What if we took a step back and asked some pretty big questions?The arts aren’t dead, and they’re not even dying, but the old models aren’t working so well anymore. It’s is clear that this is the time for cutting new paths – something as dangerous as it is essential. I wonder what will happen next.
Fresh ideas on building arts communities
There are many variations of art forms, which appeal or don’t appeal to different sorts of people. While art is enjoyed certainly in the private sense, there is something powerful and special about the collective enjoyment of something, and one of the most powerful examples is music, which can represent emotions unspoken in the symphonic form. I have often sat in an orchestra, and there are those certain moments of incredible togetherness, of oneness, and I wonder if the other musicians are also realizing it. That is what I would wish for an audience, that they reach that level with the musicians, a rare, fleeting moment of unity. The older models of a passive, quiet audience listening to a good orchestra, still works, but once in awhile, things have to be shaken up, to keep people interested. We are in an age of immediate gratification, instant communication, short attention spans, multi-tasking, 24-7, and people bore quickly and easily. Sometimes, people presenting music have to come up with new formulas to keep people coming in, and interested. Sometimes that can be worked as audience participation, sometimes as local boy makes good as a soloist/composer, sometimes a conductor reaching out and telling a story that makes the music more relevant to the listeners, etc. I wish I could convey the joy to an audience member who is not musically inclined what it feels like to learn a piece, and play it especially well, and play it within a group of people.