To the editor:
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
In his pedestrian biography of Beau O’Reilly et al, Tony Adler fails to discuss the essential economic reasons for the characteristically long and twisted route Beau and Co. have taken to their present state of existence. This is not a request for a dissertation on how typically hardworking struggling artists cannot support themselves in a Capitalist society but how can you write about this group of independent artists without putting their experience in a larger (i.e., economic) context and expect anyone to care? Not that the general population cares anyway but without an attempt to contextualize their experience, Adler’s story became little more than superficial, gossipy fluff that sustains the notion of struggling mARTyr-ISTS as lost hungry puppies (“Lost, lost, I don’t wanna be lost.” Is that supposed to be an insightful quote?). This sort of blind, romantic storytelling is pointless. Contrary to the tone of Adler’s article, Beau and Co.’s histories are neither isolated nor unfamiliar, but rather typical and symptomatic of a society whose economic system punishes those who choose to live outside of it (as much as one can live outside it). Why wasn’t that directly addressed?
And what about the other arts organizations–originally created to serve developing artists on the fringe–who are in a constant state of jeopardy? In response to the NEA’s mutation into a social service agency, the Center for New Television changed its name (among other things) to the Center for Community and Media. With all the right buzzwords in their name and free from the dangers of “new television” maybe they’ll fare better with future NEA funding (if there is any). Maybe not–the point being that this is just another of many transformations happening in the arts community which pose a number of important questions that are being totally ignored despite the fact that many media, theater, and performance artists and organizations have the same big questions in mind and the same thing at risk–survival.
Tony Adler replies:
