Musings from The Three Bells: The State of Democracy

As the US barrels towards Election Day, we invite you to revisit GCDN's Director of Special Projects, Stephanie Fortunato’s reflections ahead of the 2022 US midterm elections which she first shared on our podcast, The Three Bells.

As I finally set out to write this editorial, it is Election Night eve and I am wrestling with an underlying uneasiness about the state of our democracy. 2022 is a midterm election cycle in the US and there are still several worrisome races on the ballot.

Heading into election season, I worked hard to keep as much speculation about battleground elections at a distance. I like governance, politics less so, and the nagging thought keeping me from sleep is a real concern for democracy here and abroad. This fear found perch in my mind a little while ago, and despite my limited news intake, it gains more traction with each headline, podcast and social media post I see.

Basic freedoms I once took for granted are disappearing or endangered. Public trust in institutions continues to decline. Populism is on the rise in the US and around the world, and alongside it, nationalism. What a moment for me to make the shift from working in local government to a global network!

And yet, has there ever been a more important moment to widen our circles, acknowledge our interdependence, and seek effective responses to the challenges of our day collectively? To try to make sense of this all I turn, not to the 24-hour news cycle, but to the arts news instead. A place where history and the making and freedoms of all sorts are usually front and center.

While not the sole purpose, arts and culture are good platforms for bringing attention to communities, to issues, and to inspiring action that is needed to create change. We see this in the recent spate of Just Stop Oil protests taking place at museums around the world in which activists are using masterpieces in service to climate justice.

I've read a range of opinions and reactions, but an article by Katy Hessel in The Guardian resonates strongly with me. In it, she effectively contextualizes these actions to draw attention and spark controversy within the histories of art, cultural institutions, movement building, and social change. Hessel’s article is part of an excellent new biweekly series where she discusses art made by women that speak to today's news agenda. And it is part of the work happening across the cultural sector to open up the ways communities access culture, rewrite expanded narratives and find new opportunities to bring people and cultures previously missing from the record to the fore. We focus on cities as the nexus of cultural activity on The Three Bells, but to paraphrase the great T-Swift, makers gotta make, and creatives are impacting their local communities at some scale all over the world.

The cultural sector needs political leadership at all levels of government, as well as momentum fueled by activism to secure resources, investments, and opportunities for artists and creatives to thrive in their communities, to innovate and to make change. And communities need artists to activate what I have heard called our civic imagination.

When you work with community, with humans, you are working with an imperfect system. For meaningful change, you have to trust in a shared vision, in the creative process that has been forged in partnership and most of all in the people you have an affinity for and those that you don't. Just like in a democracy. I guess I'm still sorting it out.

At the end of the day, the personal is political. I wanted to leave you with a few final words of wisdom from Simon Cane, a guest of the podcast and currently Director of Public and Cultural Engagement at the University of Birmingham. He writes: “It is all about making a difference for me, and it always has been. I came out of the post-punk era with its DIY ethos and the energy from that scene, and this attitude has stayed with me throughout my career. It looks like we have some difficult years ahead here in the UK in terms of the economy, but experience has taught me that the cultural sector is a resilient one, and more often than not, some of the best ideas are born of adversity. Keep calm and listen to Iggy.”

That's good advice, but I think I'll wait for the morning to listen to Iggy. It'll be the perfect soundtrack for election results.

Stephanie first shared these reflections as part of The Three Bells S2:E10 Curating a cultural powerhouse, featuring Simon Cane, then the Director of Cultural Engagement at University College London and Chair of the King’s Cross Knowledge Quarter. Listen to the full episode at https://www.thethreebells.net/episodes/s2e10