Michelangelo learned masonry in his youth. So if the whole monumental sculpture, painting, Latin poetry, design polymath thing hadn't worked out, he had a trade and a nice ordinary artisan life to fall back on. Would that have been so terrible?
Actually, yes. When humans have big, raging, urgent dreams and are blocked by authoritarian class and financial systems from pursuing them, the resulting mental and social health problems impact everyone around them.
Exclude the lower orders from higher education and higher art and they will make their own art and culture. The upper classes then try to appropriate the cool stuff and create an artocracy that serves the very ar(is)tocracy it's supposed to subvert.
This attempt to force artists to retrain is an attempt to subvert a great force of resistance into controllable wage slavery. It risks throwing out the huge public benefits of the arts so as to make artists fit on a spreadsheet. Like #TestandTrace.
But @Excel means something different to artists. It means giving your absolute best to your work. If the arts had half the money #BorisJohnson and #DomCummings have channelled to the likes of #DidoHarding and other cronies, this country would benefit massively.
Try this: turn off all your screens. Put away your games, books, magazines, CDs, audio devices. Keep them off for 24 hours. Except you won't. You, your friends and family need the arts. The arts make huge money. All artists want is respect and support for their contribution.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
