I found the Federal Theatre Project interesting because it was a prime example of an effort to make theater more of a recognizable form of art. It was particularly striking to me that the cancellation of the program was in part due to the integration it brought about.
Furthermore, theater as art is not specific to any one race, class or gender but without the proper funding it becomes profitable for some more than others. To this day, many people do not view art as a profitable source of income or as a lucrative career. Thus showing the stagnancy in our ideas as a society being that it is still very hard for artists to profit from their art.
This reminds me of my time studying in Hawaii at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Here I took a Hip Hop dance class where I was tasked to viewing various theater shows as part of our classwork. This is probably one of the most relatable multimedia performances that stuck with me to this day. The Theater department also made it a point to use every show to promote the monetization of theater and to challenge the idea that artists won't be able to profit from their art.
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ReplyDeleteThis is a great connection, Aminat--we often say that some careers aren't "profitable" or a "safe bet" when, at least partially, the problem is that some groups of people have more opportunities to make the arts "profitable" than others. Anecdotally, do you think the actions taken at UH Manoa made an impact on student choices to pursue the arts as a major and/or career, particularly for Native Hawaiian, Asian, Black, and/or Pacific Islander students?
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