Mutual gain

She could barely stand after hearing the announcement he had just made, that she was the latest recipient of the Beryl McBurnie scholarship to study dance with the prestigious Alvin Ailey Dance Company in the United States.

For a dancer, this kind of opportunity is indescribable. A chance to study one’s craft in an environment where only dance matters, and not have to worry about mundane survival matters.

For the most part, in TT artists do not have that luxury.

They tend to develop spilt personalities, working during the day to pay the bills and pursuing their artistic passions after they fulfil these obligations.

Watching the obvious joy of the dancer on the stage and the excellent performances, I wished that more opportunities like that were available and that the arts were more widely appreciated as a viable solution to many of our social problems.

Unfortunately, with almost all of our attention firmly placed on crime, deportees and the impact of these on our lives, the arts are often relegated to the status of mere entertainment.

However, “it is through scholarships that students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds are given the chance to develop as artists and gain a superior education.” Further, social interventions using culture and the arts can only survive with consistent funding to allow for sustainability of the programmes.

The widening of opportunities for students and practitioners of the arts is possible through what Harvard Business Review refers to as “strategic collaborations” such as the one negotiated between the Little Carib and Alvin Ailey.

The Review notes that arts organisations can still leverage “their limited resources by allying themselves with organisations ranging from other non-profit arts groups to community groups to businesses.

Distinct from short-term, project- oriented sponsorships, strategic collaborations are intensive, durable commitments created for mutual gain …” For instance, research has shown that globally, support for the arts contributes to expansion of “market share, enhancing … brand and reaching new customers.” Additionally, incorporating elements of the arts into the daily work routine alleviates the drudgery of the corporate environment, encourages appreciation of different cultures and critical thinking amongst employees.

Corporate support for the arts is also vital to allow for a new ideology of education to emerge. Education activist Sir Ken Robinson has pointed out that “every education system on earth has the same hierarchy of subjects … At the top are mathematics and languages, then the humanities, and at the bottom are the arts… “And in pretty much every system too, there’s a hierarchy within the arts. Art and music are normally given a higher status in schools than drama and dance. There isn’t an education system on the planet that teaches dance everyday to children the way we teach them mathematics.

Why? Why not?” There is thus enormous potential for businesses to actively participate in a philosophy of change in the education sector, while satisfying their requirement for “return on investment”.

However, the reality is that in challenging economic times, culture and the arts are always placed low on the list of spending priorities.

For arts organisations, a choice therefore has to be made. Our NGO works with young people in vulnerable communities. Right now, we are interacting with students from very challenging circumstances, but who still come to rehearsals on time, showing a commitment and dedication to the process that was unexpected.

We too are pursuing strategic collaborations to afford our young people opportunities similar to the one provided to that dancer. In the meantime, as we say in the theatre, we just do the work.

Dara Healy is a performance artist and founder of the NGO, the Indigenous Creative Arts Network – ICAN