Hmmm...lately I have been bugging out and nerding out on what it means to be generous. The idea of an artist having a 'benefit' just seems so crazy. Its so conflicted cause generosity has nothing to do with funding (or does it?) and other artists that get invited to the benefits are no good at being philanthropists. Artists are good at sharing resources, they doggedly exert massive amounts of energy for causes that help more than just themselves, they dive in head first, they genuinely care about works and "invest" in work of their peers. They spend money. yes, from way back, artists have spent money to buy wine for their social gatherings. Maybe to buy absinthe for their artist salons. I am just guessing, but I feel like this is part of modernism. They like galas and getting dressed up and boozed up and they like being bohemian and semi-fancy all at once. They like the juxtaposition. They like the feel of being semi-poor and semi-underfunded. It keeps them real, gives them art-cred. They also like to flaunt their anti-establishment mentalities at their peer's Benefit Events that take their structure/impetus/intent...etc. from those that well established organizations put on. Although a for-profit business probably spends more on one day of boxed lunches for their corporate lunch meetings than a nonprofit spends on a whole damn benefit event, the fact of the matter is, both are about spending money...both are lavish in the sense that: the employees could have packed their lunches or the non-profit could have asked Yards for a money donation that would go straight to their cause instead of getting beer donated. Ultimately, people and artists like food and beer, we like entertainment, we like to get a bang for our buck and if not a bang, at least something worth writing home about. We are spread too thin. We have expenses that need to get paid, things we feel like spending money on, things we forget we spend money on, things we can't even foresee having to spend money on...yet.
We are scared of money. I am. We know that by giving it too much worth, we are falling into a trap...the trap set up by "the man". But we can't keep our middle finger hard and erect forever. Sometimes we have to acknowledge the idea of currency and money and credit and worth. Our finger goes limp and then our hand goes limp and we reluctantly and wimpily offer our dead-fish hand shake to "the man".
and rant on. rant on...I am not sure yet what my point about benefits are. I am going out to buy a beer. or maybe go support an artist and, in a round-about way, buy a beer. either way...cheers to benefits. more to come I promise.
