The role of artist in New Zealand ‘needs funding and recognition’

by Dame Gaylene Preston — 13.5.2021

To be an artist, means dedication. It’s not a “fun” thing. It involves serious play, but the artist has no choice. It’s a brain stem thing. A human thing. It gives back to us all in unquantifiable ways. Yet why do we think that an artist starving in a garret is romantic?

We encourage our children to dance, draw and sing. Storytelling is basic to all children – the young who don’t naturally do at least one of these things, we consider to be seriously deprived or severely disabled. Yet – yet – when they grow older and pursue those interests, they are entering ‘’the arts”, where money is tight, and their lives will be ruled by competitive applications for “taxpayer dollars” or making work to sell. The work that sells – under a complicated payment system – leaves the artist at the bottom of the heap.

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