Is a Secretary of the Arts enough?

Recently a friend sent me a link to an arti­cle that men­tioned Quincy Jones sug­ges­tion that he would push President-elect Obama to develop a cab­i­net level post for the arts. A peti­tion request­ing the same is cir­cu­lat­ing the web and gain­ing quite a num­ber of sig­na­tures. As work­ing artists we know beyond a doubt how impor­tant art is not only to our lives but the entire world. Imag­ine what a world look like with­out art, with­out the cre­ativly designed build­ings of Frank Gehry, the land­scapes of Fred­er­ick Law Olm­sted ( Designer of Cen­tral Park in NY and many, many of our open spaces), the sculp­tures of Calder or the humor of Opus. Try to imag­ine also a life with­out, paint­ings, prints or pho­tographs on your walls, a life eat­ing off of col­or­less and unin­spir­ing din­ner­ware, of sit­ting on chairs all designed using the same pat­tern, a life with­out music.

Now how does such a life feel? Pretty drab, bor­ing and depress­ing. We are who we are today larg­ley because work­ing artists have con­tin­ued to con­tribute their pas­sion and vision of the world to bal­ance the left brained dom­i­nance of indus­tri­al­iza­tion. Besides pas­sion and cre­ativ­ity work­ing artists (regard­less of medium) we cause peo­ple to laugh, to sing, to hug, to weep and to hope. We hold a mir­ror to the world as a con­stant reminder of where we as a col­lec­tive are heading…we ask ques­tions and pro­vide multi-faceted answers.

So…yes a Sec­re­tary of the Arts would be a good start but we need more than a focus on celebrity. We need an hon­est grass roots rev­o­lu­tion to take place that would not just put art back into schools but make it a reg­u­lar part of every cur­ricu­lum.  Art teaches us to see, to feel, to be aware of our sur­round­ings and our mutual con­nect­ed­ness. No the point is not to birth a thou­sand Michae­lan­ge­los,  but rather to rein­force and sup­port the abil­ity  to see the world from dif­fer­ent points of view, to step out of lin­ear­ity and into wan­der­ing. Such an inclu­sion will give us the abil­ity to accept our own cre­ativ­ity, to let go of fear and judg­ment because we will know that fail­ure only means that another door opens, that inno­va­tion, growth and achieve­ment can­not hap­pen with­out fail­ure. Lin­ear think­ing has taught us that if you don’t get it “right” the first time you are a fail­ure, there is no such thing a iter­a­tive thinking.

Build­ing a grass roots focus on cre­ativ­ity and art will also lead to an entire gen­er­a­tion, will­ing to tackle prob­lems like global warm­ing, poverty, hunger and even crime in ways a lin­ear approach can­not fathom. In the process those of us who have lived our lives as cre­atives can help awaken the hearts of those who self-deprecate their own efforts to cre­ate. We can help them see that cre­ativ­ity is not about per­fec­tion or judge­ment. It is instead about pas­sion, about open­ing the doors of the heart to dream to risk and to feel the warmth of cre­at­ing some­thing reflec­tive of our souls.

Please, don’t just click the link to the peti­tion also add your thoughts that would help bring art and cre­ativ­ity back to our schools,our com­mu­ni­ties and our lives. Write your rep­re­sen­ta­tives and sen­a­tors urge them to include art in all edu­ca­tion related legislation.

Here is the link to the peti­tion for Sec­re­tary of the Arts Thanks and keep cre­at­ing the world needs you!