What is Cultural Policy?

What is cultural policy?  That is a great question, and a very pertinent one for a cultural and public policy class.  However, culture and policy can be difficult to define.  In attempts to better understand, I did some research.  I read a very interesting article by Caron Atlas discussing what cultural policy is.  She brought up some interesting points.  Cultural policy doesn’t always operate in the public realm, though public and cultural policy often go together.  She defines cultural policy as “both a product and a process, a framework for making rules and decisions that are informed by social relationships and values.”  I think this is a great definition.  However, to fully understand what is cultural policy, I think there needs to be an understanding of the basic key words culture, public, and policy.

According to the Conjecture Corporation, as published on wiseGeek.com,  public policy is "an attempt by the government to address a public issue.  The government, whether it is city, state, or federal, develops public policy in terms of laws, regulations, decisions, and actions."  To simplify this even further, there's a problem and a governing body does something to change or fix it.  According to thefreedictionary.com, public can be defined as "of, concerning, or affecting the community or the people."  I think public policy can be applied to any group, such as a school or a business.  As long as there is a group being affected by some sort of governing body's actions, there is public policy.  To bottom line this concept:  community action.

Now, the more difficult concept to define is culture.  One really needs to know the scope for which the concept is being defined – the frame of reference, if you will.  Is it culture as it relates to anthropology, the standard connotation of art, or perhaps it pertains to the medical and scientific fields?  As I am pursuing a master’s degree in Arts Administration, I can safely assume we are not using the last frame.  That still leaves culture in an anthropological sense or as it pertains to the arts. According to English anthropologist, Edward Tylor, culture, or civilization, includes “knowledge, belief, art, morals, laws, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.”  Based on this definition, anything within a society, or community, can be considered culture.  That opens a lot of door in terms of policy discussions.  However, as a member of the arts community, I know culture can be considered a community's foundation in the fine arts, such as theatre, art, dance, music.  If we take this more narrow focus, cultural policy would cover anything relating to art.

In summary a policy is something that addresses a problem and is enacted by a governing body.  A public is a group of people.  As we've discovered, culture can mean different things, but I believe in the context of the class I'm taking culture means relating to the arts.  After learning the definitions, Ms. Atlas' definition makes much more sense.

Help Secure Our Piece of the Pie

As we enter the New Year, Congress commences a new session.  There are many important issues on the docket:  the possible repeal of the Obama Health Care Reform, the Open Internet Order, and overall spending.  However, the issue most important to me is funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, a public agency dedicated to bringing the arts to all Americans.  The NEA is the largest annual national funder of the arts.  A strong connection to arts education, the NEA helps to fund and carry out educational initiatives, such as The Big Read, which gives communities the opportunity to read and discuss one of 31 selections from the U.S. and world literary cannon.

In fiscal year (FY) 2010, the NEA was granted $167.5 million to be disbursed to arts organizations, new and established, throughout the United States.   This past February President Obama proposed a $6.4 million decrease for the FY 2011 NEA budget.  The House of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA), raised the initial funding level to $170 million this past July.  This is $2.5 million increase over the budget allotment in FY 2010.  The money the Federal government budgets for the NEA each year helps to fund jobs, create safe and educational places for our children to stay after school, enrich the lives of Americans, and increase our cultural worth in world.  While I could write hundreds of thousands of pages lauding the work of the NEA, I am here to ask each reader to contact his or her elected officials and ask them to support the increase to $170 million dollars for the NEA in FY 2011.  With five minutes of your time, you can help to support the arts in America.  Please click here to visit the Americans for the Arts advocacy page to contact your elected officials.  

Caro

There's No Hole in My Bucket

I had a lot of time on my hands over break.  Instead of doing something productive like research for my thesis, I used this time to think.  About what may you ask?  Well, I am an indiscriminate thinker.  I'll think about whatever pops into my head.  Sometimes I will spend hours thinking about the most random things.  I once spent 30 minutes contemplating the purpose of doors.  I know that sounds like crazy talk because doors are here to create barriers, provide protection, serve as a fortress from your crazy aunts who will not leave you alone.  However, doors are not treated the same in all cultures.  In German households, as I learned in my one semester of German my sophomore year of college, most doors stay locked throughout the day and are only unlocked when someone needs to enter the room.  Here in America, that is not the case, at least from my experience.  For goodness sakes, the majority of people in my hometown keep their doors unlocked at night!  However, I digress.  As of late I've been thinking about traditions, the history and future of publishing, the art of comedy, domesticity, and much to my chagrin, my future.  The most recent thing on my mind is bucket lists.  I've never actually written out my bucket list and I think it might be beneficial for me to have a written record of what I'd like to accomplish before my time on the earth expires.  It may be helpful for forming my future plans.  Here are ten things unrelated to my career on my bucket list.

1. Go cage diving with sharks -- I have always loved Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, and ever since I first saw people cage diving on TV when I was five I have wanted to do so as well.  I am scared of a lot of things, but sharks is not one of those things.  This is probably the most adventurous thing on my bucket list.
2. Host SNL -- Sketch comedy, especially SNL, has been an important part of my life.  I cannot think of anything that would be more fun that spending a week with SNL cast and crew and being a part of a show.  I just have to do something that makes me famous and moderately influential.
3. Meet Ina Garten and host a dinner party with her. -- Ina Garten is my hero!  She's done so many amazing things, working for Presidents Ford and Carter, owning her own business and expanding it, her cookbook series, cooking show on Food Network, being a columnist in several magazines, and having what appears to be a wonderful marriage.  She isn't a classically trained chef, but her recipes and menus are phenomenal!  I could watch her show all day. Ina Garten is truly an inspiration to me.
4. Write a memoir. -I don't really care if it gets published, but I would like the hilarious stories that stem from the awkward situations I get myself into recorded in some form or fashion so my progeny may tell their friends of my awesome shenanigans.
5. Become a polyglot -- I plan to become fluent in French, German, and Italian.
6. Go on a cross country road trip -- I've never participated in a leisurely cross country road trip, stopping to see things like "The World's Largest Popcorn Ball."  I think this would be a good thing to do while in my 20s.  The stories and photos from this trip will be great fodder for my memoir.
7. Ice skate at Rockefeller Center on Christmas Eve -- This is another thing I've wanted to do since I was a kid.  
8.  Meet Joyce DiDonato -- She is a phenomenal artist, truly inspiring.  She seems so down to earth and honestly cares about the future generations of opera singers.  If you get the chance, check out her vlogs in youtube at TheYankeediva.  Everyone can learn a thing or two from here, even if you aren't into opera.
9. Have a joke published on a Laffy Taffy wrapper -- Yes, I realize that I should have done something to cross this one off my list when I was 10.  However, I never got around to it.  So I guess I should start now.
10. Plant a tree with Al Gore -- I absolutely adore Al Gore!  I love the environment.  Why not combine the two and plant a tree for the environment with Mr. Inconvenient Truth himself?

Some of these things are silly, some are dangerous, but they're what I want to do before the proverbial curtain closes on the final act of my life.

Until next time,
Caro

A Little Less Conversation, A Little More Action, Please

A college friend of mine, Carl, is a second year teacher at a high school in Eastern Iowa.  Over the past couple years we've had several conversations about the state of arts and general education.  We have come to the conclusion the potential is there, but nothing is being done.  Carl recently wrote a blog entry about the continuous conversation about the need for education reform in the State of Iowa and how often the blame of poor performing students is placed upon the shoulders of the educators.  Carl goes on to outline the top four obstacles teachers face: quality professional development, the evolution of academic priority, parents and public misconceptions.  As a young, enthusiastic educator trying to make a difference in the lives of his students, Carl has shed a new light of these issues.

I wholeheartedly agree with Carl's assessment and can only  hope and pray my tax dollars are being spent effectively to positively reform Iowa's education system.  For too long people have been complaining about the current system and giving suggestions as to make it better.  However, that doesn't do anyone any good until we actually DO something about it.  What does knowing the test teach us?  Absolutely nothing beyond the fact that our students have the capability to be mindless drones that can regurgitate force-fed facts.  What happened to education being about the experience?  Why are good grades a given, something a student deserves, rather than an award?  The grade inflation rate is outrageous!  Shouldn't what a student learned be more important than the overall grade earned in a class.  In my personal academic career, spanning from high school to graduate school, I have taken many classes where I received an A for my final grade and felt like I didn't learn anything.  However, on the flip-side, I've taken classes where I worked very hard to earn a B. Those B's are so much more important to be because I was challenged and felt I actually learned something.

Why does the whole of the fault of poor academic performance of students have to be placed on the shoulders of teachers?  As Carl points out in his post, parents are a major influence on the performances of their children.  This extends far beyond the academic arena.  When parents are supportive and involved in the lives of their children, they perform better.  They become contributing members of society.  Why? Because their parents were a good example.  If parents took the time to be a part of the lives of their children and teach them positive social values and good work ethic, perhaps our educators will be more successful in their teaching.  It is not fair to expect our grossly overworked and underpaid educators to be parents by proxy AND teach our children algebraic equations.  This is a challenge to all parents out there:  ask your child what he or she learned in school today, ask if they helped anyone, ask if they met anyone new.  Engage with your child.  Please do not expect television to raise your children.  Trust me, the Kardashians are far from the best example your children need.  Please inspire your child to aspire to be more than a contestant on the Bachelor in 2020.  Try to keep your kids in school and positively reinforce their good behavior.  At the least tell them you love them.  Seriously, all these daddy issues are guaranteeing us an army of strippers for generations to come.

I realize there are plenty of teachers out there who are in the field because it's a safer bet - benefits are good, guaranteed retirement. But there are so many more teachers who actually care.  Why not install some sort of reward system based on student evaluations within middle and high schools.  If nothing else, it's another way to get students to write.  I understand these students can't vote yet, but they do have opinions.  Maybe this is idealist in me, but I think allowing students to actively shape their education would empower them to take ownership of it.  Sometimes all it takes is to ask a student what they think to get them involved.  Plus the evaluations may help teachers who aren't effectively reaching their students to adapt their methods.

I understand that education reform is going to take a lot more money, time and effort than we really want to put it.  However, we must remember the age old adage, "You reap what you sow."  We need to invest in our future today.  Start small.  Parents pay attention to your children; encourage them to do their best and learn something.  Please, teach your children manners and positive social behaviors.  Teachers, keep up the good work.  Administrators, pay communicate with your teachers and with the parents in your district.  State Legislators, don't aim for perfection, aim for what is realistic. Small, measurable and achievable goals are a good idea.  Don't set yourselves up for failure.  It doesn't make you look good.  Community members, please act like you're in a community; take an interest in the schools and the education of your future community leaders.  We want to cultivate a flourishing garden of educated global citizens, but that takes time, effort, and money.  Please invest.

The Voices, They Are A-Changin'

Ever wonder what happens to a choirboy when his voice starts changing? In most cases, these poor little singers are kicked out of their choirs, left to navigate the tumultuous sea that is the changing voice.  That's exactly what an already confused and awkward preteen boy needs -- social isolation.  Fortunately the Los Angeles Children's Chorus recognizes this practice is unfair.  As a result they created the Young Men's Ensemble in the fall of 2009.  This ensemble provides a safe and nurturing environment for transitioning young male singers.  The current conductor, Steven Kronauer, chooses repertoire that is appropriate for these young voices.  Additionally, the boys have opportunities to participate in master classes with professional choral groups like Chanticleer, countertenor, David Daniels, and tenor, Ben Heppner.  Groups like YME are very rare.  This article in the The Los Angeles Times sites only three other ensembles in the nation.

I would like to raise a glass to these choral groups.  So often pubescent boys are left out of the equation.  They are ignored because no one knows what to do with them.  That sends the all the wrong signals.  Boys are turned away from their choirs, support groups and communities they have come to rely on, because of something they can neither escape nor control.  One boy in the article states, "I could still sing well, but it made me nervous and scared because I thought I might lose that connection to everyone and everything I had done."  While adolescence and puberty is embarrassingly awkward for everyone, it isn't fair for someone to be punished for it.  Here's to you Young Men's Ensemble!

--C

Should We Stay or Should We Go?

While I stayed home and watched television on my computer Thursday night, I viewed several commercials promoting my activities of choice for the evening.  PNC Bank was advertising its new “Virtual Wallet.”  In the commercial is poses the question:  Go see a movie and spend $12 or stay home and watch hulu.com and save $12.  The other commercial was advertising Direct TV.  The ad featured a pretty girl and a good looking dude who spends the whole ad trying to get this girl to go on a date with him.  He suggests the idea of going to the movies, the ballet, rock climbing, dinner, a gallery, all of which the girl turns down.  His final suggestion is watching television.  She smiles all big like and then agrees to watch television with the poor kid.  Golly gee willikers, arts world!  This is bad!

Dear Arts Marketers, you certainly have your work cut out for you.  What’s going to happen to live performing arts if everyone stays home to watch television on a Friday night?  I think there are two options.  We can either fight it or work the trend to our advantage.  If we fight it, we’re going to have to do something drastic to get people off their couches and into the theatres.  I know art executives around the world will die a little on the inside when I suggest this, but what if we make tickets cheaper?  Perhaps we can bundle with local restaurants so both the local economy benefits.  I know ticket sales on average cover a mere 30% of the total operating budget, but we have to do something.  Arts organizations have to be the ones to change because we certainly aren’t going to be able to convince Americans to come to a show when the cheapest ticket isn’t even under $50.  We have to make the experience easier and better for the consumer or we won’t have an audience base any longer.

Our other option is work the trend to our advantage.  So people want to stay at home on Friday night, so what?  Why not stream live for a fee?  Indiana University streams their operas live.  You can even watch them after the show has stopped running.  The best part is that it’s free!  Now, I realize that it isn’t fiscally responsible or commercially practical to provide this service for free.  However, with the dawning of the internet capable television, such as this one from Sony , we can stream right into the consumers living room!  I know companies like the Metropolitan Opera have their own channel, but it’s only available on the computer and you have to pay for a subscription.  What if we created some sort of arts channel that was like Pay per View and the consumer could watch live and archived concerts, operas, and plays at their leisure? 

If we want to continue to exist, arts organizations must be relevant.  I know this is difficult because relevancy often requires more money than arts organizations have to spend.  Remember small progress is still progress.  Long live the arts!

--C

And now for something not written by the Old Dead White Guys Society

TalkOperaWorld.com recently posted an article announcing that 33 American opera companies of varying sizes will produce operas written by American composers over the next two seasons (2010-2011 and 2011-2012).  Nine of those productions will be world premieres.   Some of the companies included are Opera Southwest in Albuquerque, NM, Opera Memphis, Cincinnati Opera, New York City Opera, Portland Opera, Chicago Opera Theatre, Opera Roanoke, Sarasota Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Florida Grand Opera, and The Santa Fe Opera.  The best part about this is the list will only continue to grow as repertoire announcements for the 2011 – 2012 season come out in the next few months.

Marc A. Scorca, President and CEO of OPERA America, the national service organization for opera, was quoted to say, “Over the last two decades, an American opera repertoire has become firmly established and American composers continue to have a tremendous impact on our art form.  We are delighted to see their work being performed on stages of all sizes throughout the United States.” 

Not only does OPERA America keep tabs on the repertoire being performed throughout the United States, it encourages the creation and production of new operatic works with The Opera Fund.  The Opera Fund awards grants to opera companies to assist with the expenses that are associated with developing new works.  The Opera Fund has also provided companies with grants to help revive productions.  Since it began, The Opera Fund has awarded nearly $11 million dollars to American opera companies.

How exciting to be a part of a musical genre that celebrates new works, even encourages them!  By supporting the creation of contemporary operas, we are keeping the art form relevant.  Way to go OPERA America and American opera companies.  Keep up the good work!

--Carolyne

Let's Go to the Opera...at the Movies?

So if you could go to the opera for the exact same price as seeing James Cameron’s Avatar, would you?  I know I would, but I have a bias.  Stephen Evans, a British movie producer, is trying to turn opera into a cinematic works. Before you say anything, this is different from the live broadcasts the Metropolitan Opera and other large opera companies are doing or the dvd recordings of Met productions.  Evans is adapting Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s comedic opera Cosí fan tutte into a film called First Night.  From my understanding, it is similar to a play within a play as there will be an additional plot surrounding the original plot of Cosí. 

Evans has a history of adapting older theatrical works into cinematic pieces.  Twenty years ago he produced Shakespeare’s Henry V, beating the odds the skeptics bet against him.  Actually, the film was nominated for two Oscars, and it’s still making money!  Take that, skeptics!  In addition to Henry V, he has also produced film adaptations of Shakespeare’s The Twelfth Night and Much Ado About Nothing.

Evans’ plan for First Night is to produce a romantic comedy with a Mozart soundtrack.  I’m interested to see how this turns out.  According to The Observer article a wealthy businessman who assembles a troupe of singers to put on a production of Cosí fan tutte in his home.  The recently finished film was shown with much success at a test screening a couple weeks ago.

The consumer enthusiasm hasn’t stopped some of the industry’s largest giants from voicing their concerns.  They’re leery about this film because it’s about opera.  However, Evans doesn’t think it’s going to be a problem.  He was quoted to say, “People who didn't know opera were more excited than the people who did. The music is so wonderful, so lyrical. People uninterested in opera found themselves loving the music."

So will this inspire people to go to their local opera company and purchase tickets?  I cannot say whether it will or not, but I’m glad the opera industry now has another vehicle in which to reach potential audiences.  Viva l’opera!

--C

Auto-Tune: Flawed Perfection

Here’s the secret formula to being a mega star in today’s pop culture:  attractive person – talent + auto-tune = Big Success.  Some of the more famous examples are Katy Perry, Britney Spears, T-Pain, and the entire cast of Glee.   Don’t get me wrong, Katy Perry’s music is catchy, but it’s all augmented.  I’m sure you’ve heard “California Gurls” on the radio which means it’s flawless, but did you see Katy Perry on SNL?  She should have stayed a Christian singer because they’re supposed to be a forgiving people. 

So what exactly is Auto-Tune?  It’s an audio processor created in 1997 by Antares Audio Technologies that auto-corrects vocal and instrumental pitches – pretty much a musical spell-check.  The first artist to ever use Auto-tune was Cher in her single “Believe” in 1998.  After Cher’s huge success with the program, many other artists began to use Auto-tune.  Probably the most famous example of Auto-tune use is T-Pain with his robotic voice.  It has been so catchy, there’s now a T-Pain iPhone application.  Yes, there really is an app for that ®. 

Auto-tune is ruining the art of live music.  It creates a false sense of perfection and as a result, it’s killing the art of the live performance.  Today’s generation has no idea how to appreciate the natural flaws in a live performance.  Humans are not perfect and by extension, the voice isn’t either.  While I would prefer to not listen to off key singers, I don’t appreciate being lied to.  I’m not asking for much, just actual talent.

Like Jay-Z, I am calling for a campaign to stop the use of Auto-Tune!   Auto-Tune is steroids for singers.  We’ll have random pitch tests.  If artists test positive for traces of Auto-Tune, they should be banned from commercializing their music.  We need to stop selling lies!  We have to keep performers accountable! 

--C

Arts Funding IS Jobs Funding

About a month ago, an award winning lighting designer by the name of Jeffery Salzberg posted a facebook note entitled “Arts Are Jobs, Too.” Though I am not friends with Mr. Salzberg, nor do we have any facebook friends in common, and yes, I checked, this note was pretty hard to miss. The main point of the note was sparked from a dinner party Mr. Salzberg attended where a fellow artist made the following comment, “I care about arts funding, too, but jobs are more important.”

Yes, an artist actually said that. I’m going to pretend that the artist who would have the audacity to say something like that is not faring too well with his or her career and as a result doesn’t have an arts job, but instead is working retail at a Babies R Us. However, that is an issue for another blog. Mr. Salzberg went on to say how we artists “need to stop thinking of ourselves as charity cases.” He’s right. This would be a good place to insert a cliché about helping oneself, something about believing in oneself, or keeping the faith. You pick whichever one is pertinent to you and keep reading, please.

The final thought Mr. Salzberg left his readers with is “Arts funding is jobs funding.” Again, he’s right. Now, you neither need a degree in the arts nor in rocket science to know why he’s right, but in case you cannot logically put it together, I’ll help you. Also, it’s probably not your fault you don’t understand, it’s not on the standardized tests.

First, we’re going to look at some governmental things. I just did a quick search on U.S. Census Bureau’s North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) webpage. According to the 2007 NAICS report, there are 43 industries with the word “arts” in their title. When I searched the word “music” I came up with 104 industries. “Theater” produced 46 industries. “Dance” had 40 different industries. So by looking up arts, music, theater and dance, I found 235 arts related industries. Also, there is an entire industry sector devoted to “Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation.” NAICS has 61 defined industries under the sector of Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation. That means there are 174 industries in different sectors that are related to the arts. Out of the 19,720 total industries, 1.3% of them are arts related. That’s a pretty decent market share for such a specialized industry.

Second, I’m going bring up the timeless argument of how the arts support the economy. Dinner and show. Need I say more? Well, I’m going to. So you’re a single guy (or girl) and you have a date Friday night. You want to make a good impression on her (or him), so you think you’ll take him (or her) to a show. That makes you look deep and cultured and mature. Then you think to yourself, “Self, I can’t really get to know someone on a date if I’m just going sit in a dark theatre for two hours and not talk to him (or her). Dear Self, what should I do?” Then in a stroke of pure brilliance, you think, “I’ll take her (or him) to dinner first!” That way you and your date can actually have a discussion. Plus you can figure out if he’s (or she’s) attractive in fluorescent lighting. Now you’re on the right track. And, of course, after the show you’re going to go out for coffee or some other libation and talk about how awesome (or terrible) the show was – and a great date was had by all.

My third and final point is really a testament to your intelligence. Do you think arts productions and movies and concerts happen by magic? Do you think people put on shows just for kicks? If you answered yes to one or both of these questions, you just tested positive for ignorance. Arts organizations have to pay their employees just like private companies. We need marketers, accountants, CEOs, and IT people to run the offices. And we need carpenters, seamstresses, painters, electricians, and inventors (props people) to create our stages. Then the artists who have been practicing for months will put the finishing touches on our products. The final products you see in the concert halls and theatres do not just happen overnight and for nothing. People and money are behind them, just like the coffee you drink every morning.

Please remember, when you fund the arts you are funding people, businesses, and the economy. Money spent on the arts is not money wasted, but money invested in the advancement of our society.

--C

Will this be on the test?

I’m currently in an arts and education class, and our “textbook” is a giant packet of articles supporting arts education both in and out of schools. The point is the arts are important. So far every single article has the same theme: “The arts are good. We need them in school. They're important for creating well-rounded individuals who possess critical thinking skills. The arts also develop creative thinking skills which are essential for today's workplace environment.”

So riddle me this world, why are the arts in schools not funded? Why are the arts the first line item in the budget to be cut? Why is gym, excuse me, physical education, mandatory, but the arts aren’t? Yes, I understand that our children are obese and we need to fix that. But without arts education our children are also being taught to be mindless robots. Teaching the test teaches children there isn’t room for creativity. And when there isn’t room for creativity, there isn’t any room for advancement.

It’s time for a brief, but poignant history lesson. Without creativity and critical thinking skills, Alexander Graham Bell would never have invented the telephone. Thomas Alva Edison wouldn’t have invented the light bulb. The world would be without chocolate chip cookies and fire and cars and anything that does not occur naturally. Without the creativity of the arts we would still be walking around naked and dying by the time we’re 30. Is that what you want? I didn’t think so.

It’s your move world. Do you want your children to know the test and be brain dead drones or do you want to them to be functional and contributing members of society?

--C