I was not planning on taking this class for J-term, but when it was moved online I decided to take it because I have taken studio art courses before but had never reflected on topics related to policy making and democracy in connection to the arts, especially in the United States. I can imagine that it was kind of a bummer for some of my classmates that were planning on going to D.C. but I appreciate everyone’s enthusiasm and professor Epsteins’ amazing and successful effort to adapt the course to be online without losing its interest.
When we started talking about the relationship between democracy and the arts in our first class I thought about democracy needing the arts more than the arts need democracy. I immediately connected it to what democracy meant to me and how I’d seen it function. I didn’t think of the U.S. at first, but connected it to Latin American realities and more specifically with the Nicaraguan reality because it is what I’ve experienced.
I didn’t think of democracy in terms of policy making because there is a lot of corruption involved in those processes where I come from, but in terms of the people and how they organize themselves to reclaim their rights and the things we, as citizens, deserve. An important part of this reclaiming has been done through artistic expressions in the form of embroideries, illustrations, animations, street graffiti and music, which is also a representation of how our ways of practicing democracy and reclaiming of our rights have shifted in the country. Protests and other democratic expressions in my country would not be as powerful without the arts and that has been proven in the past five years. This is the reason why I thought democracy needs the arts more than the arts need democracy. Nevertheless, this class has made me realize that this is different in the U.S. and that both democracy and the arts are in need of each other. The following consultation played an important role in this change of thinking.
-The Northfield Arts and Culture Commission. This is the consultation I made an introductory video about and wrote a blog post on. With them, I felt strong interest in what they had to say mainly because of the fact that they are volunteers, which means that they are there because they actually believe in what they do and in the cultural and artistic potential that Northfield has. Also, because they work in an area I interact with almost every day and know enough about. I realized how important it is for art to be promoted in certain spaces so that an arts and culture mindset is present in the people. With their story about the man who didn’t want a poem outside of his house I was reminded of how the arts are not as important to everyone as they are to me and to the people at the ACC, which is really sad because of the different amazing functions it can have related to healing and memory. This promotion of the arts is mainly the responsibility of local governments and policy makers and they should give enough resources to local organizations and different artists to do it as well. In addition to that, they talked about how funding is so important to implement artistic projects that include people from different communities and backgrounds. These are people that don’t necessarily have the resources to create art on their own because they have other economic responsibilities and surviving is their main priority. With this, my thought of “the arts will always find a way” was challenged, because it is art created by everyone the one we should ideally have, not only by those who have their own resources to help it not die. Artists from all communities and backgrounds need funds and resources to create, and that should also come from the government and other policy makers, thinking about democracy in terms of politics.
With this class I have thought about my civic identity in both the US as an international student and in Nicaragua and Central America as a Nicaraguan. I recognize that it is also my responsibility, and everyone else’s, to be involved, not only in creative processes but in supporting organizations who work with artists to preserve and create history through the arts. We all have the capacity to share different artists’ works in our platforms and circles, to promote the importance of the arts in our communities and to reclaim for policy makers to think about the arts as a priority. I plan on continuing to involve myself in artistic initiatives and starting to reflect on how I can support other artists from my own capacities and privileges. Something I am really excited about is my final proposal, not only about the assignment but the project itself. It is something I want to see happening and I decided to make it one of my goals for the next three years after I graduate. I will keep on researching the importance of the arts in the preservation of historical memory after revolutionary processes to be able to explain the purpose I want the project to have and why I think it’s so necessary for the people who have been exiled. I think that making this one of my priorities and using the resources I have available to me, whether they come from NGOs or through networking, shows how important the arts and my community are to me.
I hope that in the near future, people will understand the potential all of our communities have to create and to heal through the arts. I would like for policy makers to recognize this as well and to prioritize the arts and artists’ needs both in the U.S. and Latin America.