“What can I do to help?” was the question of the moment. Musicians and dancers from across Chicago asked to be included. Teachers volunteered their entire classes to perform. Classes took it as a challenge and went out to raise money from their friends to “sponsor” their performances. People offered to design posters, run the sound system, collect donations at the door, burn live-mix CDs for patrons, and clean up the mess afterwards. The organizational muscle came from deep within the community that is Old Town School, an instant and insistent response to a cataclysm far from the relative security of Chicago. It was about musicians, dancers, teachers, students, volunteers, and amazingly generous audience members stepping outside their ordinary weekly routines to make something special happen, to offer aid to people a thousand miles away.

Old Town School ended up producing not one but two earthquake relief benefits. The first one, at 909 W. Armitage, included twenty-four teachers and their ensembles in a marathon that lasted most of a day and a night. The second, at Lincoln Square, included nine bands from all over the world, including three local Haitian groups. Everything was donated. The benefits raised more than $16,000, which was given to the Haitian Congress to Fortify Haiti. They were both moving performances, but they were much more than that. They exemplified our community at its best – responsive, creative, personally committed. I thank all those who gave their time and talents to make a difference. But the palpable spirit in the room during those concerts offers a satisfaction that is beyond words.

Bess was born into one of America’s first families of folk culture. The daughter of John Lomax and sister of Alan Lomax, as a teenager she formed the Almanac Singers with Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and others. In the nascent years of the Folk Revival, Bess pioneered a new method for teaching guitar to groups of students. “Students learning guitar individually can get intimidated because they can hear their own mistakes,” she explained. “In a group, the students feel bolder about playing, take more risks, enjoy it more, and feel part of something bigger, which sounds better, anyway.”

One of the pickers she inspired was a young singer named Frank Hamilton, who a few years later joined Win Stracke to create a school in Chicago for teaching folk songs. Win and Frank borrowed Bess’ teaching methods, which form the backbone of Old Town School’s appeal to this day. “She introduced me to traditional folk music like no other did and I owe my teaching skills to her,” writes Frank. “No Bess – no Old Town School of Folk Music.”

Bess Lomax Hawes went on to champion traditional culture and progressive causes throughout her exceptionally productive life. Her musical progeny include entire generations of players, many of whom probably don’t know her name but continue to benefit from her contributions to the great river of song. “There was a time,” Theodore Bikel once said, “when folk music lit a fire in our souls.” Bess Hawes was among those who held the match. We all bask in the reflected glow.

Six months later, our group of musicians, dancers, writers, media artists and community organizers has issued a call to arms. After a vigorous debate, with a lot of editing, double-checking and re-writing, “Art and the Public Purpose: A New Framework” offers a clear statement of values and proceeds to outline five broad areas of action that we believe can usher in a new flowering of American democratic culture.

The preamble begins: America needs a bold new investment in culture, a policy recognizing that culture holds the key to a future we can believe in. This Framework calls on Congress and the Obama Administration to support art’s public purpose to mend our social fabric, promote freedom of expression and a vibrant, inclusive national dialogue, and revitalize both education and commerce with the creativity that has always been the wellspring of our energy and success… It goes on to offer specific recommendations regarding the development of a new national cultural policy; the importance equitable resource allocation; the prospect of recognizing and protecting cultural assets the same way we protect the natural environment; the creation of a “new WPA” for the arts; and the democratization of the media.

To read the entire Framework, go to www.newculturalpolicy.org. The website offers several opportunities for engagement, inviting you to endorse the Framework, contribute your own stories about the importance of the arts in your life and community, and suggestions for how to bring this cluster of proposals to the attention of our public servants. I encourage you to visit the website and pass this vital message along to your friends, families and governmental representatives. It is time for our country to embrace a public culture worthy of our great nation.

Consider: So far in 2009, eighteen Old Town School teachers have traveled to Morocco, Mexico, Brazil, Finland, Estonia, Russia and Québec, offering workshops and performances – and building relationships with music schools abroad that are our future partners. Right now, a team of six teachers is in India, and four more teachers are headed to Brazil this fall. In September, fiddler Arto Järvelä was our first international artist in residence, astonishing many of us with both his extraordinary musicianship and his droll personality.

One result of all this international travel is the planning of the School’s first foreign excursion that is open to everyone: a weeklong intensive in Veracruz, Mexico. In January, when the weather is appalling in Chicago, Old Town School will take a group to Mexico’s Gulf coast for a week of son Jarocho, zapateado dancing, great food, beaches and Mexican folk traditions. Interested? Contact sharvey@oldtownschool.org to find out all about it.

Old Town School’s International Expeditions are made possible through generous grants from the MacArthur Foundation and the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.

All three of these men were instrumental in igniting the Great American Folk Revival that changed the face of popular music in the middle of the 20th century. They were really pioneers, who did the primary research, located and learned from elder musicians (many of whom had faded into obscurity after meteoric early careers), promoted the music through their own intrepid performances, publications and recordings, and inspired generations of aspiring singers. The movement they nurtured also resulted in the creation of Old Town School of Folk Music, which in turn stimulated the evolution of the Revival, and carries on their work today.

Interestingly, none of these heroes was born into the traditions that they championed. They were educated, cosmopolitan scholars who developed a burning passion for the traditional music that became their life’s work. They did it because they loved it. Folklorist Hal Cannon, discussing the thorny topic of “authenticity” in folk performance, once commented, “It’s a matter of devotion. If somebody from outside a community shows longevity and devotion, they’re there as far as I’m concerned.” In their lifelong mining of the mother lodes of heritage, Paton, Ives and Seeger modeled a devotion that is a template for the pursuit of contemporary traditions. In our time, the isolated community that once nourished its ballads and dance tunes is fully connected to the broadband of global culture. Our communications have broken down the barriers of time and space. We’re all cosmopolitan scholars now, and some of us discovered our own burning passions thanks to the guidance of those who passed before. They set the standard for how the words “modern” and “traditional” could fit into the same sentence, a standard that inspires us yet. The circle remains unbroken.

The School plans to transform an empty lot a across the street into a state-of-art arts facility for teaching, performances, and community collaborations. The 27,000 square foot building will feature acoustically-engineered classrooms including 3 large dance studios equipped with sprung floors and wireless sound; a flexible-use space that quickly converts into a dance hall, small performance space, or community gathering area; full accessibility for a “strollers to wheelchairs” approach to diverse student needs; and green design to achieve nationally-recognized LEED certification for environmentally-friendly construction and operations.

Most of us who are involved in the arts know firsthand the impact that our presence has in turning around troubled neighborhoods. Americans for the Arts conducted several exhaustive surveys to be able to quantify what that “multiplier” impact really is – when a concert or a play or a gallery opening takes place, how much additional economic activity does it really generate? The answer: $28.05 per attendee; i.e. every person who comes to a concert or attends a class at Old Town School spends an average of $28.05 at local restaurants, hotels, parking, paying for babysitters. At this rate, the School’s clientele is pumping nearly $11 million into the local economy every year. The new building will generate another $6.4 million in neighborhood prosperity.

The School is also a major employer, supporting a staff of almost 300 teachers and administrators with a payroll of $5.2 million and nearly another million dollars in artists’ concert fees. Americans for the Arts’ research show that a business of this magnitude creates an additional 281 jobs at nearby businesses. The new facility will create 250 more good, solid jobs that, thanks to the School’s continued vitality in the depths of recession, are certifiably sustainable. The point here is that the state’s investment in Old Town School will have immediate, verifiable and long term benefits – including the generation of millions of dollars of local and state tax revenues. It’s good business.

Learn more about the Old Town School expansion project, or call the Development Office for information at 773 751 3431.