Whenever CM Cappuccino hears the word "art," he reaches for his BBQ bologna croissant.

Let's take a break from decrepit housing and consider the meaning of art to the community.

Two council meetings ago, NA Confidential reported on the predictable reaction of conjoined councilmen Dan Coffey and Steve Price when New Albany’s economic development director asked the council for $5,000 toward funding Studio2000SI, a “art as career” program for students with initial funding provided by a Caesar’s Foundation grant.

UPDATED: Siamese Councilmen attack student art program, announce new Hindsight Party.

More grants are being sought to continue the program, which is designed as a unique outreach to talented public school students. As an interim measure, and in seeking a “partnership” for the city in the program, (Paul) Wheatley came before the council to ask for $5,000 as a bridge to future grants.

As for what followed, it should suffice to say that when CM Price intones, “I’m all for the arts, believe me,” it’s not unlike the feeling you get when a piranha winks and opts for the salad bar.

What followed was a vintage duet not unlike George and Tammy as the Siamese Councilmen damned the ideas of art and education with the barest discernable trace of praise, dragging all their familiar bogeymen into the fray, including CM Price’s congenital fear that any action taken today might prove to have been the wrong one in hindsight, and CM Coffey’s axe grinding sparks of venom toward a county government that Wheatley should have known better to ask for money prior to troubling the Wiz – and while you’re at it Paul, couldn’t you have tried to pick the pockets of the parks department first, since they’ve been known to do artsy fartsy things for the urchins?

All of it was delivered by CM Coffey in the patronizing tone of the schoolyard boor, typically something that emanates from the vocal chords of the planet’s insecure charlatans, who unfortunately know a captive audience when they see it, and plan their strangleholds accordingly.

The motion was tabled again on February 16, and the dithering seems set to continue well into summer, or until the arts program collapses, at which point the Siamese Councilmen will hastily reverse field and loudly point to its failure as yet another reason why City Hall can’t be trusted.

Until then, such incessant posturing provides numerous opportunities for those locals typically occupying the “anti-intellectual” booth at the Luddite Bar & Grill to express befuddlement as to why “Velvet Elvis” and “Dogs Playing Poker” aren’t artsy enough for one unrealized lifetime.

As an example, here’s an anonymous bit of troggiti scrawled on the weathered drywall above the rust-streaked urinals at the spitwad blogyard’s kitchen cabinet art gallery – where the Mardi Gras beads fill a plastic Spuds McKenzie stadium cup -- and two eloquent responses that followed, as written by our friends Ceece and Bluegill.

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Questions said...

We already have the Southern Indiana Arts located on E Market next to Interfaith. Can you tell the taxpayers WHY WE NEED ANOTHER ONE just for the White House Center? Andrea Grossman is the Director of the one we already have; what is their opinion? Help us understand the dynamics of why -- when we already have one we ARE FUNDING. Thanks.

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Ceece said...

The Arts Council of Southern Indiana has completely different goals and missions then that of Studio2000SI save the Arts Appleseed program.

Studio2000SI is a bridging tool to give students the opportunity to see how art can be a job and a career.

The Arts Council works to increase arts and culture to everyone.

The students WORK for Studio, and get paid to do jobs.

Here is the link for the Arts Council.

Both organizations are an asset to our community and we should do what we can to support both of them

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Bluegill said...

Echoing and adding to Ceece:

The missions of the two arts organizations are completely different. The Arts Council of Southern Indiana exists mostly as an umbrella organization to coordinate and help fund artistic efforts in the region. While they do provide some limited arts programming directly, they mostly act as a foundation-type conduit to help other organizations achieve their goals. They are in no way New Albany specific nor do they provide opportunities for local students to spend an extended period of time working with a professional artist in a studio atmosphere.

Studio2000SI is an entirely different animal. It's their intention to provide talented students with a hands-on opportunity to spend a summer working as paid artists in a studio under the supervision of a professional artist to create works for the benefit of the community and for sale. It's a tradition of apprenticeship that's as old as human history and one that we make readily available to students in other vocations via Prosser and other agencies.

In order to understand why Studio2000SI matters, it's good to first consider why the arts are important to a community and its youth. Rather than recreate the wheel, I'll point you here for a probably oversimplified but well-stated explanation:

Why Are the Arts Important?

As someone who works with collegiate art students everyday, I can tell you that most of those students, and the community in general, would benefit a great deal if more of them had opportunities for local experience and validation early on. Each of these talented people has been taught from an early age that their community doesn't value their skills. Math is more important. Auto mechanics is more important. Basketball is more important. And when comparing the amount of money spent by local high schools on theatre to that spent on visual arts, even other arts are more important. It's difficult for any of these students, no matter how hard they work, to feel as though their community accepts and supports them. The end result is that most of them skip town, creativity in tow, first chance they get.

That loss of creativity, unfortunately, bears much more on a city's future than just the sacrifice of some pretty pictures. These are the young minds that not only claim there's a better way but create it, constantly challenging us to look deep within ourselves for the threads that bind us together, daring us to think differently about those we view as others, and to value the ability to form and communicate the relationships that define us as humans. What we’re talking about is the very essence of ingenuity and resolve and how best to foster it in our community.

As I stated in the very first comment I ever typed onto a blog, even a casual perusal of past community revitalization efforts across the world point to artists as the most common catalyst for positive change, bringing their talents and work ethic to areas that appear blighted to others but as just a problem of vision to young creatives. For proof, one needs to look no further than East Market Street in Louisville. Businesses are popping up all over the district to serve the art community that was there first. A DIY, trailblazing attitude is simply a function of everyday life for those who choose to define themselves by their own ability to create.

As a region, we're beginning to come to our collective senses regarding the value the arts bring to an area. The Indianapolis Museum of Art recently completed a multi-million dollar expansion of its contemporary art space. Cincinnati also recently spent millions to bring in a world-renowned architect to create an architectural gem to house its contemporary collections. Visitors are pouring in to both cities purely in pursuit of art. Louisville, too, is in the beginning stages of adding to its skyline the city’s most significant architectural achievement in nearly a hundred years, a building whose main purpose is to retain and attract arts related activity.

You'll notice in this Courier Journal article about the Louisville project that several of the participants mention the opportunity for synergy and mutual benefit that Museum Plaza will create. Speed Museum Director Peter Morrin even goes so far as to call creativity and imagination the survival skills of the 21st Century, a sentiment echoed by economists and other scholars throughout the developed world.

If you care to root for the underdog as SOLNA readers seem prone to do, you'll have a difficult time finding a more fitting underdog that cuts across all economic, racial, and gender groups than local visual arts students, who’ve been ignored for decades. If we hope to participate in the regional uplifting taking shape all around us, we need them. If we hope to keep them here, they need to know we support them so that our hope becomes theirs. A one-time effort of a little over ten cents a citizen doesn't seem an unreasonable way to begin that process.