Attendee and patron of the MSO, Jessica Agoston Cleary, says the distance between art and politics is never big.Credit: Chris Hopkins
“Art forms are about politics, they’re about engaging with what’s going on in the social milieu of the day, and that’s not always pleasant. I don’t think it’s appropriate to silence creative people — artists, musicians, pianists, visual artists, whatever,” she said.
“If the general gist is to dedicate a piece to journalists who have been killed in Gaza regardless of whether those journalists were Palestinians or Jews, or wherever their ethnicity may lie, I don’t think there’s anything overly inflammatory about dedicating a piece to fallen people.”
But, Agoston Cleary said, the situation did “become complicated when you’ve got a vehicle like the MSO”.
“I imagine there’s patronage issue associated with that, where the money flows come from, and again there is always politics involved with money … However, an organisation does need to maintain a level of support and autonomy for their creative people to have views.”
Agoston Cleary said MSO chief conductor Jaime Martin did this brilliantly. “He’s often talking about the elements of the music and how it can evoke emotions and express various things and how he responds to it. It’s an important part of an art form,” she said.
“You go to an art gallery and you have an artist’s statement or a curatorial statement, and it’s a similar thing: it helps you understand or contextualise the piece. It brings it to life.”
MSO attendee Colin McKellar said the MSO’s response to Gillham’s commentary was “terrible”.Credit: Chris Hopkins
Another attendee, Colin McKellar, said the MSO’s response to Gillham’s commentary was “terrible”. But, he said, the orchestra was state-funded. “It’s not an independent arts organisation,” he said.
“It’s part of their politics. Their politics are not anything that I agree with but it’s the state’s politics so it’s immoveable. They were too quick to toe the party line.
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“It’s absurd for anybody to think that arts should somehow be quarantined from political reality,” McKellar said. “Art and politics are always in flux with each other and always will be.”
The Opposition’s transport infrastructure spokesman and the MP for Caulfield, David Southwick, said on Sunday: “We’ve got to have an inclusive creative arts industry, something that celebrates everybody from all walks of life and when somebody wants to use that as a divisive tool to make people feel unwelcome then I think that’s something that Victoria should be stamping out.”
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