\u2019re doing for a moment. Just \u2013 put down the book; put Spotify on pause; pause watching something on YouTube or Netflix, stop listening to that CD.<\/p>\n

Now wait a minute; all those that you\u2019ve just stopped doing. They\u2019re arts, aren\u2019t they ? Without really realising it, those are the arts with which you\u2019ve just been engaging; those things which you\u2019ve all just stopped doing are the product of many hours of work from a whole infrastructure of people \u2013 craftsmen, performers, practitioners, professional and freelancers, all coming together to deliver that product that you just watched \u2013 or read \u2013 or listened to \u2013 or looked at on a wall, in an art gallery.<\/p>\n

Just think about all those individuals involved in creating those things. Now imagine what happens if the arts, under grave threat in the current climate, were to disappear; venues to close; freelancers are no longer able to do what they do \u2013 they\u2019re no longer able to pay bills, to put food on the table, to make ends meet.<\/p>\n

Now imagine a world where lockdown has finished, life has returned; you want to go out in the evening, or at the weekend. Let\u2019s go to a concert! But wait; the venue is closed, the concert-hall dark, the piano lid shut, the pianist and the singer have taken up other jobs, to be able to pay bills, to make ends meet.<\/p>\n

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Image: Aaron Burden via Unsplash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We\u2019ll go to the theatre! But wait: the curtain is lowered, the auditorium empty, and the freelancers \u2013 the set designers, the costume-makers, the actors – have all taken up other jobs, to pay bills, to make ends meet. Let\u2019s go to an art gallery! But wait; the gallery is shut, the curtains are drawn; there are no paintings to see, because the artists aren\u2019t painting any more; they\u2019ve put down their brushes to re-train as an HGV driver, a delivery man, to work in a supermarket, to pay bills, to put food on the table, to make ends meet.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s go to the cinema! But wait: there are no films being made; there are no directors, no cinematographers, no set-designers, no set-builders, no model-makers, no film composers, no caterers; they\u2019ve all taken up other jobs, in order to pay bills, to put food on the table, to make ends meet.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s go to a live gig! But wait: the venue is closed, converted into a trendy wine-bar; the stage is dark, the bar is empty; the musicians have laid down their instruments \u2013 the guitarist put down his strings, the drummer given up her sticks, because they\u2019ve all taken other jobs; to pay bills, to put food on the table, to make ends meet.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a real danger that, as we emerge into a post-COVID world, that venues will have been lost; there will be fewer creative activities for us to enjoy. Libraries would be shut; there will be no books being written, because people won\u2019t be writing any more because the writers will have laid down their pens and taken other jobs, to pay the bills, to put food on the table, to make ends meet.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re also at risk of losing the opportunities to inspire the artists and practitioners of tomorrow; that children who would have sat in the concert-hall, or gone to a live gig, or visited an art gallery or the theatre and had that revelatory moment of thinking \u2018Yes! THIS is what I want to do,\u2019 are not going to able to have that moment of career-defining inspiration<\/p>\n

The arts are at risk; we need to save them, and the people that create them. We need the government to write its own love letter for arts on the back of not just one large cheque, but several, each of which will filter down to the grass-roots venues, the freelancers, the venues at the beating hearts of their communities.<\/p>\n

As Joni Mitchell put it so memorably once upon a time in a bitter-sweet ballad in 1970 whose message still endures to this day:<\/p>\n

“Don\u2019t it always seem to go \/ That you don\u2019t know what you\u2019ve got til it\u2019s gone\u2026”<\/p>\n