A New Way of Seeing
June 2nd, 2009 by Julia Taylor
Like most human beings I tend to measure ideas out against my personal experience and some universal perspectives–generally gathered in my post college years. This pic goes right back to a childhood of cows, farm equipment and that rural mess of equipment (the junk heap lot). This is where my life view began.
When I was a wee one, my most poignant memories are of art classes–in the lines, out of the lines, construction paper and awkward scissors, oil paint., clay, and color circles. Then I got a camera early on and all was lost. I LOVED sketching and photography. Two years into a college Arts Major degree, life intervened and I decided during one of those infamous down economic cycles to go to a more marketable major. There was this implicit promise that one could provide for our family needs through commercial means and support our artistic desires on the sides. I did buy in and I still do. I love photography, fine arts and performing arts. I understand the talent, the discipline and the sacrifice that artists need and make to survive on the side today. I also understand the mix it takes in a community to create the economic engine that drives all the cultural economies. It it is a two way innovation economy. Fortunately, I enjoy all the dimensions of regional economy . You need a very robust metro area to sustain artists economically on the strength of their art and there are probably three market areas in this country that can provide that type of catch-net. Given our strength as a second tier market, we have remarkable resiliency including the largest and oldest performing art fund in the country. It’s quite remarkable and we can say it because we have so many regional and global companies who passed 50, 75, 100 and even 150 years of accomplishments and have always supported the arts.
Its been a great business plan but now we need to fast forward to how we grow our market for innovation and creativity. We know that exposure to creativity can throw the switch for a innovative talent to grow. How do we keep our big tent of the arts open to all those children and young people to learn a new way of seeing, how to create and bring this talent to our everyday world of work and play.
Somebody else paid the entry ticket for us. They didn’t know us. They just paid forward.
It’s time for us to pay forward for each of those 400,00 children in our region that don’t even have the experience of of creativity outside of a TV set yet. They need the chance to learn a new way of seeing.
Keep the arts giving forward and thank someone who believed in each one of us without ever meeting any one of us. Invest in your future and region’s well-being.
Pay it forward.
http://cli.gs/UPAF
Art, Kindle and Emily Thomas’s Blog
March 8th, 2009 by Julia TaylorMary Louise Schumacher’s (@artcity) article today in the MKE Journal Sentinel pulls us out of the insulation of our usual circles into the eyes of a mother , Emily Thomas, who visits the Milwaukee Art Museum with her daughters. This family squirms some and views both the contemporary and traditional art almost comically. No connection through a docent tour, an audio tour or even a little advance reading of the reviews for this family.
We would never know of their views except for the Mom’s blog recapturing the visit. Technology opened the door of opinion though the door of conversation on art got stuck and never yanked open.
Technology is lifting the skirt on lots of discussions. We’re leaving on vacation soon and I’ve thought about the Kindle seriously. I have stacks of books I could bring but luggage limits make it costly and I’ve gotten used to finding things on line and clicking for instant gratification.
Lots of comments back from twitters both wondering the same thing and a few who own them. I just hate to commit to another gadget that is ready for the technology heap in a year and I don’t know if it could really replace the physicality of a book.
Maybe I’m a little like Emily above–willing to venture out some to new experiences but not out of my comfort zone. I also feel a little traitorous to my all friends who make their living with ink, whether newspapers, bookstores and even our great postal carrier.
So at @khinrichs suggestion, I compromised and downloaded the kindle app on my iphone and tried out a book. Surprisingly it works pretty well. Usually I have big problems reading much text on the 3 1/2 inch screen but I can read it easily and with swiping the pages, I feel like I am in “Evelyn Woodhead’s Sped Reding Course.” So for the time beginning, it’s a fair compromise.
Just checking back on line, there is a lot of talk about Emily Thomas and some –wow-significant reaction.
Maybe MAM could invite them in for a docent tour and some of the family art classes which has a good dose of art history in it. Sometimes it’s ok to start with a 3 1/2 inch screen and expand your vision from there.