I believe this is because there are certain people whose cultural judgments are framed within cultural policy as being flawed by default. Consequently, such individuals are assumed to need reorienting towards what are tacitly accepted by the majority of those working in the subsidized cultural sector as distinctly different and ultimately more valuable types of cultural experiences than those these individuals may already be choosing to take part in. Yet such assumptions question, to the point of denial, the capacity of those labelled as “non-participants” to both think and feel for themselves about what forms of activity they value as a meaningful cultural experience.
While there has been increasing rhetoric around the importance of diversity in the cultural sector, this has tended to focus on diversifying the audiences for certain types of cultural activity rather than diversifying the types of cultural experience that are recognized, celebrated, and supported as being of value. To diversify policy in this manner would require us all to recognize the right of individuals to legitimize an experience as culturally valuable on the basis of its affect on them alone and to acknowledge that apparently disparate activities share the potential to afford similar benefits to different people.
As philosopher Jacques Rancière has argued, equality should not be understood as an end game; it is not something that is to be granted or provided via the successful delivery of certain actions or interventions by those who already believe themselves to have it. It is something each individual has the right to assert and to have acknowledged without question. True equality requires—and indeed must remain—fully independent of any social mediation. If every action starts from the affirmation of equality then it is equity that must be delivered. As such, there is a moral imperative for any state claiming to embody the ideals of a progressive democracy to ensure that everyone has the capabilities, the time, and the right to express and pursue their own individual and collective cultural values.
Let’s not waste time judging one cultural experience against another; instead, let’s wonder at the fact that each of us can find similar joy and meaning in such apparently different objects and activities.
In this case, what becomes most problematic is not that one person does not apportion the same value to the ballet that another does, but that the cultural values of one individual or group are given greater privilege than the cultural values of another. That for some, the activities, organizations, and objects they value most could, for various reasons, be increasingly inaccessible to them, yet this would not be understood as a problem to which the resources of the state can, or should, be applied. If cultural policy is to help address social injustices and to avoid reinforcing existing inequities, it must be concerned with creating the conditions in which everyone can express themselves freely and in the manner they perceive to be most valuable. For being able to do so is an indicator of freedom and an expression of power.
However, this will not be achieved through the type of incremental tinkering to policy actions, short-term projects, flawed evaluations, and futile arguments over relatively small pots of funding, which have become the hallmark of contemporary cultural policy. Indeed, a cultural democracy—based on the affirmation of equality and committed to ensuring equity of support—cannot be achieved through cultural policy alone. It requires changes to social and economic policy and for diverse and equitable cultural participation to be seen as the evidence of an equal and inclusive society rather than a tool to help achieve it. Such fundamental change will require revolution, not evolution. Cultural policy in many countries is constrained by a dependency that stretches back to the European Enlightenment and one that is imbued with the logics of hierarchy and distinction. It is this that needs to be “transformed,” not the people who are labelled as “non-participants.”
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Yes! I met a young Latin American hospital orderly who had seen and enjoyed many Bway plays, most at the time focused on stories about middle and upper class white people -- at first I thought the hospital might be his day-job and he was an aspiring theater actor. No, I had stereotyped him. Reality: His 1199 union distributed info and discount tickets about many NYC cultural events - funding the opportunity to choose. He didn't need outreach - just tickets costing a fair percent of his hourly wage. If you make $80-$120 a day, most theater tickets cost more than two day's pay after taxes. Food, shelter, health care co-pays, transportation, and basic living expenses as well as outings with family/friends don't leave much for $20 admissions, not to mention $40+++ theater tix.