Art of the Employees

I’ve been thinking all week about the passing of Augusto Boal at the beginning of the month. His impact as a theater innovator spans generations, though he started with work similar to others. Luis Valdez’s early work amongst migrant workers in the fields of California was agit prop just like Boal’s work amongst Brazilian farmers. It’s Boal’s evolution and codification of his work from agit prop into the Theatre of the Oppressed that has influenced performing artists and companies since. Los Angeles Poverty Department and Cornerstone Theater are two west coast companies that have expanded Boal’s legacy in different ways. There are many others across the globe.

Now, I’m wondering how Boal’s ideas for the spectator becoming part of the creative process can be applied to the institutions where most Americans spend their time and have their community. I’m thinking of corporate work environments, the military, non-profits, universities, hospitals, and government offices. We don’t think of people in these institutional settings as oppressed. However, as we’re being reminded everyday, people live knowing they can lose their jobs, their health insurance and their retirement without having recourse to protect themselves. The vulnerability we live with in middle and lower income society is generally less vicious and violent than when our ancestors were creating the middle class, but it’s still real. Boal worked to give vulnerable people a mechanism for using their voice. It seems to me working people meet this criteria.

My proposal is for artists-in-residence to become common inside all of our institutions. I don’t propose this to see them create work for or about the people employed by the institution, but to collaborate with employees in creating work together. Laurie Anderson was the first and only ever artist-in-residence at NASA. From the performance she created afterward and the stories I’ve heard her tell, she didn’t make art with the NASA engineers. Too bad. Maybe if she had, they would advocate to continue bringing an artist into their environment.

The more companies depend on creative output from their employees the more they give them opportunities to expand their creative skills. A friend of mine taught a collage class at Pixar. That’s professional development for Pixar employees who are already creating together, though they are vulnerable like the rest of us. But what about the employees at Costco? They don’t have a creative life together. Giving them the opportunity to create art would surely strengthen them as a community of people, and give them shared experience and purpose that extends beyond the execution of their jobs.

The art doesn’t have to be theater. It has to be the medium that is right for the people and business culture of each employer as well as the local neighborhood or city. It could be a chorus, an ever evolving mural, or an annual festival. It could include employees’ families and integrate customers or clients. Whatever the form, it is sure to become a source of pride, provide personal development, and be a means of integrating new employees into the environment.

Many people are talking about using this economic downturn as a mechanism for redesigning government and business. In the arts, we’ve tended to focus on the government side of the equation because we’re most familiar with it. I’d like to see some attention given to the business side. Business income will rebound before state and local budgets, and businesses are usually quicker to innovate and experiment. If we want to see more people participating in the arts we need to go to where they are and where they want to be. Right now, they want to be at work.