Damian Gorman is a poet and playwright who has worked for many years with communities, especially in areas of conflict. He delivered this year's annual lecture of the Institute of Literature, Languages and Creative Arts at Aberystwyth University. It was entitled ‘The Politics of Spirit: Bringing the Arts to bear on the world at large’.
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Drawing on his experience of growing up and becoming a writer during the Troubles in northern Ireland, Damian Gorman asks whether the arts really matter at all when the going gets rough.
There is a famous story that when Winston Churchill was asked to cut arts funding in favour of the war effort he replied, ‘and then what are we fighting for?’ Like many people I have mixed views about the man, but there is something in the story that gets me: his unswerving note of conviction that this activity – the making up of things – really matters; and matters so much that it actually might be worth fighting for.
I am not always so convinced myself. It is my job and, most of the time, a good percentage of me does believe that the telling of stories to each other, the creative framing of expression to each other and to strangers, is a good thing. When I'm in good form it's 80 or 90% of me believes this; sometimes it's as low as 51 – 49% in favour, but even then the tension creates a kind of torque which can generate an energy in me. I never quite lose the faith completely. And the basic faith is this: that the making of things I referred to – the telling of stories; painting of pictures; the conjuring up of music; the poetry of movement; the shaping of space – all these things can have impact, power and significance. As a writer the telling of stories is the one I know most about, and I do believe that you can measure the health of a society by the quality of the stories it's prepared to tell itself, and to listen to.