{"id":768,"date":"2011-11-19T11:46:35","date_gmt":"2011-11-19T16:46:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/?p=768"},"modified":"2011-11-19T11:50:36","modified_gmt":"2011-11-19T16:50:36","slug":"a-night-at-the-opera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2011\/11\/a-night-at-the-opera\/","title":{"rendered":"A Night at the Opera"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"For some of you the title of this post is going to be a “bait and switch” experience. This is not about opera but about a theatre piece at the recent Grantmakers in the Arts conference. (I am indebted to my friend Barbara Schaffer Bacon’s post on ArtsBlog, Too Progressive, Too Elite: Public Value and the Paradox of the Arts<\/a>, for first pointing me to the video of it: A Night at the Opera<\/a> by Tommer Peterson and KJ Sanchez.) Based on interviews with arts funders, artists, arts managers, and (a few) politicians, A Night at the Opera addresses two basic questions. Are the arts elitist? and Are the arts leftist propaganda? (Well “leftist propaganda” is not the word they used. They said “progressive” to be less confrontational, I’m sure.)<\/p>\n

Simple questions, right? Of course not. It depends on what you mean by “the arts,” more than your definitions of elitist or leftist propaganda. Let me explain. When discussing\u00a0 with my students opinion polls used to bolster arguments for governmental support of the arts, I point out that (in some cases) the large percentage of people who say they participate in the arts (thought of as a large umbrella, including quilt making and virtually any form of creative activity) is used to support public funding of “the arts” (a small umbrella meaning the symphony and the museum). I call this cultural bait and switch. (Ah, here is a theme to this post.)<\/p>\n

So, if we mean cultural expression (any culture) of a community (or subset), then no, the arts are not elitist.\u00a0 They are a fundamental part of the fabric of everyone’s life. They are populist in the full sense of the word. If, however, we mean “the arts establishment,” (Eurocentric, etc., etc.) then yes, of course they are. Let’s be clear which we are talking about before we start answering the question.<\/p>\n

In discussing elitism, A Night at the Opera also addresses the “excellence” question, one that I’ve already taken on at least twice here (Quality and Community<\/a>, Quality and Community-2<\/a>). A particularly telling remark came from an interviewee of color who observed that white artists could concern themselves solely with “excellence” but artists of color are always seen as focusing on race or ethnicity when they work from their experience. It’s a privilege, as a product of majority culture, not to have to think about (or be judged on) issues of cultural background.<\/p>\n

The “leftist” question was also examined in some detail. One of my favorite lines was “Sing me a conservative protest song.” But again, the point would be, what art are we considering? There is much art that supports the status quo. I’m in debt to one of my students for pointing out that majority culture sees advocacy for change (opposition to the status quo) as political while being blind to the political nature of reinforcement of the “norm.” [You know who you are, Megan Harrison.] Majority culture does not see work that takes “what is” as an unexamined truth as political, but to someone from outside that culture the status quo can be a reactionary drain on their humanity. There was a nice moment in the video where the “heteronormative marriages” (not a phrase I get to use often) in A Midsummer Night’s Dream<\/em> were pointed out.<\/p>\n

Another of my favorite lines was “Harlem is a long way from my home.” This came from a woman who learned a valuable lesson about the role of cultural norms even in such simple things as expectations regarding audience response and decorum at theatrical events. It’s always helpful to examine our assumptions about appropriateness when working with people from other cultures.<\/p>\n

A Night at the Opera is worth a view. It is, on the whole, a remarkable piece of self-reflection in a relatively narrow industry. My hat is off to those who sponsored the project and to those who created and presented it.<\/p>\n

——————-<\/p>\n

On a semi-personal\u2013or perhaps logistical\u2013note, I have tumbled to the fact that we are about to enter the Holiday Season. Since most of you have better things to do than read multiple blogs during this season (and I have need to be paying attention to the homefront), I am going to limit myself to one post a week for a while. My guess is that, mostly, I’ll hit “Publish” on the weekend. We’ll see how that works out.<\/p>\n

To all of you who have been following these musings for the past few months, thanks and have a great set of Holidays.<\/p>\n

Engage!<\/p>\n

Doug<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For some of you the title of this post is going to be a “bait and switch” experience. This is not about opera but about a theatre piece at the recent Grantmakers in the Arts conference. (I am indebted to my friend Barbara Schaffer Bacon’s post on ArtsBlog, Too Progressive, Too Elite: Public Value and […]<\/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_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_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}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-768","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-overview","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-co","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1654,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2012\/06\/the-atlanta-opera\/","url_meta":{"origin":768,"position":0},"title":"The Atlanta Opera","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"June 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"EM's List Member Folk Tales and The Atlanta Opera [This post is by EM's List Editor\/Curator, Stephanie Moore] The Atlanta Opera has been a part of the arts and culture scene in Atlanta, Georgia since 1979. This year they commissioned their first opera, Rabbit Tales. A contemporary, one-hour children\u2019s opera,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "EM's List"","block_context":{"text":"EM's List","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/examples\/ems-list\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Atlanta.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4792,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2017\/01\/cry-of-the-heart\/","url_meta":{"origin":768,"position":1},"title":"Cry of the Heart","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"January 4, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"We can wish everyone loved us, but it's not helpful to blame them if they don't.","rel":"","context":"In "Principles"","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Scream-Contemporary.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":105,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2011\/08\/why\/","url_meta":{"origin":768,"position":2},"title":"Why?","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"August 4, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"First, thanks to everyone who bothered to click through to see the New Blog on the Block post. It's gratifying to know that there are people out there interested in this stuff. That said, the pressure is on to see whether anything sufficiently interesting can be said in Engaging Matters\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Overview"","block_context":{"text":"Overview","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/overview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Why.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2589,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2013\/04\/can-you-feel-the-love\/","url_meta":{"origin":768,"position":3},"title":"Can You Feel the Love?","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"April 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=R0Fpl67p5qk A while ago I ran into this video clip. (Forgive me, I can't remember where. Facebook I imagine.) In the midst of some fairly heavy-duty posts, I thought now might be a good time to share it. The original source for me was http:\/\/twentytwowords.com\/2013\/01\/11\/choir-of-old-men-break-out-in-song-while-hanging-out-at-tim-hortons\/, where we are told: After\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Examples"","block_context":{"text":"Examples","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/examples\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/R0Fpl67p5qk\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5931,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2020\/05\/what-comes-next-iii\/","url_meta":{"origin":768,"position":4},"title":"What Comes Next? III","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"May 18, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The viability of the nonprofit arts lies in becoming perceived as deeply valuable to many, many more people than is the case today. A pivot to engaging with new communities would be as timely as it is essential.","rel":"","context":"In "Overview"","block_context":{"text":"Overview","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/overview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Danger.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3007,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2013\/07\/two-tribes\/","url_meta":{"origin":768,"position":5},"title":"Two Tribes","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"July 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"While this post was inspired by the recent Americans for the Arts Conference in Pittsburgh, I'm not labeling it as AftA Thoughts like my other two because it's inspired by 1) a session I did not attend and 2) a post-conference gathering of NASAA's (National Assembly of State Arts Agencies)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Overview"","block_context":{"text":"Overview","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/overview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"CatDog","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/CatDog-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768","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=768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}