‘Art makes me feel, no, it truly makes me feel; I used to be empty, lost, bare, but that gap is now filled, and art is there. My happy place, a sense of belonging. A feeling close to our hearts and souls, a feeling like a brew.’
‘The Power of the Arts’, composed by a young person in care
In case you might think that the title of this ‘Thought for the Week’ (‘Stepping Forward — Together’) is but another plea for mending the fractured relationship between the U.S. and Ukraine that is also driving NATO apart, you'd be wrong. Barriers are not just being raised between nations, but they are also being built across almost every walk of life, particularly due to the isolation brought about by the reducing extent of in-person contact.
Social media and digital communication play a major part in this: it’s unusual these days to pick up the phone as opposed to firing off a text or email, and in-person business meetings are a rarity. Also, the fact that so many experienced and senior business people work from home for such a significant part of their working lives is a large part of the reason that over 15% of young men aged 16-24 are not in education, employment or training (the equivalent rate for young women is 11.2%), as shown in the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) report, ‘Lost Boys’, last week.
The lack of in-person contact also contributes to our reluctance to integrate which lies behind a large part of the antipathy towards migration, so evident now across the UK, Europe and the U.S.
And, as we retreat behind our barriers, we are finding it increasingly difficult to communicate in a civilised manner: what better example of this do we need than the Trump/Vance bullying tactics adopted in their meeting with Zelensky last Friday.
But when in-person relationships break down, that's when isolation and insecurity set in.
There is, perhaps, no more compelling evidence of the damage done by the break-down of in-person relationships than the impact on children and young people who are taken into care as a result.
I recall attending a meeting of the Care Leavers’ Association in Oxford about ten years ago, where a senior academic was recounting the tragedy of her family break-up when she was just six years old. Notwithstanding the fact that she was providing support and care for her younger siblings (even at that tender age), the young family was split up as alternative foster care arrangements were made for each of them.
She explained how her first day at university was all spent in tears, as she struggled to come to terms with what must have been a desperately unhappy and lonely adolescence. It was only as a result of this intense emotional release that she was able to look forward to her new life in academia.
Her story speaks vividly for so many lonely and insecure young people and, as generational links become increasingly stretched and so many children are born out of wedlock, these situations have become much more frequent over recent years. The CSJ reports that by age 14 almost half of first born children do not live with both natural parents, compared with 21% of those born in 1970.
This high level of isolation and insecurity is the reason why The Share Foundation, which runs a major programme of starter capital accounts and life skills for young people in care throughout the UK for the Department for Education, has launched a new course, ‘Stepping Forward — Performing Arts for Life’ last Friday, in partnership with Tring Park School and the Rothschild Foundation.
There's something extraordinary about the performing arts which is hard to find in any other discipline: it's the sheer enjoyment of working together, the bubbling enthusiasm and optimism which increases personal confidence and communication skills. And these are not restricted to singing, dance and theatre — they’re very transferable to many other walks of life.
You can get a flavour of this by watching The Share Foundation’s YouTube clip designed to introduce the new course for local authorities throughout the UK: but please bear in mind that at present it’s only available for young people in care as shown. In due course a more generally available version of the course may be provided.
As Harry Potter actor David Ricardo Pearce (who presents Share Radio’s ‘Share Drama’ series, accessible through our podcast library) explains in another clip, these skills of confidence and communication built through the performing arts are eminently transferable into other fields.
We've heard so much over the past week about creative concerns over new AI regulation and its impact on copyright; however, the performing arts sector also needs to find new ways to demonstrate the premium of in-person, as opposed to screened, entertainment. More interaction between actors, dancers and singers and their audiences would do much to raise the priority for in-person performances: we need to move on from the one-way format which has become so traditional.
There are other walks of life which could also learn to offer more in-person interaction as opposed to just delivering monologues, and how this could enable people to participate and build their involvement. Churches come to mind in this respect, where sermons are so often delivered across the heads of dwindling congregations, with no opportunity to ask questions or raise comments.
As we move ever deeper into the digital world, in-person interaction will become the distinguishing feature through which humanity will control the machines of the future, retaining a sense of balance and enjoyment as we do so.
This sense of partnership will rub off on so many walks of life. We have already commented on the need to break down barriers, and why that's becoming Increasingly important for international relationships. But it also extends into the field of domestic government, which increasingly needs to work in partnership with business and philanthropy in order to achieve, respectively, its aims for economic and social outcomes.
The best way to overcome humanity's stupidities (about which we commented last week) is through partnership, and that is best achieved through in-person interaction — stepping forward together.
Whether it's family, business, social care, government or international relations, we have so much to learn from the communication skills and enjoyment of being with others, which are nurtured so well through the performing arts.
Gavin Oldham OBE
Share Radio