Essays & Talks

Arlene is known for speaking truth to power. Her essays have been published in dozens of books and journals. She is a provocative and passionate speaker. Check out these samples on culture, politics, and spirituality:

Essays and Articles

  • “Bromides and Sugar-Pills: Cleaning Out the Artworld Medicine Chest,” Teaching Artist Journal, 6:3, 220-223, July 2008. Click here to download the full text.
  • “The Story Revolution: How Telling Our Stories Transforms the World,” Community Arts Network reading room.
    offsite.
  • “Don’t Do It! Organizational Suicide Prevention for Progressives,” Community Arts Network reading room.
    offsite.
  • “Let Them Eat Pie: Philanthropy a la Mode,” appeared in Tikkun 1996, now in Webster’s World of Cultural Democracy.
    offsite.
  • “Memory, Money, and Persistence: Theater of Social Change in Context,” appeared in Theater, Volume 31, Number 3 (Spring 2002).
    on this site.
  • “An Introduction to Arts and Culture,” Community Arts Network reading room,
    offsite.
  • “Grassroots Vanguard,” originally appeared in Art in America, Volume 70, Number 4, April 1982, now on Community Arts Network reading room.
    offsite.
  • “The Big T’shuvah” appeared in New Menorah Rosh HaShanah 5763/2002 issue).
    on this site.
  • “Creative Risk,” originally appeared in Living Text.
    on this site.
  • “The First Consultant” is a drash on the story of Joseph, who served Pharaoh in a way that set the bar for consultants to come.
    on this site.
  • “Fringe People” is a parable of Jewish renewal, inspired by the Book of Ruth and the Biblical text commanding the Israelites to put fringes on the corners of their garments.
    on this site.
  • “Secular Orthodoxy” is about the anti-religious fundamentalism of some non-believers; it originally appeared on Tikkun online in July 2004.
    on this site.

Talks and Speeches

  • “Food for Thought: New Paradigm Community Development,” Arts, Neighborhoods and Social Practice Symposium, UC Berkeley, January 2008. Click here to download the full text.
  • “Out of The Box,” Shanti Foundation Conference: Building Peaceful Communities Through the Arts, Chicago, Illinois, October 18-19, 2007. Click here to read the text at the Shanti site.
  • “Social Inclusion and the Culture of Participation in Sant Boi,” Cal Ninyo, Sant Boi, Spain, July 2007. Click here to download the full text.
  • “Pulling the Wool From Our Eyes,” Western Pennsylvania Arts in Education Partners Resident Artists Conference, May 2007. Click here to download the full text.
  • “Converging Worlds: Art, Politics and Community,” Temple University, March 2007. Click here to download the full text.
  • “The Culture of Fear,” Democratic Vistas Forum, Center for Arts Policy at Columbia College, Chicago, November 2006.
    to download the text from the Center’s site.
  • “Higher Ground: Community Arts as Spiritual Practice,” National Guild of Community Schools of The Arts, November 2006.
    on this site.
  • “Why Art Matters,” New College of California, October 2003.
    on this site.
  • “The Permanent Crisis,” UT Austin, January 2003.
    on this site.
  • “The Cultural Policy Colonization of the West or Fattening Frogs for Snakes,” remarks at a September 1999 symposium on “Cultural Policy in the West” convened by the Western States Arts Foundation in Aspen, Colorado.
    on this site.
  • “Better Late Than Never: Or, Confessions of a Premature Cultural-Policy Wonk,” adapted from remarks at a December 1995 symposium on the Status And Future of Public Arts Funding convened by the Missouri Arts Council and the Mid-America Arts Alliance in Saint Louis, Missouri, now in Webster’s World of Cultural Democracy.
    offsite.