I think it's our responsibility as artists to not only fight for our art but fight for the communities that are the reason we're able to continue making art, especially since, in Brooklyn's case, we as artists somehow made it 'cool' enough for the bigger money-making industries to start taking over.
Interpretation
Artists have a duty to advocate for their communities and safeguard their art from commercial exploitation.
In this quote, Mitski emphasizes the essential role artists play not only in creating art but also in protecting the cultural and community contexts that foster artistic expression. She suggests that as artists gain recognition, there comes a responsibility to ensure that the very communities contributing to their artistry are not overtaken by commercial interests, thereby losing their unique identity and significance.
In practice
In a speech at an arts fundraiser, one could quote Mitski to highlight the connection between artists and their communities.
Honestly, in the music business, it's all about being cool or being the newest thing or being the 'It' person, and I've tried really hard to be what is expected of me or what would be advantageous to my career, and I just reached the point where I said, 'No, I'm an emotional loser. I can't pretend to not care.'
One wants one's work to be the world, but of course it's never the world. The work is in the world; it never contains the whole thing.
[May 1958, on playing Macbeth at age 30 and age 48] When you're a young man, Macbeth is a character part. When you're older, it's a straight part.
You have to imagine you write a show about a sponge and you think that maybe a few people will think it is funny, some college students, but it takes off. It is truly shocking - to the point where it is bizarre.
I feel like you only have so much time to make stuff. I'm definitely aware of that. I'm also excited about it.
Oh Woman, come before us, before our eyes longing for beauty, and tired of the ugliness of civilization, come in simple tunics, letting us see the line and harmony of the body beneath, and dance for us. Dance us the sweetness of life. Give us again the sweetness and the beauty of the true dance, give us again the joy of seeing the simple unconscious pure body of a woman. Like a great call it has come, and women must hear it and answer it.
It's wonderful to see art in a museum, but it is institutionalised. I don't like the idea of the artwork as something that requires special conditions. I would like it to be universal.
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