Next mayor needs arts agenda by Laura Washington
while i agree that the mayoral candidates should be discussing their plans to continue to support and enhance the arts in chicago, i took issue with the way the article was written. maybe i'm not giving this article a fair chance because i was immediately put off from the beginning, maybe i'm not looking at the overall message, and maybe i'm just not following her train of thought. but i'm not digging laura washington right now.i think what i found so off putting was the language of "blue collar colloquialism," "high-culture" and other ways of making class distinctions. it appears that for laura this so called chicago arts renaissance is based in opera, ballet, symphony and theater, all "high" art, "high-culture." she is placing value on a very specific type of work and a very specific population of artists and art appreciators.
to be fair, she makes the case that the arts are an important part of life and culture in a city, and she made a plug for free events, which i appreciate. but, that's about it.
and while she did check herself by including the part about Ronnee Hartfield reminding her that high-culture" institutions take a paternalistic approach when attempting to make connections to neighborhoods, this article still falls short.
if we want to really push the mayoral candidates to make the arts a key part of their campaign agenda, we have to make a more convincing argument.
nice points, paulina. i felt like the article wasn't all that compelling either. the very reason that so many people are not supportive of the arts and art education is because they don't see the value for the general population. accessibility and relevance to the student/audience's lived experience are just two of the really important points that can help support the arts as a truly valuable part of our culture and the mayor's agenda.
ReplyDeletei agree with your reaction as well, paulina. pretty much the only interesting part was the pushback from hartfield. her statement that
ReplyDelete"Orchestras go out into communities to play Beethoven without any attempt to connect it to the lives of the people," and that the pastoral symphony should be used to encourage young people to think about their relationship with nature just as beethoven was doing through music, brings up an important point about outreach. while i am all for so-called "higher arts" institutions refusing to hoard their resources and instead spreading them through the community, unless the outreach is done in a way that encourages those community members to see themselves as connected to the art in some fashion, what's the point? otherwise, it just seems like themed charity work.