Everybody has pet peeves, right? Maybe you're irked by the people who flip open their mobile phones the second the airplane hits the tarmac; or perhaps you're driven mad by the disembodied voice at the drive-through asking if you'd like an apple pie with that. For me it's littering out of cars and asking for money in the middle of a cultural event that everyone is enjoying and has already paid to be at. It always feels just a little off-not quite the proper or well-timed way to go about it-something Miss Manners would
tsk-tsk
. Every performance brought to town by the now defunct Santa Fe Stages was accompanied by an almost whiny plea for funding just at the moment I was beginning to relax, anticipate the show and forget the sting of the 20 or 30 bucks that had been lifted from me at the door. And just look how far south Stages went-clearly the ill-timed "ask" is a dubious strategy. But, it turns out, I'm willing to make an exception. I'm willing to let the peeve drain from my body and say that some people are doing cool enough stuff that they ought to ask for money if they need it.
At the opening performance for the Thanksgiving weekend's third annual Circus Luminous, when Lensic General Manager Bob Martin followed up thanks to sponsor Los Alamos National Bank with a request for the audience to dig a little deeper as well, the effect was a reminder that the show we were about to see was homegrown talent and if we want to see more of it springing up around Santa Fe, we've got to put some work (and a few bucks) into the early years of this particular garden. And when BING! band member Molly Sturges reiterated the need for additional funds during intermission it was a reminder that, not only is Circus Luminous not imported talent, something brought in from one of the coasts to make us all feel less provincial and more sophisticated, but it's actually a cultural export; the circus show is touring New Mexico this year and next, not something that passes through Clovis or Magdalena every day. Why did Circus Luminous need to find an additional $6,000 dollars? So the artists in the show could be paid. Paid for performing for children in Alamo and Silver City. Paid for the smiles and wide eyes they gave to adults in Santa Fe.
And lemme tell ya, artists spend too much time doing that kind of thing for free in this town. Part of it is social conditioning; being an artist has such little social value in the big picture that artists actually expect to be undervalued and settle for peanuts. Sure, Santa Fe is a culturally rich place with a huge art market and a theoretical respect for working artists, but of all the agencies and philanthropies that support non-profit arts organizations, name me the one that gives grants to individual artists. Show me the living wage movement that respects 20 years of musicianship as much as two years of bussing tables. So when Sturges, after belting out song after song in accompaniment to the circus with her unwavering and otherworldly voice, and with ironically nervous vocal cords stood up for artists being paid, I wanted to cheer. Also, I wanted someone in the audience to stand up and say, "I've got your $6,000 right here," or, "Is that all you need to bring this show to underserved parts of the state? How much will it take for you stay a little longer and teach them to create their own circus," or "Are you sure you've got per diems with that? Let me throw an extra few grand on the plate." Although I'm sure there were folks in the audience who could have done that, I wasn't one of them. But I was ready to roll up my sleeves in the artist soup kitchen and dish up Thanksgiving dinners to every artist who's never been paid enough and every artist whose hard-won skills have never garnered respect and every artist who composes or paints in the kitchen, unable to afford studio space and insulated against winter by a dwindling sack of rice and an empty tube of cadmium red.
I used to subscribe to the "build it and they will come" model. If you're doing something important and good that everybody enjoys, like Circus Luminous, all those people with incomes demanding charitable contributions will find you, right? Nope, I learned the hard way it don't work like that. That's the last time I trust the "wisdom" of a Kevin Costner movie. There are definitely angels out there, patrons whose wealth is matched by cultural enthusiasm and community engagement, but they are few and far between. The more frequent case with wealthy donors is that they're drawn to causes that their friends already support or things that make them feel hip, but also safe and powerful. And with something like Circus Luminous-a collaboration between Moving People Dance Theater, BING!, Wise Fool (and, it could be argued, The Lensic), with direction this year coming out of Angel Exit Theater-that really manifests as an anti-elite art of the people, why shouldn't it be largely supported by the people? All we need to do is figure out the low-dollar, per-person way to get some artists paid. Is it a surcharge on video and DVD rentals? An option to round up to the nearest dollar on our water bill? Do we just want to vote to stick it to somebody else, like additional property tax for part-time residents? I don't know the answer, but I think it's important and I think it's up to us. So I'm asking.
