art is dialog

"Some words speak of events.
Other words, events make us speak."

-Matthew Goulish


A few weeks ago, Harry, a rockin 17 year old (if i can say so myself), asked to interview me for a research paper he was writing on the lack of art requirements in high school curriculum. I was thrilled. Of course, I answered yes.

The interview was conducted over the phone. I rushed out of the paper studio with two hands full to gills with paper making equipment. I wanted to catch his phone call when my mind was clear. To load my supplies I had parked in a two zone with my flashers on. Feet sopping wet, and hands pruny from my evening submerged in pulp, I caught his call just when I got to the car and left the flashers on the whole hour we talked.

In the proceeding days, I found myself thinking about our conversation quite a lot. I sent him this email three days later. It parallels what I am thinking about now so I decided to share.

A slightly edited version below:

.....

art is dialog
may 9th 2006

hey harry!

as i was considering our conversation, i realized that it maybe
helpful for you to ask your interviewee's to answer these questions:
1.) do you think art is an important part of high school curriculum?
why? 2.) what role do you feel art has in society? 3.) do you think
that high school students should be required to take more art classes.

these questions arose into my mind as i became aware that the thesis
of your paper most likely is that you feel students should be required
to take more art classes in high school. a similar thesis could be
phrased: art is an important and critical skill in contemporary u.s.
culture, and could be utilized to address global, political, economic,
and health issues; requiring more art in high school could be a key
to our nations sustainability and success.

ok, ok, i know, those sound pretty academic but this is where i am coming from:

personally, i believe that art is a powerful skill used to create
cultural change. the sheer act of being creative is a political act.
when people learn to approach life, their work, art or non-art fields
(aka: biology, math, history, economics) from a creative perspective
their results are often more diverse, challenging, and most
importantly, more powerful. i believe that creativity is power. i
use the word power here as a synonym to penetrating/impacting and
specifically note that i do not mean controlling.

last sunday my mom and i when to see the dalai lama speak. when
asked the question: "how do you feel that we should address
terrorism?", he began by identifying the complexity of the situation
that we call "terrorism". he said that as a pacifist he believes that
each aspect of terrorism needs to be very carefully considered. thus
his response to the issue can not easily be generalized. despite this
complexity, however, he felt strongly that dialog was the key to
successful non-violence. to indirectly quote him the dalai lama said,
"we need to teach our children about dialog in schools. we need them
to learn how to talk to one another. when a school shooting, or a
terrorist act occurs and our leaders take violent retribution we need
our children to speak up and say, 'this is not the way to solve
problems, we need to have more dialog'. right now, we have 'school
for the brain', we need have 'school for the heart'."

i feel the dalai lama said it best: we need to have a school for the
heart. i believe art, and teaching art, if really approached
unconventionally (creatively), has the ability to be a school for the
heart with multi-dimensional ramifications. art teaches people how to
creatively problem solve, it teaches forms of expression that can say
more than words, it requires patience in a practice that has no right
answers, it calls for people to ask questions about things they don't
understand, and creates dialog about issues that often come from the
heart. (the student who did all the shootings at virgina tech
college expressed his feelings in his writing classes before he acted
these imaginings out in real life. creativity has power).

i feel that art is especially important to high schoolers because teen
age years are the times when young people are testing out/trying to
decide how to live as an adult. teenagers are experimenting with who
they are. i think you said it best when you described your prom:
awkward and fun. that is exactly what art can be. awkward, fun,
spontaneous, sad,...powerful. to hone creative skills at your age, as
a high school student, teaches students a practice that will be used
for the rest of their lives: creativity, alternative problem
solving, embracing the unfamilar and seeing that as fun.

harry, i could write much much more on this topic but my sheets of
paper are waiting for me in the other room.

you should look for books and articles by a woman named carol becker.
carol is the dean of faculty at the school of the art institute of
chicago and a renowned arts author, and advocate. i read many of her
articles when i was in undergrad and see her thoughts as a great starting point. she
writes about the political ramifications of art (giving examples of
undergraduate student work at SAIC that caused a ruckus in chicago
politics), and often calls upon artist to be cultural enactors. i
believe the article that i had my students read was in a book called:
zones of contention. i'll see if i can find it for you.

best of luck (for both of us).

.....