Here are my thoughts about this day. I struggled with the way the arts were presented in NH -- as if it's all about building community and collaborations and apples and daisies. I felt frustrated that there seems to be this need to couch the arts in terms of something bigger as if they are not important enough to stand on their own. Would anyone argue that
Ok let's try this again...the blog ate half my post...
What I was saying was "would anyone argue" that education or health care or criminal justice needed to be studied only within the context of another issue? If you're going to offer community building as the topic the focus on ALL aspects of that but if you're going to focus on the arts then really show the struggles that individual artists and arts organizations face - show how the arts tend to come last on every priority list around and are so taken for granted that even our own classmates admit they don't "think much about them" yet would anyone say that about education? the environment? politics? Let's show some of the really groundbreaking innovative work that's being done to bring the arts to underserved audiences in prisons, schools, to sidewalk cafes and parking garages, even onto the floor of the legislature. Talk about how if the arts are going to happen in NH it's usually left up to small groups of people to figure out how to make it happen -- the coffe shop poetry slams, the small community theaters, the photography exhibits in sandwich shops etc. Ask the class to imagine a world without art -- drape the statues, dim the lights of the theater, turn off the music and really imagine how bleak this world would be. But this day left me feeling frustrated and that my classmates didn't get even close to a picture of what the arts mean to NH. Even when Ernie Hebert was speaking I was prompted by one of our hosts (the LNH grad who showed us around Keene.I forget his name) to "get the topic back to community" I wanted to scream. WHY? Why can we not just enjoy hearing about the writing life in NH?
I'm sorry if this is a rant but there has to be a better more effective way to present this topic.
and my FINAL thought (I really need to think all this through before I write but I just had a conversation with a co worker that brought up this point). Every one of our LNH sessions has ended with that "now what' question -- realizing there were big issues at hand, problems to be solved, things to be done and leaving us to think abou what we can do. That moment was missing from this day -- I left feeling as though we're all supposed to think that the arts are doing just dandy in NH thank you -- next topic! That's just not the case. there is much to be done and the work that's being doing in the arts in NH is just as vital as the work being done in the environment, in classrooms and in prisons. This topic deserves more than it got.
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Here are my thoughts about this day. I struggled with the way the arts were presented in NH -- as if it's all about building community and collaborations and apples and daisies. I felt frustrated that there seems to be this need to couch the arts in terms of something bigger as if they are not important enough to stand on their own. Would anyone argue that
Ok let's try this again...the blog ate half my post...
What I was saying was "would anyone argue" that education or health care or criminal justice needed to be studied only within the context of another issue? If you're going to offer community building as the topic the focus on ALL aspects of that but if you're going to focus on the arts then really show the struggles that individual artists and arts organizations face - show how the arts tend to come last on every priority list around and are so taken for granted that even our own classmates admit they don't "think much about them" yet would anyone say that about education? the environment? politics? Let's show some of the really groundbreaking innovative work that's being done to bring the arts to underserved audiences in prisons, schools, to sidewalk cafes and parking garages, even onto the floor of the legislature. Talk about how if the arts are going to happen in NH it's usually left up to small groups of people to figure out how to make it happen -- the coffe shop poetry slams, the small community theaters, the photography exhibits in sandwich shops etc. Ask the class to imagine a world without art -- drape the statues, dim the lights of the theater, turn off the music and really imagine how bleak this world would be. But this day left me feeling frustrated and that my classmates didn't get even close to a picture of what the arts mean to NH. Even when Ernie Hebert was speaking I was prompted by one of our hosts (the LNH grad who showed us around Keene.I forget his name) to "get the topic back to community" I wanted to scream. WHY? Why can we not just enjoy hearing about the writing life in NH?
I'm sorry if this is a rant but there has to be a better more effective way to present this topic.
and my FINAL thought (I really need to think all this through before I write but I just had a conversation with a co worker that brought up this point). Every one of our LNH sessions has ended with that "now what' question -- realizing there were big issues at hand, problems to be solved, things to be done and leaving us to think abou what we can do. That moment was missing from this day -- I left feeling as though we're all supposed to think that the arts are doing just dandy in NH thank you -- next topic! That's just not the case. there is much to be done and the work that's being doing in the arts in NH is just as vital as the work being done in the environment, in classrooms and in prisons. This topic deserves more than it got.
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