Archive for April, 2009

The Creativity Stimulus

Friday, April 24th, 2009

The most-forwarded article award for this week goes to “The Creativity Stimulus” by my friend Jeff Chang, which appears in the May 4, 2009 edition of The Nation. It’s a concise and compelling argument for the vital role that artists and artists-activists can play in democratic renewal and national recovery:
Every moment of major social change [...]

Sustainable Recovery Demands Cultural Recovery

Sunday, April 19th, 2009

Two more video clips have been produced to advocate putting artists to work as part of national recovery. One features movie star Peter Coyote, and the other features…well, as you can see—me.

You can access both videos, plus one starring actor Bill Irwin, at my YouTube channel.
I’ll be writing more soon about how others [...]

The Question of Beauty

Saturday, April 4th, 2009

In ordinary discourse, beauty can be an answer: what nourishes the spirit, kindles desire, soothes the heart? But in the more self-referential realms of ArtWorld, it is a question. Is “mere beauty” a mask for deeper truth? Does it snag the eye, diverting attention from whatever essence it adorns? Is it a fancy name for [...]