Detroit Free Press: How the arts can change lives

[Heidi]

BY RON DZWONKOWSKI • FREE PRESS COLUMNIST • August 2, 2009

The tall kid was leaving basketball practice when the teacher directing the school musical called him over. "South Pacific" was in desperate need of guys for the chorus, not an uncommon problem at smaller schools. Since the tall kid was in choir, could he please, please join the crew of singing sailors?

<snip>

The kid was Jeff Daniels, then a sophomore at Chelsea High School, now a veteran of more than 50 movies -- his latest is "The Answer Man" -- and on hiatus from a starring role in the award winning Broadway play "God of Carnage."

<snip>

I mention Daniels in the context of two things that I fear will be on a collision course in many Michigan schools this fall: money and the arts. Times are tough. School budgets are beyond tight. And too often the first thing school boards or administrators see as expendable is the arts.

And I don't mean just the school musical. There's the student poetry magazine, the art show, the spring orchestra concert, the choir's holiday program, maybe even a field trip to the Purple Rose. Anything that requires a faculty sponsor, after-hours building use or a bus trip is likely to be on the line. Districts that would never think about cutting sports will whack away at the arts to balance the bottom line.

<snip>

We don't have any minds to waste for lack of stimulation, which is what the arts are all about. As surely as a two-mile run gets the physical juices flowing, a deep plunge into Edgar Allen Poe's "The Bells" can send the mind racing in new directions. As thrilling as it can be to turn the pivot and make the throw on a double play, so it can be to realize you can hit that high note at just the right moment to give yourself and your audience a set of goose bumps.

More here

[ColbertWatcher]

1. K+R. Best quote from the article ...

That's what the arts do for you, even if you don't claim any natural talent as a writer, artist or performer. They get you beyond learning -- to thinking."

Jeff Daniels really does love his Michigan!

[Heidi]

2. This was my favorite line: "We don't have any minds to waste for lack of stimulation,

which is what the arts are all about."

I was involved in both sports and the arts when I was in school, but my arts involvement at an early age has been infinitely more important in shaping my adult life. For my brother, it was the other way around: he also was active in both sports and the arts, but sports have had a greater role in his adult life. As the article says, "We don't have any minds to waste for lack of stimulation." :hi:

[ColbertWatcher]

3. I have seen ads for Michigan with Jeff Daniels.

I can't remember having seen ads like that before.

[Wapsie B]

4. I agree.

Now I just have to find a place in the arts for someone with minimal musical talent or a field that is accepting of those with a lack of attention to detail. sigh......

[Heidi]

5. I think enjoying the arts _IS_ a place in the arts, and an important one.

Certainly, most people won't be able to make a living in the arts -- just as most won't be able to make a living in professional sports or politics, for example. But if you love to sing or paint or sculpt or write, or simply enjoy being surrounded by the arts, you're important to the arts. :)

Good morning, Wapsie B. :hi:

[Bluenorthwest]

9. Ah but many, many do make a living in the arts

It is worth considering that for every Prima Ballerina (and yes precious few will dance Giselle in the majors) there are dozens of professionals earning a living behind that artist. The arts needs administrators! Accountants, managers, copy writers, caterers, designers, composers, musicians, the old, the young, drivers, electricians, carpenters, travel planners, and on and on and on. Lawyers, oh how the arts need lawyers. Grant writers are the very life blood of the arts, as much as any star performer. And the arts need an audience, more than anything. So every person who takes a taste, even if they never think of becoming an arts professional, tends to keep coming back to see, to hear, to experience. No one is more important than the audience. No one.
So I encourage the young people to consider all the options in the arts, which are far wider than just being an actor or dancer or hip hop star. Not that there is a thing wrong with being a performer, if you have the chops, it will be a great life, but there is also much to be gained from the many other jobs and careers in the arts. I have a cousin who has been an accountant to artists and galleries for the bulk of her working life, for example. Such a collection she has! She is very important to the community she serves, makes a good living, and as far as I know, she does not practice any art herself. She sure knows it though! And lives immersed in the art world. She makes her living in the arts. But most people would just say 'she's an accountant'.

[Heidi]

15. I understand your point, and it's a very good one.

Good morning! :hi:

[Bluenorthwest]

21. Good morning!

I knew you knew that stuff! I just have to grandstand! We need people who are talented in all of those positions as much or more than the other talents!

[Heidi]

26. Totally agree.

Very happy to see you this morning (and anytime, really). :hug:

[4_TN_TITANS]

31. Good point.

My dad can't carry a tune in a bucket but he's at every musical function his kids and grandkids perform. Having an appreciative audience is very important to an artist. Art can be very much a spectator sport.

[EFerrari]

10. The doing of it hones your attention to detail.

I learned how to write sentences by making poems, how to see proportion and relative position by drawing (or, mostly, erasing at first, lol). The position of my body in space by abusing the violin and later, with dance and acting. And you never know about musical talent. My mom stuck a sax in my brother's hands one year when he couldn't play sports. That's how he earns his bread now. It's the doing it over and over and over. The brain is an amazing, responsive thing. :)

[Wapsie B]

29. Well let's just say I'm in an exploration phase.

I'm searching for something that with which I want to spend time honing my skills. I took stained glass last winter and although it has it's positives for me I truly don't know if it interests me enough to really put the time into getting that attention to detail necessary in that area. I'm thinking of taking a pottery class next. Painting doesn't really do anything for me. In music school I learned all about the doing it, practicing 6-8 hours a day many weeks to get better. But that obviously wasn't the place for me because it completely burned me out on playing again. Even 30 years later I have no interest in playing the clarinet. However I do know that was the only time in my life that I have felt anything close to being a whole person. I felt alive amongst the arts and artists. That feeling is what's leading me back to find the place where I belong in that community. I find myself wishing at times that I had some kind of generalist business background such as the accountant in a post in this thread where I could be involved on the periphery in some capacity and earn a living in the arts. But coming from a very specialized health care field and switching to something totally different presents the problem. Thanks for giving me food for thought. :)

[Celebration]

6. someone used the unrecommend feature on this

It was on the greatest page, and when I clicked on it, it had four votes. Needless to say, I recommended it, lover and appreciator of the arts that I am.

[Heidi]

7. Thank you.

The arts have varying degrees of importance to various people, so perhaps that explains the unrec (which, honestly, wouldn't have bothered me). But, like you, I also am a greater lover of the arts and I thank you. Good morning, Celebration! :hi:

[Forkboy]

8. Recommended, naturally.

:)

[lunatica]

11. The problem is that you can't bet on the arts and have the guys over for beer

for the Superbowl of Arts. Plus anyone can do sports and the idea of making it to the major leagues or the NFL is something Joe the Plumber can dream about. Arts? Not interested. That's for gay Socialists.

[Heidi]

12. I guess I prefer the company of "gay Socialists," then.

I suspect I'm not alone in this preference.

Good morning, lunatica! :hi:

[lunatica]

19. Good morning!

I prefer gay Socialists too! They're infinitely more interesting and fun

[EFerrari]

13. I think it's more that the Puritans are still screwing with us

and watching children explore their own imaginations makes adults incredibly nervous. lol

[Heidi]

14. Imagine how they feel when they see adults exploring their imaginations.

:wow:

[EFerrari]

16. I'm pretty sure that's covered under the Patriot Act.

:hi:

[Heidi]

17. Have I told you lately

that I freakin' adore you? :hug:

:yourock:

[EFerrari]

18. LOL! The feeling is mutual!

:hug:

[lunatica]

20. duplicate

[lunatica]

23. Puritans keep thinking of that thin line between art and porn

They know it when they see it, and they never cease keeping an eye on it in their vigilance.

[MrScorpio]

22. Jeff is promoting Michigan big time these days

All props to Jeff

[mopinko]

24. art saves lives. that's all there is to it.

one of my kids went to a therapeutic day school, and the one thing that they could not squeeze no matter how tight things got was the annual play. the other teachers were all on board, so that any kid who needed to do something else got an allowance made.

cutting the arts is a fucking crime. one of the big reasons that i homeschooled my kids for 8 years was that my philosophy was to grow a brain not teach a list. howard gardener, multiple intelligences, has been out there for years and years, everyone in education knows all about it. but nobody puts it to use. (although the day i really fell for obama was the speech he gave the night of the wisconsin primary when he talked about education.)

[Heidi]

27. Right-the-hell on!

:kick:

:kick:

[Bluenorthwest]

25. I would like to say that the arts make family out of diverse strangers

The arts can take people who are very different in background and make 'them' into 'us'. Barriers can be made to dissolve.
When I think of those in my 'artistic family' people with whom I have faced huge moments, world wide criticism, good times and bad times, I am thinking of my brothers and sisters and they come from many nations, many states, many social backgrounds. A surfer boy from Newport Beach becomes bound as family with a dancer from Harlem, a director from San Juan, and let me say, not just the experience of knowing each other, but of being 'us' together. Family.
Thanks to the OP for posting this, and to Jeff Daniels for his work, and for the 5th of July.

[Heidi]

28. Art has certainly done this in my own big family of Swiss and American artists.

My mother-in-law: sculptor in clay/ceramic
My sister-in-law: watercolorist
My husband: IT/communications consultant and graphic novel artist
My brother-in-law: State forestor and sculptor in wood
My husband's uncle: sculptor in iron
My husband's uncle's wife: painter (oils)
Me: mixed-media artist.
Our 15-year-old goddaughter: entering performing arts training later this month.

Art is the thing we all have in common and it has smoothed the way to a common understanding of the world around us. Art made us family in a way much deeper than the "legal" defintions of family. :hi:

[bhcodem]

30. The "arts" are for everybody

My late husband was a high school orchestra director. Even thought there was always a big push for getting awards an honors for such groups at contests,he always valued the educational aspect of his job. There was always a group kids sitting in the back of the section just holding their fiddles in their hands not really adding to the quality of the orchestra, and in some cases actually detracting from what could have been an excellent performance. He felt that as long as they got something out of the experience,whether pride of belonging or a chance to go on the occasion trip to St. Louis or Disney World for kids who had never left home before,they were more than welcome. Most of the athletic groups seemed to find a way to get rid of the less talented players, but not his orchestra. The arts are very important in this way as well.