“Don’t lose your soul.” During my senior year of high school, I heard this warning over and over when I shared with my conservative Christian community that I planned to major in theatre alongside English literature. “The arts are dangerous nowadays.”
This December, I will receive my Bachelor of Arts in English with a concentration in Medieval and Renaissance studies. As I near my graduation date, I can’t help but reflect on the numerous voices, both in person and online, that discouraged me from pursuing a “useless” or “frivolous” degree.
Perhaps to their satisfaction, I did not complete a theatre degree, although classical and musical theatre are my greatest loves. I have, however, devoted every semester to the performing arts, spending an average of 12 hours a week in rehearsal spaces surrounded by peers who are far from receptive to my conservative beliefs. This doesn’t offend me, and I still have my soul.
Even so, being the only conservative in an artistic space can be isolating. The loudest voices in the arts are left-leaning, to be sure; you don’t need to look far to see that music, theatre, and visual arts alike are dominated by liberal mindsets. Traditionally-minded films and plays don’t make it to Hollywood or Broadway.
As a result, conservatives have run screaming from the arts, deeming them toxic, overrun, “one of the great wastes of time” in society. In my experience, the vast majority of my friends in theatrical and musical spaces are liberal. Young conservatives, it seems, are simply less interested in producing art – probably because they’ve been told that the humanities are worthless.
A 2019 study from the American Academy of Arts & Sciences found that 70% of liberal adults believe that the humanities are an important part of education, compared with 48% of conservatives. Coupled with conservatives’ growing rejection of higher education, it’s hardly surprising that the arts are unpopular in right-leaning circles.
It seems obvious to many that the arts are inherently liberal – after all, art often becomes culturally significant by pushing against traditional norms. So conservatives shy away from participating in art, preferring to let the barrage of “wokeness” take over Hollywood and the music industry than produce counter-cultural art of their own.
But should the arts belong to only one side of the political aisle?
Conservative British philosopher Roger Scruton’s answer is a resounding no:
Artists are the true conservatives of our time, since they have recognized that there can be no artistic truth without the tradition that makes it possible, and have devoted their creative lives to maintaining, adapting and transforming that tradition, so that it does not die.
Yes, art pushes boundaries, but it does not exist in a vacuum. There is nothing new under the sun, as the Teacher writes in the book of Ecclesiastes. The creation of art demands a participation in tradition, a renewal of older values and customs, and a respect for artists long gone. Why, then, have conservatives abandoned it entirely to the left, to be reworked and warped according the politics of the day?
Art does not belong to the left; it belongs to all of us. It is our duty as a culture to respect and protect the liberal arts, because without them, our communal identity could not exist. The arts bring us together by endowing us with shared philosophies, theologies, and understandings of the natural world. They need our support.
Do you feel that the arts are too far gone? Take them back. Support your local theater. Visit museums. Create art of your own. Participate in the ancient tradition of cultural renewal through the creation of beauty. Creative cultures are thriving cultures.
Christine Schueckler is a fourth-year English and French student at the University of Virginia.
The republication of this culture article was made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal, a project of 1819 News. To comment on this article, please email [email protected].
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News.
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