I was in Spain, giving a keynote talk at an arts marketing conference. Which took a lot of last-minute preparation. Which then took me away from parts of my normal life. But the conference was so good, one of the best, maybe the very best Ive ever been at. So focused, so human, such good people speaking. So much credit to Asimetrica, the arts marketing consultants who organized it (for the fourth year), and especially Raúl Ramos, who hosted and MCd, and who has the most lovely way of making people comfortable. And at the same time saying important things, but without ever making it about himself. In my talk I said something Ive been brewing for a long time — that the arts no longer represent art in any meaningful way. The arts are an industry, which represents _some_ art (the older, high-culture stuff), and which sells itself by — more and more implausibly — claiming, implicitly, to represent all of art. But art has migrated into the wider world, and is found in so many places outside the art. Thriving. Weve never had the artistic impulse and artistic expression thriving the way they do now. Which is why the arts are baffled, trying to increase demand for what they offer, trying to create access points, and other simplified ways for non-arts people to buy into what were selling. Without realizing that those other people, these days, are likely to be smarter and more cultured than we are, though their culture doesnt include (or barely includes) the arts. This went over wonderfully in Spain, for an audience largely from Spain and Latin America, though there were also arts professionals from other places presenting at the conference. What I said wasnt treated as shocking, but rather (as far as I can tell) as a bracing, helpful reminder of a truth we all know, but havent quite come to terms with. My talk was called Time to join the rest of the world, and Ive blogged about it today. Soon Ill make the slides from my presentation available, so everyone can see everything I said. I felt good about getting this off my chest. I think a lot of problems are solved if we accept it. artsjournal/sandow/2014/10/time-to-join-the-rest-of-the-world.html
Posted on: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 18:49:25 +0000
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