Having spent a night battling with technology (I was only asking it to do what it purports to do) I lost quite a lot of time and am now so far behind with things that I should have done that my day in the allotment, which is in a complete mess, is going to be half a day. Still, it could be worse, I could be in Gaza … so, chin up and get on with it. If you have never thought of being a supporter of the arts, here is an opportunity to change all that! We are taking The Sagas of Noggin the Nog to the Edinburgh Festival. WHY? It is the biggest shop window for performance in the world. Producers, bookers, the media, new audiences, as well as thousands of arts professionals descend on the City. If a show is going to succeed then it has to be at Edinburgh or have hundreds of thousands of pounds behind it from other sources. These days with funding being cut to the bone from all sources … even arts trusts that were set up by wealthy people, associations, etc, are cutting their grants because of the incredibly low interest rates; most trusts give the interest on large sums of money invested to support the arts. Most artists, whether they be painters, sculptors, musicians, dancers, performers or whatever, support the arts everyday by accepting low or no wages for the work that they put in. We are not paying ourselves to work for a month to take Noggin to Edinburgh and give it a chance to be seen by more people. The Credit Card companies will make a fortune out of us. Many people use the old and well-worn phrase the arts are elitist … that is bollocks. You can go and see an opera for less money than seeing a Premier division football match. A fellow in Ramsgate said to me the other day I aint interested in the arts, mate. When I asked him about his array of tattoos displayed on most parts of his body, he said that aint art, they are tattoos. He had spent, probably, thousands of pounds on permanently covering his body in art but hadnt connected them with art and wouldnt go and look at a painting, or a piece of theatre … I had a conversation with someone, a few years ago now, who said that he thought that graffiti was wrong and should be penalised severely … and to a certain extent, I agree but my eyes and ears are assaulted everyday by huge mountains of legalised graffiti in the form of advertisements … on billboards, in the media, in the supermarket … so art is used legally to sell you toilet cleaner, deodorant, anusol, cars, and so on … it is shoved into your face whether you want it or not (the art, not the anusol) … a graffiti artist is penalised because he/she doesnt have a huge corporation behind them and wants to create art to be seen by anyone. There was an argument the other night about the amount of money spent on an arts festival … when it was pointed out that even artists should be paid … Why? came the reply! I make no more comment on that! The arts are important … without the arts we would all be wearing baggy hessian sacks, we would all look the same, houses would all be the same, as would cars, furniture, there would be no jewellery at all, nor make up, nor hairstyles, etc. Television would be a person sitting and looking at the camera … talking … no films, no soaps, no pretty pictures …. in fact there probably wouldnt be any television, nor cinema, nor You Tube nor indeed Facebook. There would be no books. I could go on but you get the picture … which you wouldnt if there were no arts. We are all artistic, just like we all breathe, wee, eat … food would be tedious, of course. The arts are changing. Many artists are reinventing themselves to fit in with an ever changing world. They are good at that. They are creative and do it all the time. By the way, it was an artist/designer who created the page that you are looking at with its clever lay-out, its attractive pictures, logos, icons …. So, a bit of an unthought out and, as I read it now, slightly unconnected rant about the lack of money in the arts and why the arts are important … Back to the point! If you can spare anything from £1 to a larger sum, then please click on the link and support The Sagas of Noggin the Nog … a family show … to go to the Edinburgh Festival. Phew … finished, for now. Though I can feel a blog post coming on. https://kickstarter/projects/1884588791/the-sagas-of-noggin-the-nog-goes-to-edinburgh-and
Posted on: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 10:19:14 +0000
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