Thoughts on the Morning of Friday December 13th

Image by Don McCullin

Last night there was a storm in Wales. The wind battered our small house. When I woke this morning to fallen trees, to neighbours counting the cost of the damage and, of course, to the result of last night’s election, it was hard not to feel that the storm was a metaphor made real.

I’ve learned not to be overtly political in the talks and workshops I give. But in this election, perhaps more than any other, I’ve seen my friends and colleagues in the arts rally around the cause. And I know that this morning, as we contemplate what is to come over the next five years in the UK, that they, like me, will no doubt be feeling a little … storm tossed.

So I’d like to say to those friends and colleagues that we are going to need your creativity now like never before.

We need your art, your writing, your music and your plays to tell the stories of those for whom life is about to get a lot tougher, and to ensure that no one in our society is allowed to be forgotten.

We need you to give a voice to those who will become increasingly marginalised; to empower them through sharing your skills so they can make themselves heard. If you’ve thought about working with schools, charities and youth groups now is the time to do it. Though you may have to do so for free, because there will be even less funding than there was before.

And we need you to help us make sense of the chaotic state of our country, to make work which brings us together in this time of great division, work which makes us understand our common humanity, and, perhaps most of all, work which can provide solace to our troubled souls.

The forecast this morning is for more storms to come.

Now is the time for those of us in the arts to come together and to use our creativity for good.

If we do that then we can weather them.