All Good in Theory

The arts don't seem to make much economical sense these days, despite precedents such as the Whitlam government's purchasing of Jackson Pollock's Blue Poles. The National Gallery of Australia held (and still holds) the most important American cultural artifact (of its time) for ransom and strengthened Australia's international reputation and negotiable power over America. Some say this purchase cost Whitlam his place in Parliament. However the arts have persisted throughout history longer than science, industry, and economics itself. It seems that the arts are innate to culture whatever the medium and expression.

Seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling and feeling are how we take in information from our environment. Some artforms utilize a variety of senses - theatre and others use only one - photography. The persistence of sense for sense's sake is invaluable in the development of children and civilizations the same. The effects of sensory stimuli (the arts) on an audience are essentially the backbone to tv, nightclubs, parties, good books, your true love, the clothes you wear, the food you eat.

So if it's so important how do you get from making it to making a living off it?

Tony Curran