In the wake of hurricane Katrina and the potentially devastating hurricane Rita, what happens to art?
Certainly a person has more on their mind than going to a museum or to see a show in the days after homes have been decimated, but in the larger picture, what happens to art?
Many businesses have been hit hard due to the storms, but I suspect that businesses in the arts, which so often are perched precariously on the threshholds of bankruptcy anyway, will have an exceptionally tough time of it. Who wants to go see Timon of Athens or Medea when there's tragedy all around you? Who wants to listen to the 1812 Overature when the roar of 170 mph winds was more deafening and damagaing than any cannons used in a concert? Who wants to walk through a museum and look at The Scream when it's what we feel like doing ourselves?
What happens to art?
Art struggles. And it thrives.
At some point, people need a break. They need the opportunity to get away from everything terrible. The smart arts administrators will do what they can to cater to this. Let's not forget that entertainment was one of the few successful industries during the depression years.
At the same time, out of this tragedy (tragedies?) artists will create new and hopefully memorable, works. These artists will need to be encouraged and given the opportunity to express themselves.
I can only hope that we will not look at the arts as extravagant or unnecessary, but as vitally important.
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One of my colleagues and good friends at school has a good friend who worked in a theatre in New Orleans. She was in North Dakota at the time the hurricane hit and hasn't been back to N.O. yet, but her job is pretty much gone. She's been working at another theatre-related job near her home in South Dakota.
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