The original manifesto was posted online in April 2023 and can be viewed here.
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One of the most profound things that art does is help individuals and collective peoples grieve and process grief, as well as offer joy. Performing arts offering joy is mostly not subsidized. It is circus, comedy, live popular music, musical theatre. It provides an audience collective joy and a kind of participation that subsidized theatre often does not. I am unsure if that part of the performing arts sector is suffering as much. On the processing of grief – I feel like there should be artists creating mass participation events for every child who missed having a funeral for their parents who passed away during COVID, for every highschool kid who never got a prom or graduation ceremony, for every mom that never had a baby shower, for every retirement that never got celebrated in person. The coming together of people to mark passages through a life journey together seems to be one of the most fundamental purposes for gathering, and so much of that could not and did not happen. And that feels sad, that somehow these markers could not be marked. Some acknowledgement of that loss and grief could be so cathartic for so many. Of course there are some communities suffering with so much more pain, but I think everyone has suffered loss. Art that transforms that kind collective grief into collective compassion/meaning would be so welcome. That’s at least what I feel I need as an audience member. Joy and grief transformed.
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