The Final Reflection:
“No! One last time
The people will hear from me
One last time” – George Washington, in the song One Last Time, from the musical Hamilton written by Lin Manuel Miranda
Thoughts of how is this class almost overrun through my mind as I write this final blog post. I recall the mention of the musical Hamilton in the first couple weeks of the month; Randy Cohen exclaimed how it’s a good feeling knowing you can see your favorite broadway show and know it’s helping to benefit the economy of our nation. Of course, I thought of all the times I’ve purchased BTS paid content for my own enjoyment; I’ve definitely supported the South Korean economy with my love for BTS. The economy was one of my first initial connections between democracy and the arts. But after experiencing this class, I’ve learned so much more about the arts and their relation to democracy.
My own identity as a student, artist, ballet dancer, future educator of the arts, and consumer play a large role in how I use the arts in a democratic aspect and for my own enjoyment. This class showed me the importance of funding the arts. We heard from the NEA, NEH, and the Washington Performing Arts Organization. These organizations showed us how they distribute funding they receive from the government or donors, and the communities they benefit from these grants. With this knowledge, I’m able to recommend communities that I’m involved with to apply for grants due to my connections. Secondly, this class reconnected me with my passion for arts education because of its informative and inspiring nature when meeting with so many different organizations, experts, performers, and educators. It was truly an influential experience.
This class demonstrates the endless possibilities that the arts hold to facilitate and strive for change. At the beginning of the term, we spoke about John Lewis’ speech about the value of the arts. We were left with an inspiring message on how the arts bring together communities, reflect those communities’ values, demonstrate self-expression, inspire others, and are a key source for social activism and justice. These many testaments to the effectiveness of the art stayed with me during the semester and inspired many of the questions I’d asked our guest speakers. I was able to learn more about the opportunities to use my knowledge of the arts and the importance of arts education in this class. Specifically, re-learning the importance of arts education and how it affects one’s social development. This was something that I learned from our guest speakers at the Washington Performing Arts Organization; then expanded my knowledge on through my research for my Policy Proposal Paper. This newfound information helped me ask questions to a number of organizations in my community to help encourage the arts or preserve current artistic endeavors.
My own values in the arts were strengthened by experiencing the interactive demonstration by our guests from the Smithsonian. All of us were able to take part in creating themes for a series of artworks that we curated in the jam board activity. Next, we participated in a small group activity where we expanded these themes into a paragraph description on why the artworks correlate with the theme presented. These activities brought back my confidence in knowledge on art symbolism and reminded me of the many unique perspectives that my classmates and I have about artworks.
Drawing back to the conversations with Randy Cohen, he informed us of the ways to draw a conservative audience into funding the arts. His argument showcased the importance of the arts’ pull on an economy. Having a different perspective on the benefits of the arts’ helped to shape the more informed argument on why the arts should be an essential part of education for all students, and be more accessible for all people.
I want readers to know that the arts are an essential part of democracy as democracy is an essential part of the arts. Furthermore, the two benefit each other in a number of ways and present endless possibilities to explore change. Democracy allows the arts to gain access to funding and in ways strives to be more inclusive and equitable. The arts aid democracy in providing content to social activism movements, bringing together communities, inspiring artists and viewers, and supporting a communities economy. Although, not everything within the arts and democracy has always been positive. Censorship has always been a large concern of federal government employees when reflecting on the arts. This idea was brought to our attention in a New York Times article by Honan William. He informed us of congress officials’ comments on funding artworks that are deemed unethical in their own beliefs. Through discussion most of us in the class came to the conclusion that art is subjective, each person will have their own interpretations on art based on their cultural background, experiences, personal beliefs, and identity. So in many ways, it can be
hard to determine what should be funded, what should be censored, and who should make these decisions. After further discussion on this topic in my most recent podcast episode with Anna, she and I determined that having something like a warning of what the artwork contains is a great way to inform an audience of what they are about to see. Having a warning provides people who might be sensitive to some visuals or topics a way to choose to not view the artwork or artistic demonstration. A lot of these warnings are already in place, for example, the explicit symbol on music or the rating that comes with TV shows or movies. Democracy and the arts are constantly evolving together, with more ways of showing expression through the arts and democracy slowly becoming more involved in the arts.
The main component of this class was to create a Policy Proposal. Mine presented the urgent need for a local charter school to adopt a sustainable arts program to educate their students on the value of the arts while informing them on a number of fine arts techniques and vocabulary. I’d chosen this Policy Proposal since I’m an education and Studio Art major with the hopes of teaching in the future, so this idea was a way for me to combine an issue I care about with my own experiences of teaching. Other than my Policy Proposal I’d like to create more podcast episodes discussing the arts. Specifically, to showcase a number of marginalized artists who need and deserve more recognition for their work. If possible I’d like to feature some of our guests from The Verbal Gymnastics Theatre, I was so inspired by their performances. Overall, I plan on continuing to strive to connect people with the arts and inform others about the importance of democracy and the arts. This class was filled with inspiring experiences and so much knowledge about a number of arts-related topics. Truly has been an experience I will never forget, and be happy to call one of my fondest classes at St. Olaf. Briefly, I’d like to thank everyone in this class for sharing their knowledge and valuable opinions daily. I’d also like to thank Professor Epstein and Alyssa Melby for creating this amazing opportunity for all of us to learn from the comfort of our own location during these difficult times. Lastly, I’d like to thank all of our guests for taking the time out of their busy schedules to meet with us over zoom and present us with endless materials and information for us to learn so much from.
Thank you, for this one last time,
Logging off Liv Elizabeth the Sophmore Art Education Student.
