My friend Binnie Brennan sent me this link about a new way of bringing art to the people.
Lars Kaiser is a 35-year-old artist from Potsdam, Germany, near Berlin. He came up with the unique idea to put small art samples into vending machines so anyone can buy a piece of art any time of the day or night. Even Kaiser’s vending machines have been uniquely decorated to attract attention to the artsy wares inside. There are now about 100 of these machines found in bars, public buildings and on outside walls across Germany. Back in the 1960’s and ’70’s these vending machines sold condoms, gum or cigarettes, but have been refurbished to sell the artwork of around 140 professional artists now.
I heard an interview that struck home on NPR this morning with French-Algerian guitarist Camel Zekri.
When I think about the kind of musician I want to be and the kind of musicians I want to encourage my students to be, his story resonates with me. Both his thoughts about musical categories:
“Jazz is a word — it’s not the music,” he says. “Why not salsa? Why not bossa nova? Reggae? You can’t say this is not jazz. It’s an encounter of people who have given us music. It’s not one person who has given us this music. It’s a meeting of different people and cultures.”
Even moreso, his desire to connect with people through music.
That’s what interests Zekri — human encounters. Like so many children of immigrant families, he found it hard to bridge the cultural divisions within himself until his own guitar taught him how. He set aside classical technique. He changed the placement of his hands. He expanded the scale to encompass Arabic, Berber and African sounds.
To me its the model of the musician’s role. To quest after mastery, to resist definitions, to courageously seek a personal vision, and to embrace the power of music to connect.
This is the way forward.
I recently came across an organization in my town called Colored Pencils that is seeking to create these kinds of encounters through art in our community
You can read and listen to the rest of the interview and see more videoclips of Zekri here.
Plato famously said about music that it is “a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, and life to everything.”
Are the arts a necessity? Some, like Chris Ashworth, argue not.
The arts are not necessary.
Yeah, I went there: Not necessary. Water? Necessary. Food? Necessary. Medical care when we’re sick? Necessary. Henrik Ibsen’s The Wild Duck? Not necessary. Awesome play, but not necessary.
Most of my life I’ve wanted the arts to be necessary. I had it in my little American heart that, since all necessary things are also worthwhile, all worthwhile things must also be necessary. That’s a big mistake. For deeply worthwhile human activity (like the arts), it obligates one to build arguments that may not be true, in order to prove the connection back to “necessary”. At the very least, it puts you in the unforgiving position of pitting the necessity of the arts against the necessity of, say, roads.
One of the challenges of cultural sustainability or cultural preservation or cultural conservation is that while we are used to thinking in those terms with the cultures of indigenous populations, or displaced populations, or other people-not-like-us , it is entirely another matter to think about our institutions of the majority culture in those terms. Of course we need to somehow save the wonderful folkloric singing of the native island people of such and such? Maybe in a heritage museum, or a theme park. But not as a living, breathing, capital intensive, hand-wringing, ever school child must experience it kind of thing.
Interested in decentralization as a theme in Governmental policy? See Norway ” During the 1970s major efforts were made to decentralise the cultural policy and administration system in Norway. Cultural affairs committees were established in most municipalities, and the municipal authorities gradually appointed directors and secretaries of cultural affairs. A similar system was developed at the county level and new grant schemes were introduced. In this way, substantial responsibilities were decentralized in order to bring decision-making closer to the general population.”
Could that work in the states?
Or how about the way France went about it.
I like the term “devolution” to describe making smaller, more purpose-driven agencies out of big conglomerated ones.
There’s more here I’m sure, but this seems like a good place to start digging.
My friend Binnie Brennan, a classical musician and children’s book author from Halifax sent me this link.
Julie’s Bicycle is a broad coalition of music, theatre and scientific experts committed to making our industry green. Our ambition is global, our main operations UK. Almost everything we do is relevant to other creative industries and other global territories.
Great place to see what is already happening at the confluence of sustainability, policy and (not just) music. The site has resource tools, essays, and data.
Here’s a link to their Green Music blog. Just one example of the wealth of info here.
On the Territory 