WHY MUST ARTISTS BE POOR?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bs86giWcjLA

1. You’re going to listen to a short talk by Hadi Eldebek about artists’

struggles. Before listening, match the following words with their
meanings:

a) corporate job - an amount of money given to a person or organization

for a special purpose
b) budget - surprising, unusual, attracting your attention
c) make it - bonds and solidarity between the members of society
d) tax revenue - a job in a big company
e) grant - not perfect, containing mistakes
f) struggling - the amount of money a government collects from taxes
g) drop out of - money given by a government or organization for an
event or activity
h) invest - unsuccessful but trying very hard to succeed
i) flawed - the amount of money you earn
j) striking - to put money into something in order to get some profit
k) funding - to succeed in achieving a goal
l) income - give up something (often used with school or
university)
m) social cohesion - the amount of money a company, person or
organization will need or be able to spend

2. Imagine your friend tells you that they are giving up their masters’ degree
in engineering in order to pursue a full-time career as an artist. What
would be your reaction? You can use some of the words below to
describe your attitude.

Encouraging

Sceptical

Enthusiastic

Worried
3. Now, listen to the talk. After listening, try to answer as many of the
following questions as possible:

- What type of careers do Hadi’s brothers have?

- How did his brothers react to his dropping out of his programme to
become an artist?

- What do many of Hadi’s friends do in order to pay their bills while

pursuing their career as artists? What consequence does it have?

- To what sector does he compare the investment in the arts in the US?

- What is the value of art, according to him, beyond its financial value?

- How does Hadi intend to help change the situation of underinvestment in

the arts? What is Grantpa?

- What is funding inequality?

- How will his email to his brothers have changed in a few years’ time?
 n) corporate job - a job in a big company
o) budget - the amount of money a company, person or
organization will need or be able to spend
p) make it - to succeed in achieving a goal
q) tax revenue - the amount of money a government collects from taxes
r) grant - an amount of money given to a person or organization
for a special purpose
s) struggling - unsuccessful but trying very hard to succeed
t) drop out of - give up something (often used with school or
university)
u) invest - to put money into something in order to get some profit
v) flawed - not perfect, containing mistakes
w) striking - surprising, unusual, attracting your attention
x) funding - money given by a government or organization for an
event or activity
y) income - the amount of money you earn
z) social cohesion - bonds and solidarity between the members of society

- they are all scientists and engineers.

- They were not encouraging, and tried to dissuade him from becoming an artist.
They thought it was a big mistake. Some of them didn’t even answer.
- Most of them take on another job in order to support their artistic careers. The
consequence is that their plan B becomes their plan A, meaning that their job
consumes all of their time and effort instead of their art.
- He compares it to the investment in the military and defense.
- It brings meaning to life; it’s the spirit of our culture; it brings people together
and it supports creativity and social cohesion.
- He wants to help artists reach more cultural and financial support, to help
overcome the situation of financial inequality for the arts. Grantpa is an online
platform which connects artists with grants and funding opportunities easily.
- It is the unbalance between the funding received by different activities.
- He will tell them that he’s doing great and thank them for their support.

You can access the transcript of the talk through the following link:

https://www.ted.com/talks/hadi_eldebek_why_must_artists_be_poor/transcript