The Artistic Rebuttal Project: Making the Case for Art, One Non-Believer at a Time

[bbernardini]

The wife of a high school friend of mine is involved in this. Pretty cool, I think.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joan-k-smith/artistic-rebuttal-2011_b_851412.html

A brief excerpt:

Anger can be a powerful motivator.

In artist Amy Scheidegger's case, it was a group of obnoxious undergrads on the subway in West Philadelphia who spurred her to action. They were discussing college majors, and one made the highly educated observation "Art is, like, the most worthless degree anyone can get. Like, haha, they have a degree in making shit with popsicle sticks." As general hilarity ensued and Scheidegger's blood boiled, she made a quick exit from the subway car with a new determination: To rebut, decisively, the popular notion that art is worthless, especially among young people who in theory should be exhibiting a more enlightened attitude than that of their elders.

The product of Scheideggers's angry determination, begun on a nano-grassroots level but now rapidly spinning into a real movement, is the Artistic Rebuttal Book Project, a collection of individual "take that" messages that will be reproduced in book form and, in the best case scenario, distributed widely across the country to reach those who need to get the message most.