Why does Art matter?
By Amy Longsworth
Why does art matter? In the United States, we support the cultural sector in many ways. We honor art and culture makers* by viewing their work and treating them with a degree of reverence. We sometimes provide them with grants, gallery space, or even housing (although never enough of any of these things). We accord financial advantages to museums through the mechanisms of our tax code and the generosity of donors. What do we the people want in return?
While beauty is an end in itself -- and perhaps a special solace in trying times – in Massachusetts the answer turns out to be we want relevance, and we want our social issues addressed. These are key findings from a statewide 2021 study by audience research firm Slover Linett, with support from the Barr Foundation. Two weeks ago, Covid finally allowed members of the arts and culture community to gather in person at the Boston Public Library to absorb and discuss the implications of the findings.
The study, Culture + Community in a Time of Transformation (which was also conducted nationally), reveals that 77 percent of Commonwealth residents avidly want arts and culture organizations to dig in on vital topics that matter to communities. The top three issues in order of importance to audiences: 1) Systemic Racial Injustice, 2) Income Inequality/Wealth Gap, 3) Climate Change/Natural Disasters.
Boston faces a true climate crisis: between today and 2100 it is certain that we will experience life-threatening high temperatures, ground water depletion, torrid precipitation, sea level rise, floods, pests, infrastructure malfunctions, and vector borne illnesses. Black, brown, and poor communities will bear more than their share of these impacts.
Action Pact Boston represents the commitment of more than 40 local arts and culture organizations to bring the urgent issues and choices surrounding climate change -- and its intertwining with race, wealth, and health inequities -- to Boston audiences in multiple ways. Climate-related programming has appeared this spring at the Museum of Science, Goethe-Institut Boston, Harvard Museum of Natural History, Leventhal Map Center, Emerald Necklace Conservancy, Huntington Theatre, the ICA, the Greenway, Peabody Essex Museum, and more.
Others, including the Boston Children’s Museum, Arnold Arboretum, Boston Red Sox, and Franklin Park Zoo have invited diverse local artists to create ephemeral public climate-themed art installations on their premises as part of Visioning the Future, pieces that will wash away, biodegrade, melt, or otherwise return to their elements after they have made their point.
Yet another group has recently graduated from a year-long Climate Action Planning Collaborative (CAP CoLab) learning process, organized by the Green Ribbon Commission, in which they created organizational-change-based plans for their institutions that focus on carbon mitigation, climate equity, and climate resilience, in accordance with City of Boston laws, goals, and aspirations. These include the Museum of Fine Arts, New England Historic Genealogical Society, Paul Revere House, Esplanade Association, Huntington Theatre, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Goethe-Institut, and Museum of Science. A new group of organizations, which now includes faith-based and higher education institutions along with culturals, is kicking off their own year of CAP CoLab learning this month.
Despite the crippling blows dealt by the pandemic, it’s a rich time for Boston cultural institutions in the sense that never have they been so explicitly needed, as the Slover Linett research makes clear. Rarely has there been greater opportunity to rise to meet the times.