What makes great art? The answer is very simple, but perhaps a tad uncomfortable. People who are exceptional and are genius's in their chosen form. That doesn't mean the rest of us shouldn't try, but when you see the work of someone exceptional, it is breathtaking. I am lucky to have seen the Mona Lisa, the Systene Chapel and The Ramones. All are without peer. I've dedicated my life to seeking out musical genius's and enjoying their talents live. Sometimes it isn't easy. In music, many are flawed individuals. Unlike Davinci, there best moments are not fixed and unchanging through the centuries. If you saw guitarist Johnny Thunders, he was more likely to be off his nut on Smack and completely useless than on the ball and amazing. But when he was amazing, there was no one better to watch.
Unfortunately for me, I've heard countless discussions about art and culture in my 63 years on the planet. I've attended meetings to discuss art & culture in Barnet with both Conservative and Labour administrations. The one thing I have learned beyond doubt is that almost no politicians have a clue about art, culture and the creative process. The Tories shot down Church Farmhouse Museum in Hendon, which was about as bad an act of cultural vandalism as I've seen. Despite fine words at the time, now the current Labour adminstration want to flog it off as a 'development opportunity'. The Tories set up a scheme to promote art and culture in Barnet and made Brent Cross shopping centre a key partner. Labour hired a load of expensive consultants, who went on the radio to talk about the Boroughs art but couldn't actually give any examples of actual stuff going on (I could have told them for free).
A couple of key words in all of the discussions were 'diversity' and 'inclusion'. Now as a woke snowflake, I am all for diversity and inclusion, but this is not at the heart of great art. Great art is all about exceptuonal people who break rules. That is why I suspect politicians don't really like artists and are highly suspicious of us. I am all for recognising great artists from diverse and neuro diverse backgrounds. I am all for letting eveyone participate as they see fit. But at the heart of any cultural strategy, we must put great art and culture. We should recognise and champion the people who are doing it. The bizare thing about many of the very best artists and musicians of the last century is that they are not people who were mentored, given grants and lauded by the hoy polloi (at least initially). They are mavericks who buck the system and make their own rules up. In London, the squats around Kings Cross and Maida Vale were a hotbed of artistic excellence. Free accomodation and the ability to build networks of like minded people to kick down the doors lead to a huge explosion in the late 1970's, which changed the world. Music, art, pop culture, magazines, fanzines, fashion designers all started working under the radar and working together. The reason that The Clash and The Sex Pistols had such an impact was not just the music. It was the artwork associated with the music, the fashion that the band was wearing and the underground press that was writing about them when the mainstream was trying to destroy them.
Of course Barnet Council was never going to have a cultural strategy that included setting up squats for artists, or doling out free hashish, so they could all have a spliff together and exchange creative juices in a chilled manner. But they certainly should have looked at how the creative process works and what they can do to help and assist the best creative people in the Borough. That means having places for musicians to perform, studios for artists to draw and sculpt (on zero or peppercorn rents) and support for writers, fashion designers, etc ( I am not so familiar with that world, so am less able to work out what practical support is feasable).
What we actually have seen as a contraction in arts provision. Next years East Barnet Festival has been cancelled. At this years Mill Hill Music Festival, not a single councillor or local politician bothered to turn up, apart from the Mayor, who we always invite in their official capacity. Ironically, one of the festival founders was Jane Ellison, formerly a local Tory Councillor. I had very different politics to Jane but she was one of the few politicians who got art and culture. When Jane was active in Barnet politics, she made sure that councillors came along. As a result of her efforts, I actually believed that a few of them cared. Although I get that not every councillor will like every event we do, I cannot believe that between the 62 of them, there wasn't a single event they would be interested in this year.
If councillors can't be bothered to support the culture of the Borough, they are clearly not going to spend taxpayers money wisely on culture. I believe that the root cause of this is that our local political parties are not organisations that are interested in exceptional people, the sort of people who make great art. I think that they have some vague notion that if they do a few things that look like it is supporting art, then the local creative community may furnish a few votes for them. Sadly, all the local population see is bonkers schemes and wasted money. The sad truth is that that the type of things that might help local artists are the type of things that rich developers hate. Regulations to protect arts spaces, agent of change legislation to make developers rather than venues pay for noise abatement measures next to established venues, genuine low price accomodation for artists.
Sadly the developers seem to have the ear of councillors and our local artists don't. Some of us still try, but sadly my band the False Dots have done twice as many gigs in the Borough of Camden as we have in Barnet in the last three years. Camden work to do all the things I mention. Barnet do not.
That is why we are doing our Xmas gig in Camden this year. On Saturday our blog listed the history of False Dots Xmas Parties. Fourteen in Barnet up until Covid and all since have been in Camden. Sadly this coincides with a Labour administration that claimed it wanted a cultural strategy which promoted Art in Barnet.
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