Leap of faith
Last week included a ‘leap day’ a once every four years reset of time so that the seasons stay put and don’t slip.
I saw a social media post inviting its audience to choose what to do with that one extra day and it got me thinking. If someone gifted you a day to do what you wished what would you do? My automatic response was that I would spend the day painting - ooh and go out for lunch, walk in the sunshine and visit an art gallery! There are never enough days in the week to do all that I wish so what would I do with this one extra day?
I decided to paint. I funnelled all of the ‘I could…’ into something pure. I am an artist. I paint. It was liberating and pure to focus on one activity. Life is complex and I need creative variety but I also need to know who I am at my core.
I am not alone in being fuelled by art. Be that music, painting, theatre, cinema - so may of us enrich our lives with the arts. This winter the cinema has been my escape and I have delighted in seeing ‘All of us Strangers’, ‘One Love’ and ‘Vanya’ recorded at The National Theatre. Those cinema events give me access to a whole host of performances that are beyond my budget and not available geographically. Funding for the arts has diminished and access to the arts is getting harder. Funding for the Arts Council has been slashed and events I have participated in as a selling artist have seen their funding disappear, taking away support for community interaction and delivery of diversity.
As councils begin to declare themselves bankrupt (Birmingham and Nottingham her in the UK) there is a terrifying list of closures for arts venues and community arts groups. Those of us who work in the arts will find that there are fewer opportunities to be supported to work with the community. But more worryingly there won’t be access to the arts for those who benefit from it at the intersection of art and wellbeing.
After the Covid lockdowns I joined a community drumming circle with my son who is educated at home. It drenched us in joy and community and human connection. I hadn’t realised how thirsty I was for that normality, for interaction, for music making. In a time of increased loneliness and separation finding connection through the arts adds value and health to peoples’ lives.
On February 28th I painted. I reflected that artists, makers, dreamers, doers will find a way to sustain the wonders that art brings to people. I will have to have faith that teachers can continue to enrich the lives of their students with the joy that theatre, music and art can bring. I take a leap of faith that society recognises what it stands to lose before further cuts against the arts in our schools and communities. I have been fortunate to build a life within the arts, to have achieved a level of success that art is my career. I advocate for the benefits that poetry, art, performance, dance bring to our collective existence and our personal experience.
What would you do with one extra day? Can you visit a gallery, attend a workshop, connect with someone through art and making? We need more than a day every four years to preserve, as well as grow, cultural life in our country.