In his recent blog post ‘Funding the future – a risky business?’ Peter De Haan quotes the question “where do I start?” as springing from the lips of 42,000 members of IdeasTap. IdeasTap is the online community for young people working in, or attempting to work in, the arts and this question has undoubtedly been spoken by every one of them.
For me this question of beginnings is one that runs through my head daily. The answer, apparently, is with an original idea and the balls to take risks. In an age where nothing is original anymore this is not quite as easy as it sounds.
Faced with the term ‘original’ in any sort of competitive context my mind goes completely blank. Honestly, it’s like every single creative bone in my body turns to useless jelly. I sit with a piece of paper in front of me covered in random words and scribblings, like an untalented child in art class who only seems able to draw a tree.
If that tree grows upside down, however, then it’s a tree that takes risks. It challenges the conventions of tree-hood, it’s bold, it breaks the mould, it’s unconventional and it wins the prize.
The trees, obviously, are a metaphor.
It seems, and this is something that De Haan’s post highlights, that risk and originality have become the new currency in a world where investors are increasingly wary of putting their money into the arts – particularly work being done by young people just starting out.
Of course there needs to be something by which to judge new work, some way of marking it out from the rest as something special and worth helping to the next step. But is the rearing of people who are risky in their artistic choices just for the sake of it really the way we want to go?
Risk and originality are things nurtured from a great knowledge and mastery of the chosen medium, they are things that often happen by accident with no intention to be risky or, even, risqué. Upon encountering these two words in a brief my head begins churning out the most ridiculous, over the top, suggestions.
At times I feel like a hooker, trying to be the most risqué with my window display when really it’s always the skill that matters the most. I’m not against the advocacy of art that pushes itself into risky and original territory. All I’m saying is that when we judge the work of young people, we shouldn’t let the allure of the risky business steal the focus away from the real skill and mastery of the art form. For that, surely, is not a stable artistic economy to nurture.
Ellen Carr is a drama student, theatre director and writer.