Art or Entertainment?

I regularly conduct creative workshops with young people and one of the questions that consistently arise is concerned with the role of the artist in this constantly aspiring, modern consumer society.
My only answer is an idealistic notion of artists challenging common perceptions and being responsible for the nurturing of the soul of the nation. This is of course based on a seemingly outdated, quasi-romantic notion that stems from the fact that traditionally, visual artists were revered as social historians and poets and storytellers were held in high esteem for it was them who most ardently maintained the authenticity of our oral traditions.

In reality however, I am sometimes loathe to encourage an artistic career because it is not talent alone that sets successful artists apart – it is pure perseverance mixed with a generous dollop of good fortune and being prepared.
Many young actors, writers, visual artists and musicians quickly discard the noble ideals of creative and artistic endeavour in exchange for the relative safety that is to be found in the entertainment industry where formula is the order of the day.
As for the rest, the vast majority of aspirant talents are forced to choose between virtual starvation and the security of a ‘real’ job.

We have all been duped into believing that the only success stems from economic reward and mass appeal, but if this were truly the case then there would never have been any groundbreaking work done in any field. Often it is that which is most frowned upon by one generation that is later understood by the next and hailed as revolutionary.
As a result many of the most successful artists have died and continue to die as paupers in virtual obscurity only to become fabulously wealthy, household names posthumously. Has history taught us nothing?

The lure of financial comfort and polarity makes many of us think and create within a proven, successful structure – a tried and tested formula for good entertainment that is more often than not borrowed from the west.
We are expected to reinterpret the classics while our own forms and stories are forgotten and seldom disseminated.

I have heard many creative practitioners lamenting the fact that there is not a dedicated local audience or readership or listener and the reasons have been discussed to death – poverty, inaccessibility, a lack of appreciation and understanding or education.
Why is it that in order to get ‘bums-on-seats’, we need to resort to badly cast, television stars with dubious ability but high profiles or sensationalist stories of crime and violence and bloodshed? Have we lost the plot?

Unfortunately the problem exists everywhere where society – not government – does not value and cherish the role that artistic creation and creators play in defining the identity of a historically fragmented people. The time has long come when we should be seeking to be challenged and elevated as opposed to just being entertained; but I suppose that this too is just an idealistic, quasi-romantic notion that has no place in this modern context where original thought is still frowned upon as being indicative of mental instability.