Bau’s Blaug
The latest news from “the Big Cheese” – Executive Director Bau Graves.
Mister Graves Goes To Washington
Yesterday, an extraordinary meeting that would have been unthinkable just a few months ago took place in Washington. I was privileged to be among a group of sixty arts leaders from around the country who were invited to participate in a White House briefing about “Art, Community, Social Justice and National Recovery.” The assembled cultural advocates included musicians, dancers, poets, hip hop activists, union organizers, theater people, media artists and champions of social change with impressive credentials – none of whom had ever been invited to the White House. Mike Strautmanis, Chief of Staff for the Office of Public Engagement, opened the meeting by saying “Welcome to a relationship!”
While we did not get to meet President Obama (he was busy with other things, among them naming a new Chair for the NEA and participating in the first ever White House poetry slam), we did hear from a string of aides with responsibility for overseeing the variety of intersections between art and our government. The message that they delivered was clear and unambiguous: “The arts are back on the nation’s agenda.” The President frequently noted during his campaign the centrality of creativity to our national future, and that leads directly to a commitment to the sustained support of the arts. His team asked for our assistance and guidance in shaping future initiatives. Kareem Dale, Obama’s chief advisor on cultural policy asked us to consider “how can you challenge us to be better?” For the assembled arts activists who have spent their entire careers working with meager resources while being politically marginalized, this was an unprecedented acknowledgment of the importance of our work. Several of the speakers singled out Old Town School as an example of how the arts can transform lives and communities. It was a remarkable experience.
And now comes the hard part. The Obama Administration has reached out to us, and very explicitly invited us to be a part of a dialogue. It is now up to us to respond with care, with creativity, with nuance, and with a vision that can energize our nation. An opportunity of this magnitude is rare and precious. Let’s seize the time! Policy debates about a national Artist Corps, a new WPA for the Arts, and the demonopolization of the media are all in the air. But what do you think? Old Town School is at the center of the conversation. I invite everyone in our community to take up the challenge and imagine what the future could hold. Just what does “change we can believe in” really look like? Let me know. Let’s have the conversation here and now. Responses to this blog will be collected and condensed and passed along to our colleagues who are now beginning to draft policy recommendations, and ultimately forwarded to the White House. This is a time for our very best thinking. We may never have another shot at it.
Filed under: Uncategorized by Bau | May 13, 2009 | Comments (11)
11 Comments so far
I agree that to be a part of the dialogue, one has to approach this opening with care and finesse. If I may suggest an idea, it would be astounding if, once a month, a different artist was allowed to present music for 30 minutes for a concert on the White House lawn, or inside. Old Town School of Music, in conjunction with the International Folk Alliance, could be the presenters, and this would build relationships and greater understanding of what folk music is and how it sustains and endures people, not only in the United States, but around the world. PBS could be involved, or a cable show, to share the music that the president/staff/guests are being treated to, and it helps expose different artists to a greater audience. I think to build a relationship, the music has to be present. Nothing speaks louder than the art itself, and what greater gift to give to the nation, and it’s leader, than the very heartbeat of human creativity—the human voice? Thank you for providing a format to discuss ideas. Sara Hickman
Quick thoughts as I was riding my bike to work:
Harness the power of music and art in every media to document what is important to us, develop a simple plan and program that others in different cities can follow to use themselves. Compile all of them to create a visual and audio document of where we are headed and what we, the people, want. A quilt of voices coming together – a testament to our diversity and creativity – a time capsule of our nation.
This isn’t a new idea, but necessary. Even in a place like Chicago where parks are abundant. Amplifying public space: Initiatives to take back vacant lots for communities, creating safe spaces for communities to come together. Meeting, planting, growing.
It’s invigorating to think about the possibilities, Bau!
How about changing the way music, art, literature, dance, and theatre are presented in public schools? We can have a shot at the next generation’s view of art and culture as being relevant to everything else they are studying by making the arts more inter-disciplinary. Show how life imitates art and art imitates life. Show how all subjects rely on discipline and dedication, and the arts are a way to magnify this concept.
This has to start with adequate teacher training: creating arts teachers with tactics that rely not only on teaching their specific subject, but also on integrating philosophy and critical thinking. I believe that these ideas are not too sophisticated for children.
Changes in music education in public school can also be a bit more obvious. Some teachers have replaced their traditional recorders in 3rd and 4th grade with harmonicas. Having local professional musicians visit the classroom (with the help of grant money) has also proven to awaken the kids’ interest. I know that there are many good ideas and good teachers out there. However, when I ask my friends if they remember music class when they were kids, too many say, “not really.” Public arts education, and its educators, need a good shake-up.
To add to my last comment: We can ALL help by signing the Petition for Equal Access to Music Education. You can find lots of info on MENC.org, the petition is here:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/157/petition-for-music-ed
There is a rally for Music Education on June 18th in Washington, D.C., where the petition will be presented. Help reach 1,000,000 signatures!
To liberate and cultivate the arts, defined in the most culturally inclusive sense, to effect change locally and globally, we must dig up the roots that feed the arts: funding. We must examine, prune and replant them in the healthy soil that we have been offered this chance to cultivate.
What we fund reflects what we value. What an awesome opportunity and responsibility you have, Bau, and we all now have through you and our democracy, to unstop the ears of power and open avenues through which previously silenced voices can ring. Funding determines who, individually and collectively, has access to expression and audience. Our arts funding system gives relatively wealthy arts and educational institutions, funded both privately and publicly, disproportionate power over artists, audiences and less well-funded producers and conduits (i.e., community-based arts organizations, public education). We must make this system more transparent, first by digging up, dusting off and publicly studying its roots, and then by producing healthier soil by addressing the imbalance of power.
Government funding is crucial — and not just funding for the NEA and NEH which fail to support culturally inclusive arts. U.S. tax deductions have given wealthy individuals and corporations the power to define what is art and who can express and interact with it. NOW, with President Obama and a democratic legislative majority, is THE time to address this with the creation of a federal department to support culture and community arts. Now, I’m not generally an advocate of “big government”, but if there is no agency/department to champion community arts, critical aspects of our democracy wither and die! Such a small portion of the NEA’s and NEH’s meager budgets go to support the arts that celebrate and promote our diverse cultural heritage (e.g., geographic, socio-economic and ethnic) and open to others the lenses through which today’s artists capture and present our world. I can imagine many jobs created, communities and individuals validated, children exposed to refletions of themselves as creators — even creative expression making us a physically and psychically healthier nation!
Even though we are in econimic crisis, I think if our community arts organizations could mobilize themselves and their members to promote to their legislators the rich treasure of arts and artists in their communities, then legislators might be persuaded to champion creation and funding of such an agency/department, as well. As a professional fundraiser, I know every legislative district has an arts treasure worth supporting and that every arts organization worth its salt can quantify its ecomomic impact.
Thank you for taking on this challenge and for representing us, the members of the Old Town School! I am thrilled for you, the School and our nation that you/we have this opportunity. Please know that we are behind you. If you have a public conversation on the topic, I would love to attend.
Please keep us informed. Best wishes!
Addendum to my previous comment . . . Bau urges the creation of such a federal agency in his book Cultural Democracy: The Arts, Community and the Public Purpose and points out that that was considered back when the NEA wa created. His careful, comprehensive and imminently readable anaysis of this topic and his other recommendations for addressing it illustrate why he was selected to attend the White House briefing and why we are so fortunate to have him here at OTSFM.
Addendum to my previous comment . . . Bau urges the creation of such a federal agency in his book Cultural Democracy: The Arts, Community and the Public Purpose and points out that that was considered back when the NEA wa created. His careful, comprehensive and imminently readable anaysis of this topic and his other recommendations for addressing it illustrate why he was selected to attend the White House briefing, why his voice is critical to the conversation and why we are so fortunate to have him here at OTSFM. Bau, thank you for your wisdom, vision and gift for energizing and mobilizing us all! Please continue to let us know how we can help.
I became aware today that you are looking for ideas about a national art agenda. Mike Graft gave me your blog site. I have a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Art Institute of Chicago. I have taught at all levels of art education and currently supervise art teachers during their internship.
Many of my ideas coincide with Daniel Pink’s thinking: the degree to obtain is not the Master of Business of Administration MBA but the Master of Fine Arts MFA becaue most of what is taught in the MBA can be outsourced to other countries. Creativity, original and critical thinking,as well as original problem solving cannot be outsourced.
This education needs to start at the earliest levels in the arts. The arts deal with all these skills tailoring themselves to the individual thus original and creative solutions are discovered for the multiplicity of problems that presently face us as a nation.
In the arts there is not one right answer. There are as many possible answers as there are people willing to tackle the problems.
Every high school should, as a minimum, require 2 years in the arts as is done with math and science. These need to be spread out amongst acquired skills in the visual arts, instrument playing, dance, drama and art appreciation and history. Here we look a how the culture dealt with past problems so we can solve our present problems and plan for the future.
Wow – congratulations Bau, what an honor for the school and everyone who makes it such an inspiring place to be! I’ve been a student of OTS for almost 15 years and have had the privilege of studying with Lenny Marsh, Charles Kim, Steve Leavitt and so many other fantastic folks.
While I don’t know the ins and outs of academia and the world of government grants, I thought I’d share an idea in hopes that it could be helpful.
I think one of the most important things in life is to have a DREAM that makes you want to get up in the morning and be a better person. For me, OTS is the place you go to be creatively inspired and do something you truly love…which is why it’s also the ideal platform for starting a new dialogue with the community and encouraging people to ask “What’s your DREAM?” vs. “What do you do for a living?”
I propose a class/program (possibly all ages?) called “DREAM” – where the only requirement is that you have a dream. One small one that you can achieve in 8 weeks and one pie-in-the-sky idea to work toward.
In this class, you’d explore ways (as a group) to develop your dreams and make them a reality. So there would be 8 weeks of creating/sharing with the class: journal entries; visualization (art, drama); harmonizing (make up a song about your dream or use an old familiar tune); Roadmap/plan of action; Networking (how can we help each other get there)…and ultimately at the end of the class you’d share the results (hopefully all small or short-term dreams realized) and give out class awards.
Finally, and the key to this idea, would be to create a DREAM alumni website where all classmates could check in on each other to see dream status, leave encouraging remarks, etc. I think this format could start at OTS (maybe live on the website) and easily be tranferred to other schools/programs that could use the curriculum and expand the online network. And if you’ll one more leap with me…I think it would be an amazing platform for philanthropic organizations to offer dream grants when they see that someone is pursuing something and needs a lift to get there.
You’d start small with a few DREAM classes and hopefully one day you’d grow to the point of Oprah book club size…creating a network of people rooting for each other and helping each other achieve their dreams. Mainly, I think it would allow the arts reach people at so many levels, in many shapes and forms and remind them that the arts are central to our humanity…no matter what your age.
So why the OTS? Because this is really the only kind of place where something like this could get started.
I wish you the best of luck in putting the government funds to great use!
Wow! What an exciting moment in history. And geez, now what do we do?
It seems that, for any lasting change in the way an entire nation views art, a dual bottom-up and top-down approach is necessary. We need funding. We need to have monthly concerts on the lawn of the White House(what a cool idea!) on T.V., 30 minutes of prime-time. Do a series; the next location could be Mount Rushmore, Statue of Liberty Niagara Falls, Congo Square, etc.
We need funding for schools. Kids need art supplies, instruments, and instruction. I agree with a comment above that the arts education needs to be revitalized. The arts must be relevant for kids. Folk guitar and oil paints are not going to work for everybody.
We need microphones and drum machines too. We need a D.J./turntablist class. We need circus arts and aerial arts. We need a new Soul Train, you could probably get the for-profit sector involved with that.
We need broadcast education… Mexican Museum of Fine Arts in Pilsen is the prime model for that. Kids learn about radio broadcasting and then they get to have their own program on their community radio station. What a concept- Community Radio! Every community deserves a vessel to express themselves.
Broadcasting 101 can go further: film making, web-design, digital recording, cartoon making, video game making classes.
I love the Community Arts Assistance Program (CAAP grant offered by the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Arts $1000 maximum award)… this enables people to achieve their small arts related dreams… A federal grant with that kind of grass roots effect would be nice.
Speaking of grass roots… how do you get this bottom-up thing started? The Old Town School is one of the warmest, most amazing-est art institutions in the world. However, it origins aligned with a national folk revival movement. What do we have today that parallels that? Obama, yes we can?
Bau, as you talk about in your book, an outsider to a culture cannot decide what that culture should do. There need to be Old Town Schools in different flavors around our city and in cities around the country. These can be places of empowerment for any given culture. Where a given culture decides what it needs and wants.
OTS origins give a good model, a holy trinity of cultural preservation- the music appreciator, the music master/teacher, and the business mind who could sing a mean sing-along. OTS origins also involved a few celebrities.
With this formula, and a little federal start-up money, small schools could set up around the nation. Maybe even in homes (as was the case with OTS). The for-profit sector needs to get involved. Celebrities need to be called upon give notoriety to these budding organizations.
Whatever it is that gets decided on, I’m sure some real good goods will come. When the time comes, let me know if there’s anything I can do to assist. Best of luck, and thank you for reaching out for ideas!
Hi Mr. Graves, thank you for sharing your experience at the White House, it sounds like a wonderful opportunity to have been there. By the way, I had a chance to volunteer at the fun filled Folk and Roots festival yesterday afternoon and was inspired to overhear some of your comments. As a music student here at the Old Town School, I think it’s excellent that “the arts are back on the nation’s agenda” and feel the words “welcome to a relationship” take on a special significance in your announcement…
Especially for the sensitive musician, I would imagine that being politically correct in these difficult times means finding the courage to really trust one’s instincts, so as to be at the right place at the right time, even if it goes against the grain. Personally, I find that distinguishing original expression in the performing arts is all about first opening our heart to the possibilities, and then the mind…
Kind regards,
Maggie