5 Ways the art industry can be more inclusive

The arts industry is known for barriers of expression, funding, and diversity, but incorporating checks-and-balances to ensure inclusivity is possible.

The arts community has been existing since the first drawings on cave walls were found. Within the areas of visual, literary, musical, dance, and experimental arts,The art industry has been a home to those who feel the need to express and be entertained. As art becomes more accessible by means of the internet, the culture of the art world is simultaneously getting bigger, and bigger while culturally blocking others who are deemed unlearned out. By allowing more voices to be heard, making programming more accessible, minimizing pretentious behavior, speaking in a way the masses can understand, and introducing the arts at a young age, the art industry can be more inclusive for anyone who wishes to express themselves or simply be inspired.

Allowing all voices to be heard

Like many industries, women and people of color are often susceptible to bias when communicating their experiences. Diversity is a crucial aspects of the art word as it allows people to understand perspectives that are not their own. Not to mention differences in backgrounds, lifestyles, and characteristics, is precisely what makes one piece of art different from the next. Not only allowing, but listening to various forms of art from various types of people makes for a world of equality.

Lessening the cost of programming

In order to move up in the art world, whether one is an artists a critique, or simply someone who just shows an interest, it is important to have money. In the art world, money allows you access to visit museums, buy books, attend panels, and discussions with artists, receive an education, and more. By lessening costs of programming, or offering them on a sliding scale basis, the art industry will open doors for people who do not always have the financial means to participate in their interests. Each and every opportunity one is presented with has the potential to change the life of an individual. The more affordable programs are implemented, the more lives can be changed.

Minimizing pretension

The art snob has long been a trope of the art industry. Snootily sipping wine and critiquing art with multisyllabic words and isolating opinions. Pretentiousness, is by definition, is to assert excessive importance in something in a manner to impress. This behavior has become a mark of the art realm. Although it is a common misconception, pretentious behavior discourages people away from expressing or seeking interest in the arts. By being more open to different levels of understanding, interests, and mediums of art, more people can be included in the industry.

Communicating clearly

Along the lines of pretentious, the upper levels of the art world is laden with big words and gaudy speech in panels, critiques, and discussions about art. This makes art less digestible for people on an entry level in the arts, and makes learning about art less accessible. It is crucial for leaders in the art world to develop cross-cultural communication for people of various understandings and background to have an equal chance at being involved in the industry.

Introducing art at a young age

It is statistically proven that introducing children to different forms of arts improves their critical thinking, behavior, and leaves a lasting impression on the course of their lives. According to The National Center for Educational Statistics, 85% of schools in the United States offer art programs to some degree, although the divide lies between schools in low-income schools. Art plays a role in representation, and without art programs in low-income schools, students in attendance are not able to express creatively or see representations of themselves in art.

Fortunately, tropes of the snooty artist don't have to ring true. By ways of inclusion and diversity the art community can make room of positive growth. Not only will people be more open to communicating their perspective to the arts, but others may feel more open to being a listening ear. In the worlds of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity."