Just Artists

Creating Change
By Rik Leaf

 “The artist - in so far as he is an artist is looking not for the causes of effect; he is simply looking - sinking his eye into the object. To his eye this object permanently reveals.” Joseph Campbell

What is missing with most bands, most artists even, is a belief that what they’re doing matters. As a career artist I can understand why they might feel this way. Our society has produced an environment where the arts are often seen as an extravagant indulgence or worse, simply irrelevant.
I was recently invited to participate in a community building event in the capacity of an artist. With a mandate and vision statement eerily similar to that of the JUST Artists, I was eager to participate and happy to be invited. What I saw, what I heard, the people I met, talked and listened to made me very, very excited about the future. It wasn’t all bells and whistles, bluster and bravo, it was much simpler and more difficult…people getting together with other people and starting a dialogue that exceeded the limitations of preconceived notions and positions.
There was something else I found noteworthy… a place of was given to pastors and priests, politicians and the successful members of the business community, each were allotted their time at the mic, front and centre with all eyes and ears riveted on them as they voiced their ideas.
And the artists…well, the artists were scheduled as background ambience during lunch. Off to the side at the back of the stage with the volume turned down low enough to avoid cluttering the conversations over coleslaw. It was a great physical manifestation that represented the pre existing beliefs that what artists do and say matters little, if at all.
It is in those moments that artists can identify with the marginalized of society; be it the poor, ethnic minorities, the gay community or women, basically all those who have had to struggle to be heard and make their thoughts and ideas known.

And to be honest, these are the ones most in need of artists, writers, painters, poets and musicians, a creative community that can help tell their stories to the world.
Creating change always involves learning to give meaning to what you do. Believing that what you do matters so that you can believe that paying the price is a worthwhile investment. Change doesn’t just happen…it is created.