Yes, you.
Look, all the great families of the Middle Ages and Renaissance were patrons of the arts. They recognized that life without art was nothing, and so they sponsored some of the greatest talents and finest minds of their time, with the end result that we’re still looking back on the heights that art attained during that supported period of time.
Today, not so much. I don’t know a single artist who isn’t having to be their own marketing department too, who isn’t taking time away from creation to hustle for the groceries. And frankly, that diminishes us all; every moment that great artists are holding down a desk or flipping a burger is a moment they aren’t spending creating works that inspire, that motivate, that energize and delight.
To that end, if you’re not familiar with it, I’d like to tell you about Kickstarter. In their own words, Kickstarter is:
… a new way to fund creative ideas and ambitious endeavors.
We believe that…
• A good idea, communicated well, can spread fast and wide.
• A large group of people can be a tremendous source of money and encouragement.Kickstarter is powered by a unique all-or-nothing funding method where projects must be fully-funded or no money changes hands.
My brilliant, talented, gorgeous pal Angela has a Kickstarter project going that fully deserves to be funded and then some. Please go check it out, and become a patron of the arts. Especially now, when times are hard and the world is wooly, sometimes art is the best expression of what we’re capable of as a culture. If we want history to remember us for something other than Wall Street, we have to leave behind art that will speak for us. So step up to the plate, please, and consider patronage.
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