According to Christopher Witcombe, Professor of Art History at Sweet Briar College, Virginia, “’Art for Art’s Sake’ is basically a call for release from the tyranny of meaning and purpose.” It isn’t trying to instruct and it’s not out to turn a profit. Prof. Witcombe frames his thoughts on the matter within a discourse on progressive modernism. But his high brow motives do not detract from the gritty reality that amateur and community based arts appear to exemplify art that’s conducted on an “for art’s sake” or “for the love it” basis.
There are as many amateur artforms as there are artforms. What amateur photographers, painters, and poets have in common is that they undertake the activity in the absence of commercial interests. Probably the most successful amateur artform worldwide has been amateur theatre.
Former president of the American Association of Community Theatre, Twink Lynch, quotes from the book Theatre in America: Appraisal and Challenge, 1968: “Community Theatre occupies a peculiarly important position in the American theater picture. It is the largest, by far, of the theater’s numerous segments, and has the best chance of reaching the average citizen and family.”
Worldwide amateur theatre is the probably the most widley practised non professional art form. Lithuania alone has around 1600 non professional theatre groups active across virtually the entire spectrum of performance. The country also has a designated amateur theatre stage managers’ training course run through the Klaipeda University. The Lithuanian Amateur Theatre Association estimates that amateur theatre reaches in the order of 50,000 active participants and a combined audience of almost 400,000 people every year.
In Denmark amateur theatre involves almost 100,000 participants. In the UK amateur theatre is hugely popular with 486,700 active participants performing to a total audience of 7.9 million people each year. It is so popular that many of Britain’s top celebrities, including playwright Lord Andrew Lloyd-Webber are helping to launch this year’s Amateur Theatre Week, which runs from 21 to 28 October.
In his statement of support for the initiative Lord Lloyd-Webber says, “Amateur theatre makes an enormous contribution to local communities and in some parts of the country provides people’s only access to live theatre.”
Not only that but many amateur theatres also serve to air local issues whilst also preserving local culture, as the small scale Stiwt Theatre has been doing for its Welsh mining community for almost a century.
Theatre has long been used as a way of putting issues or problems under the community spotlight. The Samogitians of western Lithuania have long regarded theatre as one of the cornerstones of their culture. According to the Samogitian Cultural Association, “Samogitians do not hesitate to open up on stage. They make fun of their own and their friends’ weaknesses and hand out moral lessons. Historically, theater also acted as a peculiar mode of battle, where actors would figuratively destroy their opponents by making fun of them in skits that helped people understand the reasons for some current evil. “
Professor Lynn Mally, Professor of History at the University of California-Berkeley, argues the ability of amateur theatre to “function in a ‘homemade, unpredictable’ way”, essentially taking its cues from ordinary people as opposed to professionally schooled artists, became a major headache for the Soviet state that emerged following the Bolshevik Revolution. The result was that amateur theatre became tightly controlled and regulated. It’s creative spark was stifled and it’s relevance to small scale communities diminished. Those who were performing for the love of it were also seen to be imparting meaning through their work. Many suffered in the gulags as a result.
The accessibility and relevance of community based theatre and other amateur arts produced by small collectives or individuals is a significant part of the “amateur allure” that seems to be enticing more and more young people. Increasingly audiences want to participate or lead in the artwork rather than be performed at in a traditional sense.
In recognitin of the importance of amateur theatre in helping bring about better integrated communities, UNESCO conferred NGO status on the International Amateur Theatre Association.
Amateur theatre, as with all amateur art, is art by the people, for the people. Often the end result is less important than the process of making it. It’s the “it’s not the winning, it’s the taking part that counts” philosophy. When it comes to being an amateur, everyone’s a winner.
