Letters From the Creative Bureaucrat, August

I write a monthly column in Northern Arizona's arts and news monthly publication, The Noise. My column is called "Letters from the Creative Bureaucrat." Here follows my column in the August issue. Be sure to pick up a copy of The Noise and read all the other great articles therein.

Here’s a question for you: do artists need struggle to create good work?

In June, I participated in one of my favorite events, the 12th Annual Tsunami on the Square performing arts festival in Prescott. There is no other event in the Southwest quite like it, when so many artists, performers and folks come out, dress in colorful, strange costumes, dance in a parade, and basically get their weird on.

With my 25 years of experience in various towns in Arizona, I have come to one conclusion about this amazing event: It could only happen in a town like Prescott. It could only happen in a town with the right mix of political and social antipathy towards the arts, amidst a strong arts community that represents the counter-culture to the prevailing powers in the community.

Let me be clear that I love Prescott, and I know many supporters of the arts there. But I must be honest. This is a town where a mural that depicts Latino schoolchildren is met with hostility, racial slurs, and threats of removal by town government simply because there is a Latino child represented in the mural. When I worked in Prescott to advocate for municipal funding to support arts and culture, I was vilified in the local media and cursed at by elected officials. So with all apologies to those Prescottonians who do indeed support the arts, I love you, but you are in the minority.

Tsunami represents the party for the counter-culture in Prescott. It is the one time each year that we come out with a fury of giant puppets, kid-friendly shows, weird offbeat humor and entertainment, and wild antics like pyrotechnic theater that literally lights the entire stage on fire. It is the Prescott arts community, seizing their chance to be in the spotlight to show their town that arts and culture are meant to breathe life into a community. Partly it is a huge celebration, but also Tsunami serves as a huge middle finger to the establishment in that town.

In Flagstaff, where I have made my home for the last 3+ years, it’s quite different. Here the arts are largely supported by the community, elected officials, and the powers that be. Art in Flagstaff is not only met with pride and celebration, but also appreciated all the more if it represents diversity and sustainability like the Prescott mural does. The City of Flagstaff invests over a quarter million dollars each year to support local arts and science organizations. Coconino County built the Coconino Center for the Arts, and handed it over to the arts community to make it a vibrant community art center. Flagstaff loves the arts.

I might take some heat for saying this, but Tsunami would probably not happen organically in Flagstaff. There’s not as much to push back against. Trust me, we have our share of oddballs and counter culture enthusiasts, but heck, some of them are “the powers that be” in this town. The Flagstaff arts community is represented and supported well. (Is it perfect? Certainly not. We need people to purchase more art, for one thing. However, there is clearly a different vibe. Come out on any First Friday and you’ll see what I mean.)

And so it begs the question: Does the better art come from a struggling artist, or from a supported artist? Are Prescott artists, in all their push-back glory, more likely to create compelling work of value, work that challenges us to look at the world differently – more so than a supported artist in a town like Flagstaff? After all, Tsunami on the Square was given its name because a tsunami was “the event least likely to happen in the high desert,” just as unlikely as an eclectic, visionary counter-culture performing arts festival happening in a frontier conservative western town. From struggle comes compelling and beautiful art.

The answer is probably not so simple. We see enough in our lives on a national and international stage that provides fodder for push back no matter the community you call home. Additionally, even in a “supportive” community like Flagstaff, there are issues or happenings that can provide fuel for great work, like the snowmaking debate or the tragedy of the Schultz Fire.

The point, I suppose, is that great art does come from a desire to express or make change. Whether that change is for a whole community or one individual, art at least partly exists to make us believe that things can be different. And better.

Cheers,
JT