Everywhere I look these days, there is profound human suffering. Sometimes it is at the hands of Mother Nature — earthquakes, wildfires, Ebola, etc. And while completely tragic and horrific, these natural disasters/outbreaks pale in comparison to what mans’ inhumanity to man has been in recent times.
Without judgment on relative import or which side might be right, civil war in Syria and the Middle East and Europe’s growing refusal to accept those that have been forced to flee, Donald Trump’s desire to rid America of its “immigrant” problem, race relations in the U.S. – the Charleston killings, Baltimore riots, unbelievable police brutality largely based on race in the U.S. and abroad, even a Kentucky marriage clerk refusing gay couples the right to marry and being lauded for doing so. I have no answer other than to acknowledge that hate is alive and well, thriving even. Us vs. them, have vs. have-nots, all of it pervading our sense of community and justifying abject indignance to another’s worldview.
I know I cannot be alone in feeling that we can and should do better. The role of creative business is, at heart, to shine a light on those we so readily seek to dismiss. Go read Vicente Wolf’s description of his travels to Syria in his book, Crossing Boundaries and its influences on his interior design projects; discover Eduardo Kohlmann and the brilliant event/catering work he does in Mexico; have a look at Tara Guerard’s first book, Southern Weddings: New Looks From The Old South, and you will see the best part of the South.
You may dismiss Vicente, Eduardo and Tara’s work as only for wealthy people to the exclusion of other. Sure, but then you deny that there are those that want to see the beautiful parts of their world, to celebrate what is possible or even what is impossible for them, but alive nonetheless. The sheer existence of beauty, of art, matters when all that surrounds someone is the exact opposite.
To that end, I would like to think that EVERY creative business can own the responsibility to create beauty, to celebrate the best of human creativity and community. Dismissing your role as a mere product or service provider is a cop out. Go further because you can. If you are willing to see your art and creative business as one of purpose and meaning, so too will your clients.
Here is a part of a note my client, Erick Weiss of Honeysweet Productions, wrote to his team (and shared with me) on the eve of the opening of the World Lacrosse Championship in Syracuse, New York this Friday:
“The next 5 days are going to be difficult. All I want to say to you all is that we are making history. We are making a difference. We are going to produce a sporting event that has a real story to tell. Not a story about a wife batterer. Not a story about a drug addiction. Not a story about a broken family. We are telling a story about a proud nation. We are peeling back the layers of a story that has not been told. We are telling the story of a people mightily abused by American history. And we are telling the story of a Nation that is proud to adhere to its higher calling. The calling of healing, friendship and world peace. Thank you all for everything you are doing to make these world games the best they can be.”
If you believe you, your art and your creative business matters, that it can move people no matter the forum, then it does and it will. For that responsibility, you will be paid and we will all be so much richer.
