There was an absolutely brilliant moment today at the Non-Profit Leadership Collaborative conference (featuring Dan Pallotta). An educated and articulate panel member (who shall remain nameless - but who is a leader in the non-profit sector) made a telling (and pejorative) statement implying money given to Houston Grand Opera and Houston Symphony would be better spent on charities that deal with social causes. Oh where to begin!!!! Let me first say how much I enjoyed this foolish moment in which a non-profit leader publicly dismissed the arts at an event partially sponsored by the Houston Arts Alliance. I am pretty confident that in retrospect this person is having second thoughts about letting his ideology be so transparent. But I thank him (in a way) because the revealing honesty of his statement is so brilliantly important. In the United States, we are (still) battling a mentality that the arts are somehow not important or of lesser value. Artists have fed this mentality by allowing others to dictate a national conversation towards a market driven model in which the arts are valued by their economic impact. We are also guilty of letting others tell us that art with a social agenda is more important than art for art. If there is to be an art revolution (and my friends - it is needed!), artists need to change the national dialogue on the value of art. Yes, this issue is complicated, grey, full of red herrings, and diversions. The complexity, including significance of technology on the arts, the importance of creative place making, the need for community driven projects, the importance of art education, the strengths and weaknesses of collaboration, the importance of assessing the individual organization, the critical challenge of qualitative assessments, etc, need to be unfolded in this dialogue. To start though, a fundamental discussion of value of art is necessary for any real and substantive positive change for the arts. And it needs to come from those of us IN art. I would suggest as a starter, that we simply begin the conversation. The fundamental value of the arts does not lie in economic impact (although that is a positive side effect). The fundamental value of the arts does not lie in educating others on a social cause (although that can sometimes be a side effect). The fundamental value of arts does not lie in providing creative expressions (although it is creatively expressive). The fundamental value of the arts lies in building a civilization. Lets start there.
Posted on: Mon, 12 May 2014 18:32:55 +0000
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