{"id":653,"date":"2005-03-14T08:44:48","date_gmt":"2005-03-14T16:44:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/2005\/03\/the_education_reflex\/"},"modified":"2005-03-14T08:44:48","modified_gmt":"2005-03-14T16:44:48","slug":"the_education_reflex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/the_education_reflex.php","title":{"rendered":"The education reflex"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I had a blast last week participating in the special ArtsJournal collaborative weblog asking &#8216;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/muse\/\">is there a better case to be made for the arts?<\/a>&#8216; There was so much depth and context to the entries and the comments, I don&#8217;t need to dwell on it here.<\/p>\n<p>\nBut one recurring theme kept striking me throughout: our immediate, seemingly reflexive response to suggest education in the structure and form of art disciplines as a primary key to engaging audiences. The general assumption was captured in one of The Wallace Foundation&#8217;s bullet-point conclusions in a press release:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i><br \/>\nEncourage arts organizations to provide rewarding experiences that connect with audiences and educate them to appreciate the arts.<br \/>\n<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\nThat last phrase, &#8216;educate them to appreciate the arts,&#8217; sounds so natural, so obvious, that we often let it slip by without raising the question: is functional knowledge of an art discipline the <i>primary<\/i> and <i>most relevant<\/i> variable of meaning and connection? Do I have to know how about Brecht&#8217;s &#8216;fourth wall&#8217; to feel connected in the interplay of drama and audience? Do I need to know about a recapitulation to be enthralled by a symphonic phrase?<\/p>\n<p>\nCertainly, my experience with the art form will change as I learn about what makes it work, but is that knowledge <i>really<\/i> the key to my passion for it?<\/p>\n<p>\nI&#8217;d suggest that the deeper answer to engaging audiences is not just in teaching, but in learning&#8230;not just in talking, but in listening. Then we can all discover &#8212; audience, artist, arts organization &#8212; what meaning we make together, rather than one side defining the terms for everyone.<\/p>\n<p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I had a blast last week participating in the special ArtsJournal collaborative weblog asking &#8216;is there a better case to be made for the arts?&#8216; There was so much depth and context to the entries and the comments, I don&#8217;t need to dwell on it here. But one recurring theme kept striking me throughout: our [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-653","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}