Response to Money in Art Lectures

Money. It makes the world go round, right? Maybe. But what I did get from these lectures is that money is involved in everything, even art. Not that I was completely shocked by this finding, I did find some parts of the lecture to be really interesting however. For example, one of the main points that I got from all three of the lectures is that if you love what you do, you don’t really care a whole lot about money. This is not to say you will do it for free, but more the idea that money comes second to what you love. Another main point that I got out of the lecture is that most of the money that comes from arts occurs after the artist has passed. What I think this means is that many artist do their craft without the expectation of becoming excessively wealthy, and most of the time, this unexpected wealth will come (if it ever does) years after the artist has died. Lastly, the lectures made me realize that not only can art be expensive, but also extremely expensive to produce.

One of the main things that grabbed my attention was during the theatre and money presentation. I was really shocked by how many people involved in community theatre will really perform and produce a show for little or no pay at all. It really made me think about how dedicated and devoted one has to be to be willing to receive little/no pay for an insane amount of work.

In the art presentation, I was really shocked to see how much people pay to display their art at an auction or sale. What really surprised me were the display pieces that involved nothing more than a string and a piece of paper. While I understand the idea behind the piece, it really makes me wonder who would purchase such a thing, let alone pay $50,000 to display it at an auction.

Lastly, in the music presentation, I was surprised to see how little professional musicians (orchestra) are paid. While I was not surprised by how much label companies receive, or how much of the end funds go to Top-40 musicians, I was shocked by how classical musicians actually lived pretty loftily lives (back I the day).

In popular culture, I increasingly find that money and economics are stressed as the main purpose in ones life. I am always seeing how the idea that money is happiness and that it is imperative for one to have it in order to live a happy life.

As for artists living in a capitalistic society, I think there is a place for them, but I feel that the messages that may artists try to convey are drowned out by the ideas of capitalism. I feel that many artists really could care less how much their art sells for, are really just want people to appreciate their work and understand what they are trying to say. If they have to sell their work for hundreds of thousands of dollars than I think many artist see this as a necessary evil in order to get their work out.