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Spring Quarter Essay — March 2004

Art and Politics

Let's open this topic with a flat-out assertion: any educational enterprise that ignores the political context of its work will have a short life span in the real world. Art organizations are no exception. So on January 30 three of us TDS Board Members* attended the annual Southwest Arts Conference sponsored by the Arizona Commission on the Arts, a kind of trade seminar for the arts.

I found the day valuable in many ways, but I particularly noted this year a mood of guarded optimism that seemed to reflect the recent spurt of national and local political energy directed toward the arts and their well being. For example: Governor Napolitano and her staff were conspicuously present, a first in my experience. In addition, the general conversation among participants exhibited a rising level of eloquence and pride-of-work, induced perhaps by another round of hope.

So what is happening, exactly? Well, during last year's economic crisis, many state legislatures threatened to reduce or close entire arts agencies. This produced not just the usual round of objections, but a surprising and widespread uproar of protest seldom mounted by any advocacy, much less the arts. Normally art-protest is a political puff-ball, but even old timers admitted this was a pretty serious showdown between a very conservative and vocal faction of government and its long-standing pain-in-the-ass, the arts.

But for arts advocates, it was a call-to-arms because this time the pols seem to mean business, and, as Samuel Johnson reportedly said, "Nothing clears the mind so wonderfully well as the knowledge that you are to be hung in a fortnight." Arts organizations across the country renewed their efforts to produce solid statistical, economic and cultural research. What was different last year was that rather than being buried in some annual report sent only to major donors and other arts agencies, the research went out to business folks, parents of school children, local government officials in a much louder and organized way. And to the politicians' surprise, that research is producing 'the numbers' showing the arts as a huge and demonstrable economic engine, with broad and enriching results throughout the entire society, not just the culturally elite.

Short term happy ending, 2003: the National Endowment for the Arts was re-funded, and Arizona's ACA was restored with a nominal 10% cut. Now, this year the federal budget proposes an increase (egads!) in the NEA, and the state and private arts agencies are all acting optimistically about their future, in the new climate of political respect the arts are enjoying.

So while it may be that the upbeat mood at the ACA conference reveals a window of political interest in the arts not often seen before, I also fear that the window will soon close if not exploited quickly by the very people who are usually so negative about politics: the artists themselves. Because, compared with the substantial contribution the arts make to our lives, its habitual political position is as a tin-cup petitioner for table scraps, and sadly, we celebrate a good night of table scraps as if it were progress.

In truth what this small open window does present is the opportunity to quickly launch new initiatives that demonstrate the powerful role that the arts can play in the fundamental education of all of our people in this new visual culture, starting with our children.

Years ago, Rudolf Arnheim, in his classic work, "Visual Thinking" (Berkeley Press, 1969) predicted this moment: "Once it is recognized that productive thinking in any area of cognitive thinking is perceptual thinking, the central function of art in general education will become evident (because) the most effective training of perceptual thinking can be offered in the art studio".

As many of you know who read this TDS newsletter and participate in our activities, our purpose is founded on the role of visual art as a life-long practice, rooted in the skills of observation. What has been unexpected is the rapid rate of the growth of interest in our programs. And since we are neither tax-supported nor commercially marketed, we can only assume this broad new interest in the study of visual intelligence as valuable is self-evident to many thoughtful people in this 21st century, not just artists or would-be artists.

Armed with this new insight, we at TDS have been both excited and scrambling to find the right way to proceed. And of course, the first thing we realized is we must start this advocacy for the role of art much earlier in life. We've waited too long for the politics of public education to do it. As practicing artists we have a leading role and responsibility in this domain, and we should move on it now.

Two years ago, on our own initiative and with the generous help of some scholarship gifts, art materials and volunteer committee work, The Drawing Studio inaugurated its first Art of Summer intensive workshop for teens with an enrollment of 15. Last year we had 50 students and now we are preparing for Art of Summer III, hoping to support 70 students in the two three-week all day sessions.

And what is this work with the kids teaching us? For one, given the visual basis of our cultural languages, the work we do with adults is in one sense remedial, meaning if we start earlier we are going to see unprecedented levels of creativity in the future; for another, the tyranny of the media over all of us is a function of being kept ignorant about the power of images, where they come from, and how they can change the world.

Know any teenagers ready to take it on this summer? Give us a call.

*Bruce Cobb, Lynn Fleischman, and Andrew Rush

©2003 Andrew Rush. May not be copied or reproduced in any form without permission