Arts Research

Re-imagining Orchestras: A forthright report on the mixed results of one foundation's efforts

Stan Hutton

Background

Artist Rene Yung's presentation of this paper generated lively discussion at a forum of the Arts Loan Fund of Northern California Grantmakers, in October 2006. It was written just as Arlene Goldbard's new book, New Creative Community, was published. Although Yung refers to an earlier publication (Creative Community: The Art of Cultural Development, by Don Adams and Gold-bard, 2001), she touches on many of the same themes discussed by the authors of "The Art of Social Imagination" (page 27 in this Reader) and reveals how the ideas have been adopted by an artist in practice.

When we visit our physicians, we naturally assume they bring a bundle of knowledge and insight to the meeting. For one thing, we expect them to bring a broad and nuanced understanding of human physiology, and how its many interconnecting systems (circulatory, respiratory, muscle, nervous, lymphatic, and so on) influence our health and well being. We also expect that they know how and where to look for indicators of our health (taking our temperature, testing our blood pressure, checking our blood for chemical balances).

Over the past forty years, several hundred legal frameworks have been established for cooperative action by governments on ecological issues — treaties such as the Biodiversity Convention, the Climate Change Convention, the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species, and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. How do these relate to art?

Outreach

An extraordinary and remarkable cultural event occurred this past June at the Rancho San Rafael Park in Reno, Nevada. The Western Regional Indigenous Basketweavers Gathering brought together over 500 weavers representing the nine western states, including Alaska and Hawaii for three days of demonstrations, lectures, workshops, and just a generally fine time. A pervasive air of cooperation, collaboration, and good will made for joyous celebration of the giant strides these basketweavers had made over the past several years.

To Protect the Powerless in the Digital Age
An Open Letter to Foundations: To Protect the Interests of the Powerless in the Digital Age, Communications Researchers Need Your Support

The "open letter" has a number of signers.
August 12, 1998. 33 pages. The Civil Rights Forum on Communications Policy, 818 18th Street, N.W. Suite 810, Washington, D.C. 20006, 202-887-0301, forum[at]civilrightsforum.org.

GIA members in Chicago are hopeful that you are preparing to join us for GIA's 1998 annual conference — “Arts Under 21” — that will concentrate on youth and arts using the city of Chicago as a laboratory and model. Here in the Second City, we're awfully proud of our cultural institutions and since the conference can't possibly show it all off in four days, it seems useful to give a snapshot of some of the other arts events and programs that will be in Chicago this November.

A critic for The New York Times, wrote about last winter's Perigino exhibit at the Grand Rapids Art Museum in Michigan, "This is perhaps the most important exhibit of the decade, in the least important of places."

Evaluations of arts education programs raise some of the greatest challenges I face in reviewing proposals. Even in a secular age, when people are pressed to describe the nature of art, they come to words like "essence." How do we get to a point where we know that children have learned to make and to encounter that kind of knowing?