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An Online Journal Concerning the Arts
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Welcome to our online journal making various and sundry comments on the arts at the spur of the moment. Check in here for spontaneous contributions from a variety of perspectives on the arts – we'll include quotations from materials we're reading, from conversations we're having, and just sharing thoughts and news about the work of the institute and the world of the arts.
Margaret Mertz, Executive Director
(unless noted otherwise, all postings are mine)
January 2008
Another year begins, and we are all invested in the concept of change. It is apparent in our national political lives, and we seek it in our individual lives, especially for the artist. The artist exists in relationship with others, since time immemorial, and irrespective of culture or circumstance. At its essence, art is communication.
So we begin again with our communique after too long a hiatus. And I offer words of wisdom from Ben Cameron, from his speech to the Performing Arts Exchange last fall in Louisville, Kentucy, as our point of departure this January.
Many of us in the arts community are only beginning to appreciate that we have seen ourselves in service industry terms in a time of experience economies. Smart performing arts groups are expanding social lobby spaces, adding coffee bars, challenging themselves to extend the production into the lobby, engaging in re-branding and more—all a recognition that we traffic not merely in artistic production but in a total experience that beings with seeing the first ad, continues through the first call to the box office and doesn't end until long after the audience member is home in bed.
But just when we think we are beginning to catch up, the economy has shifted again. Those who wish to survive must think, not merely of experience, but of participation—an economy where value will no longer be consumed but where value will be co-created. Let me say that again: in the future, value will no longer be consumed. Value will be co-created.
February 2008
I want to introduce one of the most thoughtful and engaging thinker working on behalf of the arts in this country. If you haven't met Jonathan Katz, the Executive Director of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, you should find a way to encounter him. His most recent column in the NASAA Notes focuses on the views of voting citizens on arts and education. Here are the first two paragraphs of what he's written, followed by the link to the rest of the column.
February 29, 2008
Executive Director's Column
by jonathan@nasaa-arts.org">Jonathan Katz
[PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION]
I want to draw your attention to a new national survey of 1,000 likely voters that indicates great potential support for candidates who advocate arts education in connection with cultivating the imagination and stimulating innovation. The demonstration that a clear path to public value can be established by connecting the experience of arts learning to the cognitive capacity of the imagination to the educational outcome of innovation is important news, especially for those of us who have experienced frustration with the low value the general public often ascribes to the terms "arts" and "culture," as well as its constantly surprising lack of connection between the arts and "creativity." Linking an education in and through the arts with the development of the imagination brings together constituencies who value educational advancement for a 21st century environment, economic competitiveness, quality of life, and civic engagement.
The Imagine Nation
The survey - commissioned by the Arts Education Partnership and conducted by Lake Research Partners - identifies an "imagine nation" constituency: 30% of American voters who believe that "incorporating building the capacities of the imagination into core courses is extremely critical." That is, they agreed at 10, on a 1-10 scale. The survey also shows that the "imagine nation" reflects the perceptions of majorities of likely voters who reject the idea that basics and technology alone prepare students for success, and believe that the arts make a major contribution to developing the imagination, learning to set goals, respecting multiple values and perspectives, and participating in a group or being a team player. Significantly, more than half (54%) of the core "imagination" constituency is made up of swing voters who self-identify as neither a strong Republican nor a strong Democrat.
For the rest of the article, visit this link: http://www.enewsbuilder.net/nasaanotes/e_article001030198.cfm?x=bcds7dy,b6dT8WLW
March 2008
Continuing the theme of arts and learning, we are currently planning to host an Arts Education Roundtable on the North Carolina School of the Arts campus on March 26. The theme for the day is "Artful Learning" -- inspired by some of the visionary thinking of our chancellor, John Mauceri.
We'll build a series of online resources here as background and context for our readers -- here are some reports from arts organizations around the country.
Here's the weblink to the Leonard Bernstein Center for Learning:
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