Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Arts Not So Special

Andrew Taylor in his blog, The Artful Manager, talks about why arts organizations have such a hard time finding their audiences, after attending a conference on such...

'And then one participant said this:
''We need to stop making the arts so special.''
and then ends his post as follows

'Art and artistic expression shouldn't be the jewelry of society, it should be part of the blood, part of the muscle, and part of the bone. When our strategies set us apart from the world so that we can be separately admired, supported, and valued, we shouldn't be surprised when we are perceived as separate.

As John Dewey wrote more than 70 years ago: 'As long as art is the beauty parlor of civilization, neither art nor civilization is secure.'"

1 comment:

Joyce Owens said...

I agree and disagree. Art is not so special because everyone can make a form of it from babies to geezers. I teach non-art majors who have no idea they can draw or make a painting. It is a thrill to the student who puts in the work to see what she or he can accomplish and it is thrilling to me to see their results!BR/BR/Everyone can have the experience of producing art. Most people, when they find out how hard the work is, how much the materials cost, the various steps involved, don't want to invest in becoming an artist because it takes serious commitment and there is no guarantee that anyone will consider the work any good!BR/BR/So yes, I beg everyone to make art so they can learn problem-solving for one, but primarily they will appreciate the serious, hardworking artists and understand why people need to shell out the bucks to own a piece of the creativity and beauty artists add to the earth.