Eighteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

Recent changes in public policy to improve the inclusion of marginalized groups in Canadian arts institutions have triggered many conversations, both public and private, that are often fraught with negative feelings. White people and artists over the age of 45, in particular, tend to express feelings of sadness, anger or loss – especially a loss of freedom. In this study, I examine how the prevalence of negative feelings in these conversations is a manifestation of resentment, in that it directs real affects to the wrong objects. Using a body of analysis that blends anonymous interviews of artists, participatory observation in the professional art world, and an autoethnography of my own affective convolutions as a white artist, I argue that the root cause of these negative feelings resides in the vertical, winner-take-all structure of the professional art world. Basing my analysis on Gilles Deleuze and Brian Massumi’s reading of Spinoza, I argue that this mischanneling of affect by professional artists effectively diminishes their ability to increase their sense of agency and, therefore, their freedom.