This is the first section of a talk I gave on 19 June 2009 at the National Summit of Ensemble Theaters, meeting at the University of San Francisco. Click here to download the full text. I’ve just moved back to California, part of a big life-change for me. Whenever I come here, I touch down …
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote briefly about the May 12th White House Briefing on Art, Community, Social Justice, National Recovery I had helped to organize. Now, a detailed report on the briefing has been released. You can download it from the Cultural Recovery page of my Web site. The report is the next …
I took part in a “think-tank” at the Center on Age and Community, a structured brainstorm involving artists and people who work with elders and their families in long-term care facilities, advocacy organizations and other roles and settings. Our brief was to look at “transforming activities in long-term care,” “activities” being all the things that …
I have some advice for Rocco Landesman, the newly appointed Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, but first I have to convince myself it is worth offering. In case he reads this, I’ll summarize my advice up front: Rocco Landesman, the intelligence, risk-taking and independence for which you are admired on Broadway will …
I’m on the road with time for just a quick note to tell you that on May 12th, more than sixty activist artists, community artists, creative organizers and uncategorizable fellow travelers took part in a White House briefing I helped to organize. Actually, it was two meetings in one: I’d proposed a meeting of community …
I’ve been waiting a week for the obituary on Augusto Boal that appeared in Saturday’s New York Times. He passed away last Saturday at the age of 78. Boal was a giant figure and a defining influence on the practice of art that is simultaneously the practice of politics (and though some Boal disciples might …
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 …
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 …
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 …
By now, I know my tribe: like Lewis Mumford, “I’m a pessimist about probabilities; I’m an optimist about possibilities.” (Or like Gramsci: “Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.”) If you’re a member too, perhaps you also watched Battlestar Galactica, a sci-fi series that just ended (but will certainly be available in one form …