Artistic Power

I've been slacking a little bit on the blogging of late but reading my friend Scott's amazing post today inspired me. I've heard many people say recently, in various ways, that President Obama is going to have so much on his hands dealing with this economic crisis and all that it entails, that it is foolish to think he's going to be able to focus on "small" issues like education and the arts. It's true, our country is in a pretty bad way right now, but I do not believe we should stand for education and arts being pushed to the bottom of the list once again, especially after President Obama (yeah I know he's not president YET but I just like calling him that) unveiled a rather impressive platform of support for the arts.

Let's hold him to these ideas and help ensure that they happen. None of them are outrageous, people- these are pretty basic and concrete plans-- building an artists corps, reinvesting in arts education, promoting cultural diplomacy--all of these efforts CAN make a real difference not just nationally but globally. We are especially in need of cultural diplomacy right now in a time when so many countries have such a negative opinion of America and what we stand for. Artists can cut across these boundaries and make a documentary about Hip Hop in Morocco or a collaborative theatre piece between a New York and Kosovar theatre company or give cameras to kids in India, Haiti, Egypt, and Israel and teach them the art of photography.

Sometimes it's easy for me to get down on pursuing the path of an artist, like what have I actually done today that really matters? But then I read one of Scott's posts or listen to an impassioned Education Director of a theatre talk about how many kids they reach with their artistic programming, public school kids who maybe have never seen a play before who find that the arts can connect and illuminate their lives and can offer them something incredibly valuable and empowering. So go out and support the arts, man. They need you!