Art and Power
I’m totally obsessed with a book called Power Versus Force by David Hawkins. So much to say about this uniquely insightful book (if you read it, I strongly encourage you to begin at the part, more than 150 pages in, where he actually describes Power Versus Force and proceed forward from there. You can always go back and get the first 150 pages or so during which he describes his kinesiology-based research methodology).
According to Hawkins, there are two ways to operate in the world: with Power or with Force. Power just is. Power exists thanks to collective belief. We believe health is better than illness. Therefore if what you stand for is health, you will operate in Power and people will be drawn to you and your cause. We (mostly) believe in equality over inequality: that all people have a right to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. We believe in beauty and freedom. These things are powerful, and when we make statements to others about them, we can invite people to be with us for common cause in commonly held belief.
Force, on the other hand, is what is used when we want to exert influence over another. If we want someone to buy our product we may try to convince them to buy it with promises, with facts, with limited time offers. You get the idea. The thing about force, though, is that it ALWAYS generates counter-force. So when I try to sell you my insurance plan using tactics other than genuine care for your longterm security and well-being, it causes you to retreat, to sit back, to measure and assess, to compare it against other plans, or against your financial situation.
The arts can be beautiful, inclusive, helpful, educational, challenging, eye-opening, celebratory, cross-cultural, and so many more powerful things. In promoting the arts, in sharing them with our community, even when raising money or when selling tickets, we have an opportunity to engage our community in shared values, to stand together in power.
Yet most arts organizations don’t.
Especially when it comes to raising money. It seems that as soon as there is a goal around money or ticket sales, we forget ourselves, focus on the thing we want, and begin sending mass emails to our fan bases asking for money on a certain timeline, advertising some kind of matching campaign, promising tax benefit, saying “There’s only 48 hours left to make your tax-deductible gift this year. Act now!”
There is a better way. But we must dig deep. Think less about what our small selves want on the surface, and more about what we believe, about why we do what we do. (Best video on this subject is Simon Sinek’s Ted Talk: How Great Leaders Inspire Action)
In my organization we have two mantras: “Inspiration not information,” and “people not products.” You’re welcome to use them if you wish!
Each time I communicate through our email newsletter I go deep. I close my eyes and ask myself the question: “What is the most important thing I can communicate right now.” At New Year’s one year I wrote a newsletter called “Listening.” It was about music and it was about community service and how listening is central to both.
It struck home with a bunch of people, I guess. I got email replies galore, lots of beautiful sentiments. People gave. A few days after the New Year we got a card from a man who described difficult and very personal memories of his childhood, and how hearing his mother sing was one of the only joyful memories of that time that he had. He included a $10,000 check in with that card.
I share that newsletter with my Arts Administration classes from time to time. And then I share no less than 14 screenshots of 14 other emails I personally received that same day, December 30th2014, from charities asking for money. All 14 are virtually the same: Act Now, Just Two Days Left, Matching Gifts, Tax Deduction. I’m sure that some recipients of those other emails gave, perhaps the email and the GIVE NOW link provided a convenient reminder of an intention to give the individual already had. But I would be very surprised if anyone on the receiving end of those communications took the time to write a heartfelt reply by email, or took the time to write a personal response in a card.
The arts may be wiggly, difficult to quantify, hard to argue for, and they may mean different things to different people, but they are nothing if not power. I recommend you stand in that power proudly, and remind yourself of its noble beauty each and every day.
And that’s the end of this 9-part series! I hope you find it helpful.
Photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash
