A recent issue of TIME Magazine featured ‘The Decade From Hell’.  It depends on how you look at it.  TLC’s roll steadily increased throughout the decade.  Students continue to work with dedication and optimism despite the wobbles of the global economy and relentless fretting of the news media.

The disturbing news is that what happens in America often flows on to New Zealand.  The unemployment rate in America has doubled to around 10% in the last two years (NZ has moved up to 6%).  More than thirty-six million Americans are currently receiving benefits via food stamps.  Western economies as a whole are in a mess and are dependent on what might as well be called food stamps.  Rod Oram in the Sunday Star Times (November 29, 2009) said ‘Central bank support of financial systems and government stimulus of economies equals 30% of global GDP.’

Putting it another way, the financial system is a social welfare cot case and is receiving massive support to ease the potential of a much bigger calamity.

This may look like terrible news for budding artists because state spending is getting tighter and tighter.  Our government has put a heavy lid on educational spending and we’re hearing new versions of old advice about learning to be happy with less.

On the bright side our politicians might finally wake up to the fact that money itself is a big part of the problem.  Currency trading has become a massive and essentially useless business.  Global trading in New Zealand currency went up by nearly 900% in the six years to December 2007*.  In the last half of 2009 our currency bounced 23% between the lowest and highest values against the US dollar.  Does that have any grounding in reality or is it part of a giant financial poker game?

If the poker game was taxed at a very low rate per transaction, the money could go into education and other worthy causes.  Naturally the poker game would get smaller and less profitable, which could free capital for things that actually matter.

TLC has been very conservative during the ‘decade from hell’ and we’ve kept our borrowing to a minimum.  Instead of joining the money market we’ve built capital and put it into our new Taita campus.  We have moved into the ‘Twenty-tens’ in better shape than ever.  We’ve built the best art and creativity resources in New Zealand and it is a privilege to be involved.

Despite our underlying stability we’re still vulnerable to changes in the world economy and to government policy.  The best protection is for staff and students to think of new ways in which art and creativity can be relevant to the wider community.

Two particular areas of development are especially important.  One is the relationship between hands-on art experience and general ‘problem-solving’.   This is something which is vital to education everywhere.

The other major area is well-being.  I recently heard psychiatrist Stuart Brown say that the opposite of fun is depression.  No wonder that people find that the fun of art is good for them.  It’s exciting and inspiring.  It does something for the human spirit.  It is a message to all who care to pay attention.  When the human spirit is strong, we will find ways to prosper.

* based on figures in the Sunday Star Times, 29/11/09