Thoughts on Arts Education.
My views on art education, and why they may differ from yours. I defend my case that, contrary to popular belief, arts education is real work, challenging, and a series of both successes and failures that can only be managed by those with a thick skin. Everyone has the right to follow their bliss, but no one has the right to judge those that are. I ask of you, readers, are you doing what makes you happy? If not, why aren’t you?
I’m sitting in my livingroom right now, drinking coffee, “watching” Friends, and thinking about how to fill up this blog post. First let’s start out with the week in a nutshell: I preformed a Commedia piece (soon to be filmed and posted here), I “Acted for The Camera” in a scene taken from the play The Red Coat (also hope to have video of this soon), I danced to David Bowie, and had an in depth discussion for about an hour about dreams, dèjá vu, and spiritual belief. This was all at my school. Then yesterday, I was Angelina Jolie and hung out with people like Marilyn Monroe, Zac Efron, Baby Spice, and Mario Lopez… This was all people from my school.
It’s weeks like these that I just have to feel lucky. I get to spend every day doing something I love and becoming better at it. I get to spend time with people that share those same passions and are working as hard as I am to improve them. I hope that people who are studying physics, economics, law, psychology, what have you feel the same way I do about their education. I feel like people are so quick to judge actors and theater students. They don’t believe it’s work. They, for some reason, feel that what they’re doing is superior. Now, I’m not saying that my education should be valued to the same level as that of a doctor’s or a rocket scientist’s. However, I do believe that most people who judge my career path do so because they either cannot relate to it at all, or they resent the fact that I get to play in my education.
If people feel resentment of the fact that I do these wonderful things at school, maybe they should rethink their own career path. Instead, they choose to look down on it and/or judge it. They think that I’m wasting my time going into such a competitive career. They think that the work we do in our education isn’t really work. I’ll tell you right now that’s completely untrue. We’re only 3 months in school and already we have done so much for so many different subjects. I won’t list all of the projects, papers, and even physical benchmarks we’ve already completed in school because it would simply take too much time to sort through them all.
It’s not just the amount of work we have, either. It’s the depth of the work; the meaning of it. Everyday I have to challenge myself to be completely open and vulnerable to everyone around me. This has become easier as I have gotten to know my teachers and classmates, but it was one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do at the beginning. You are constantly open to criticism, failure, and judgement. You’re also open to compliment, success, and admiration. Some people choose to focus on the former, rather than the latter, and these are the people that should take a second thought before entering into this kind of education and career. Maybe these are the people that also choose to judge us rather than join us. Maybe these are the people who are unwilling to take risks, because there’s a chance you can fail… But you know, there’s also a chance you can succeed.
I’m not saying in school they tell us all “Do this and this and this and you will be famous! You’ll be on the Red Carpet about to win an Oscar!” Quite the contrary, they tell us how slim are chances are of ever getting to that point. But they tell us what we can do as working artists to better our chances of getting there. To making a sustainable living as an artist. For me, it’s not about fame, popularity, or even so much recognition. It’s that I want to make a living doing what I love, and I think everyone has that right. You should get to love what you do. You should get to go to work every morning, afternoon, or night and love it. Whether you’re a plumber, an accountant, or a cop. Everyone single person has the right to follow their bliss, and in my opinion, artists are the brave ones for really doing that, despite all of the negativity and criticism we get.
SO I ask: What are you studying/What do you do for a living? Do you enjoy it? Is it just something that is helping you to get to another job/career? What do you think of people entering into arts education, particularly theater/film?
If what you’re doing isn’t making you happy, I urge you to take that giant risk and find out what does, and go towards it. You’ll never get there if you don’t try. I firmly believe that once you fully commit to such a risk, the universe meets you half way and opens some doors. As we’re learning in Myth & Symbol, that’s just part of the Hero’s Journey.
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