{"id":1381,"date":"2012-03-24T08:34:12","date_gmt":"2012-03-24T12:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/?p=1381"},"modified":"2012-03-24T08:34:12","modified_gmt":"2012-03-24T12:34:12","slug":"really-not-about-el-sistema","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2012\/03\/really-not-about-el-sistema\/","title":{"rendered":"*Really* Not about El Sistema"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This is just a very quick follow-up. My recent post, <a title=\"Not (Exactly) about El Sistema\" href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2012\/03\/not-el-sistema\/\" target=\"_blank\">Not (Exactly) about El Sistema<\/a>, has been one of my most-commented-upon. I should have realized that using El Sistema (in particular) to bring up an issue that really was not about that program specifically could be a tactical error. Most comments were, understandably, about El Sistema in particular. For that I am glad. It is a wonderful program from which there are many lessons to be learned. So, for the record, let me repeat that I am <em>very<\/em> enthusiastic about El Sistema as a program and as a model. I also <em>do<\/em> understand a few things about globalization and the inter-permeability of cultures. At the same time, I have a nagging concern that it is European- and U.S.-rooted culture that in many (most?) cases is &#8220;winning&#8221; the globalization game, due largely to media and merchandising forces. (The fact to which one commenter alluded, that Indians and Pakistanis quickly took up and mastered soccer and cricket during and after British colonization, does not make this a moot issue.) But none of this is about El Sistema.<\/p>\n<p>The real intent of my original post was to raise a principle that is important for those who work in the arts and community engagement. I don&#8217;t want to lose sight of it as a result of the discussions about El Sistema in particular. The issue is the need for awareness of and respect for cultural differences. Those of us steeped in a dominant culture are seldom aware of the fact that we are products of it. It is easy to take our cultural heritage as a given and look at others as &#8220;foreign.&#8221; I am simply advocating, for those whose heritage is rooted in the Western tradition, to adopt a habit of self-examination in developing relationships with peoples and cultural expressions outsider our native heritage. Another way of thinking about this is as &#8220;cultural humility&#8221;: simply Cultural Awareness 101.<\/p>\n<p>Now, go make the world a better place with art.<\/p>\n<p>Engage!<\/p>\n<p>Doug<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is just a very quick follow-up. My recent post, Not (Exactly) about El Sistema, has been one of my most-commented-upon. I should have realized that using El Sistema (in particular) to bring up an issue that really was not about that program specifically could be a tactical error. Most comments were, understandably, about El [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-principles","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-mh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}