On My Mind

What often is lost in cultural policy conversations or research reports about the visual arts world is an examination of how ethnic-specific cultural practices and the dynamics of non-collecting museums and artist-centered organizations keep the art world from be-ing static and dull, from being victimized by the hierarchies of taste or the technocratic aims of cultural managers. Any analysis of the sociology of the visual arts field needs to speak about the relationship between the aesthetic content of a work and the contexts in which different aesthetic inquiries are supported.

These thoughts were sparked by attending the Council on Foundations 57th Annual Conference, "Philanthropy: Investing in the Vision of Progress." I was especially engaged by the plenary remarks of George Soros and Newt Gingrich.

While in Toronto recently, I discovered an abandoned paperback book in a public lobby — Tom Clancy's Hunt for Red October. It turned out to be a liberated book, set there on purpose to be taken by some random stranger to read and then to re-release into the wild. It was a Bookcrossing book, set free by one of that site's 460,000-plus members.

Targeted marketing is extremely effective. It uses psychological and purchasing-pattern analysis to divide the population into groups likely to make certain decisions. It then targets those groups with messages that reinforce previous beliefs and, if possible, creates barriers through psychological pressure to stay within certain social, style, and consumption boundaries. The result is a society of many lifestyles, each with boundaries carefully drawn and reinforced.

I want to salute a very select group of people in our community — self-selected actually. Those who provide continuity.

There is a standard interview question: “Where do you see yourself in five years, ten years, fifteen years, twenty years.” Now I don't know what the right answer is. But I know what the wrong answer is. The wrong answer is: “If you hire me I promise you I'll be right here — doing this job you're offering me, until the sun falls from the sky and rivers all run dry and the poets run out of rhymes and I join the choir invisible.”

I privilege the making of arts as an activity to support, and hence my advocacy for strengthening the creation system. I do not see or define the worth of art on what it delivers, whether what it delivers is audiences, civic engagement, or the "next new art thing." This is not to separate art from context, from the creation and delivery systems, but serves to place the focus on arts as transformative. Art is a passionate force that creates metaphors, images, sounds, and aesthetic experiences. How does one make a policy for transformation?