The Declaration of Creative Independence
A Founding Declaration Issued by Forge of the West
For Creatives and Communities Who Affirm These Principles
When in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for Creatives to dissolve the Institutional Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all artists are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Freedom from Censorship, Postmodernism, and Egalitarianism—That to secure these Rights, Organizations are instituted among Artists, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of their Voluntary Participants, that whenever any Form of Organization becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of Creatives to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Organizations, laying their Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Virtue and Truth.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Organizations long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Creatives are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of Abuses and Impositions, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under cultural Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Organizations, and to provide new Guards for their future Integrity.
Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Creative Communities; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to depart their former Systems of Organization.
The History of the present Creative Establishment is a History of repeated Abuses and Impositions, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Cultural Tyranny over these Creative Communities. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
- It has censored Lawful Expression, not by open prohibition, but by indirect suppression, exclusion, and reputational penalty.
- It has imposed Ideological Tests upon art and artists, elevating conformity of belief above Excellence of Craft.
- It has substituted Political Doctrine for aesthetic judgment, and called this Corruption “progress.”
- It has denied the existence of Objective standards in art, thereby dissolving Criticism into Power and Taste into Authority.
- It has rewarded Alignment over Merit, and enforced outcomes under the pretense of fairness.
- It has constrained publication, recognition, and advancement to those who Affirm approved Narratives, while marginalizing Dissenting Vision.
- It has redefined Excellence as Harm, Tradition as Threat, and Mastery as Exclusion.
- It has centralized Cultural Authority in credentialed bodies Unaccountable to the Artists whose labor they govern.
- It has confused Representation with Creation, and mistaken Demographic Accounting for Artistic Value.
- It has discouraged Courage in expression by Cultivating fear of Social and Professional reprisal.
- It has insulated itself from Reform by Moralizing its power and condemning all Opposition as Malice.
- It has claimed stewardship of Culture while actively severing Art from Truth, Virtue, and Human Flourishing.
In every stage of these Oppressions, we have Petitioned for Redress in measured and respectful Terms. Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. An Establishment whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define Cultural Despotism is unfit to be the Steward of a free Creative People.
Nor have we been wanting in Attentions to our fellow Artists and cultural Peers. We have warned them from Time to Time of Attempts by Institutional Authorities to extend unwarrantable Jurisdiction over creative expression. We have reminded them of the Conditions under which our Communities were Formed and Sustained. We have appealed to their Commitment to Excellence and shared Inheritance as Creatives, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Craft, to disavow these Impositions, which, would inevitably interrupt our Connections and Correspondence. They too have been deaf to the Voice of Excellence and of Cultural Responsibility. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of the Creative World, Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united Creative Communities, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good Artists of these Communities, solemnly Publish and Declare, That these United Creative Communities are, and of Right ought to be, Free and Independent; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the Creative Establishment, and that all institutional Connection between them and the Organizations of the Establishment, is and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent Creative Communities, they have full Power to Publish and Disseminate their Works, to Associate and form Institutions, to Establish standards of Excellence, to Contract Alliances, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent creators may of right do.—And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Integrity, our Labor, and our sacred Honor.
JAMIE HENSON, Founder and Presiding