How can we work to overcome the systematic de-professionalisation of the arts and writing? I don’t know. Perversely, or selfishly, maybe we accept it?
– Sammi Gale
Sticky Teeth’s micro-interviews have less to chew off. Ft. words from creative professionals at the intersection of the arts and writing.
Take a bite of Sammi Gale’s thoughts on problems with collective action, and the essentials of empathy and meaning within creative endeavours to (somehow, in some way) mitigate pervading issues in the arts sector.
xx Tahney
Sammi Gale is a London-based writer and editor.
Tahney: For you, what’s a major problem in the arts/writing?
We are suffering from a collective action problem: never mind a strike in Hollywood, all the writers, artists and creatives the world over would have to unionise. Trying to solve inequity by our own individual actions doesn’t have much purchase on Big Capital and can feel pretty exhausting.
That said, I’ve been thinking about this recently and here’s where I’m at:
Empathy and capitalism are strange bedfellows. Perhaps it’s no wonder that writing and the arts, more widely, have been booted off the top bunk in the past few decades. I hope I don’t sound too telenovela by saying there could be a correlation between wages in the arts plummeting and reports of empathy erosion over the past few decades. Anyway, it’s pretty clear that if money is the metric, society really doesn’t care about writing. Caring is pretty low on the market’s list of priorities, too. On the one hand, the capitalist can’t very well grease the wheels of production with pesky feelings, can she? On the other, it is precisely empathetic skills – lateral thinking, hot takes, communication, persuasion, negotiation, reducing lots of information down to its essence, seeing in new ways, and a hunger for a larger internal life – which will be absolutely essential if we have any hope of innovating our way out of this increasingly desperate state of planet-being-literally-on-fire.What are our options, then?
How can we work to overcome the systematic de-professionalisation of the arts and writing? I don’t know. Perversely, or selfishly, maybe we accept it? I’m not saying our next job should be in cyber à la poor Fatima the ballerina. Rather, instead of straining and striving for a proper wage and comparing number of Twitter followers and bristling at whose got the giggiest gig in the gig economy, it’s easier on the soul to recognise that society’s stories about production, wealth and value are used to promote private wealth at the expense of the public good. Not only does realising this make it a lot easier to write, it makes the act of writing more exciting and subversive – if not doing it in exchange for fair remuneration, what other kinds of value might you do it for anyway? If we could all be alive to this question and aim to make little meaningful encounters (it doesn’t have to be putting words into bettering patterns, there are plenty of activities that are creative, genuinely valuable and meaning-making), then that will have meant something, surely – perhaps only to you and a handful of others, but it sounds like a nice life’s project.Some arts writing (and the like) you’re loving rn?
A quote from one of these?
More of Sammi Gale here.
Interview by Tahney Fosdike.
For more on arts writing:
Haneen Mahmood Martin talks about shared accountability and diverse perspectives in the arts industry, matching words with actions—i.e., more POC in leadership positions—and the use of clear, accessible, but impactful language.
Liv Collins has an infectious energy rare in an industry of pretension. I’m really excited to feature her in this sticky teeth micro-interview for her truths about writing education at art school and some hot insider arts reading suggestions.
Anna Kate Blair speaks on the intersection of art, writing, and time. She explains her major concerns for lack of enough resources for the writing process itself, and also touches on history, capitalism and imagining alternative futures for creativity.
Brussels-based journalist Sarah Schug discusses the challenges of language in the art world, the need for accessibility, the diminishing value of art writing and her proud accomplishment—a self-published book on Iceland’s contemporary art scene.
Writer and editor Erin McFayden reflects on framing artistic activities as labour and advocating exploring the good it creates rather than its economic value – as well as her reccs for some artistic endeavours.
Writer Yazmin Bradley touches on the pressure on authors under the commercialisation of Bookstagram – how can we reclaim the creative process from capitalism? She also explores working with her grandmother on her memoir and the possibilities of Substack for creativity.
Writer Suzanne Claridge talks about ephemeral approaches to working with language and their belief that good arts writing should not lose sight of its purpose: the reader and experiencing art.
Plurality is borne in Kollektiv Collective Pia Zeitzen and Sasha Shevchenko’s shows and texts via losses in translation. Here’s their thoughts on writing within (and outside) the constraints of language dualities.
Sammi Gale’s thoughts on collective action among writers, artists, and creatives, and the essentials of empathy and meaningful encounters within creative endeavours.
Universal basic income would assist in allowing us all to dream, think, read, write and participate more. Art writers need to be paid more and on time.