The Arts Will Lead Us Through

We can all agree that times are strange. I have just returned a few days ago - which seems like months - from an amazing trip to Sarajevo. I was invited by the US Department of State to travel there and participate in the creation of a community mural project that was inspired by the Brown v. Board Mural Project. It feels like I have traveled through a portal - having left the US with a moderate amount of concern about COVID-19 only to have the pandemic escalate, meaning that I had to return home much sooner than expected and have only left my house a handful of times since returning. I’ve been reading articles about the Works Progress Administration and how artists were mobilized to lead economic recovery after the Great Depression. I’ve been studying how artists have carried humanity through the most difficult times - finding a way for ArtsConnect to help community leaders visualize the arts as a critical player in community recovery and revitalization.

It’s been a fundamental change for the creative industries. Audiences have vaporized. It appears that our ability to gather in groups will be fundamentally altered for many months to come. Creative individuals are disproportionately affected by a shrunken service industry. It’s unprecedented and uncertain.

I have read nothing that convinces me to believe that we will not be fundamentally changed by this in ways that we cannot begin to imagine. My “Things That Are Certain” list is gasping for air. I am not alone in that. But one of the things that I remain certain about is the fact that the arts will be what brings us back. There will be a “new normal” and artists will shape our relationship with our new normal - they will help us imagine it, understand it and guide us to embrace it.