By Connie Martinez, SVCREATES’ Chief Executive Officer
“First responders save lives; second responders help put people’s lives back together. Artists are essential workers in our society and our economy, helping us recover, reflect, and rebuild.” — excerpt from a recent editorial by Californians for the Arts
Earlier this month, we announced the 2020 SVLaureates and Content Emerging Artists. We give these awards annually to honor, acknowledge, and support local artists who, through their dedication to their craft and their community, make our world a better place. We will be profiling these artists weekly over the next several weeks. As we set out to honor and appreciate these local artists, I suggest that we ponder for a “pandemic moment” — a world without artists.
No Yo Yo Ma, no Frida Kahlo, no Mikhail Baryshnikov, no Danh Vo, no Ella Fitzgerald, no Ai WeiWei, no Banksy, no Rabindranath Tagore.
Without musicians and artists, there is no music or art, and without music or art, there are no museums for your family to visit, no piano lessons or dance classes for your children to take, no graphic designers for the next Google image, no urban murals to inspire you, no Burning Man to escape to, and no songs to be rehearsed.
Without artists, we could not experience the San Jose Jazz Festival, an Abhinaya dance performance, the Arts Loft at the Children’s Discovery Museum, Theater Works’ next world premiere, a provocative Teatro Visión play, a concert at the Community School of Music and Arts, a San Jose Taiko performance at the Obon Festival, a summer evening of art and music at Montalvo, Fiesta Navidena at the School of Arts and Culture at the Mexican Heritage Plaza, or the next edition of Content Magazine.
We hear a lot about essential workers these days. And thank goodness we have people who dedicate their lives to helping others, especially during this time of great need. But let’s not forget about the artists and culture workers who make our lives worth living — those who bring us joy and learning, those who inspire us, challenge our assumptions and speak truth to power, and those who can make us laugh and cry. And as we read about and celebrate the works of our 2020 Artist Laureates, think about what our community would be like without them, and the essential role they play as second responders during this critical time in our country’s history, and at any time.
As I said earlier “without artists, there is no art” and as George Bernard Shaw once said, “without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.”
