Tappers and listeners or Arts and everybody else

We have work to do…

If you think our arts community is having difficult times because nobody is listening to our plight, then this story is for you.

I was reading a book called Made to Stick (Amazon Canada or Amazon US) where the authors mention a study done about a group of 120 people that was split into two. One half was given well-known song names and asked to tap out the songs to the people in the other half of the group. These were “obvious” songs like “Happy Birthday.”

The first half of the group (tappers) predicted the other half of the group (listeners) would guess about 50% of the songs they heard tapped. The reality was that only 2.5% of the songs were correctly guessed. The tappers were amazed. They thought the listeners must be stupid. Test it yourself.

The reason, is that the tappers heard the melodies in their head.

It seems to me that as the arts community, we are tappers. We know the song that we tap out. We hear it in our head. We get together for “tapper” meetings where we all talk about how stupid everyone else must be (elected officials, general public) for not hearing and understanding our arguments about why the arts are important. “Don’t they hear it?” we say.

We pull out stats and figures that show how investing in the arts is so valuable in an economic sense. We list people from our own province/state or city who have become famous and say “that proves the arts are important.” We spew forth with devastating predictions of how society will fall apart without arts funding. The list goes on (I’m guilty).

What gets accomplished? Usually, not much.

Why? Because we aren’t connecting. For just a little while, we need to “unlearn” all that we’ve learned over the years about why the arts are important to us and learn to think like the people we are trying to convince.

To do that, we have to get off our high horse and try to understand where they are coming from. Screaming at them or railing against them has had a questionable effect.

We need to try to understand them better and talk in their language and think long term by getting people they trust and who they know to tell stories of why the arts are important. We have to start by finding a few “regular” people and get them to tell the politicians and the rest of the general public their stories of why the arts are important.

If we were “marketing” this whole arts funding message like any other product, service or idea, we’d know that we can’t convince those with a different worldview than ours to suddenly change their way of thinking. They don’t even hear us. It takes time and patience. It takes one person at a time. One story at a time.

Let’s stop just tapping and start adding the melody in. Maybe then, our message will get through to the listeners.

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NOTE: This is why I support Arts Advocacy BC. This new grass roots organization is about celebrating and bringing forward the stories of regular people to help make the case for the arts.