Endangered Species

Oakland Youth Chorus used to sing a piece entitled, "The Artist is an Endangered Species." How apt.

Yesterday, Opera Piccola's 15 amazing teaching artists gathered for our last staff meeting of the school year. Over and over, the stories they told inspired us with the way their teaching helps children and youth grow and learn. Dance, drama, music, poetry, visual art; story upon story. Kids who couldn't sit still and listen to each other play the drums now can listen and appreciate. Youth who were too shy to read out loud in front of anyone are now up on stage in a play. Small children who barely have any science in their curriculum are presenting a "launch" of the rockets they made themselves with our artist. And so on.

We ended the meeting with a creative eight-word "Life Story of An Artist." Lofty words encapsulated lives: commit, inhale, fly, discover, fail, bounce back. But the final word was "broke." Our society has made progress on appreciating the arts (as opposed to entertainment), but the money is not where the mouth is. So many artists I know do not have health insurance, do not have vehicles, lack printers for their computers, struggle to make expenses every single week.

Yet we have kept on. Will only the independently wealthy be able to afford the luxury of being an artist in the future?