Blog 31: Endangered Art

Due: Saturday, Dec. 7 by Midnight

The TedTalk will be relevant to your responses in this week's blog, so you will want to watch it. It's about 13 minutes long.


We have been talking a lot about the purpose, the value, and the motivation of art. What we haven't talked much about yet is, while human beings are perhaps the only beings driven to create in the arts, we are also capable of destroying these endeavors. To many, the arts and aesthetics are seen as frivolous, wasteful of time and energy, and nothing but entertainment. Ben Cameron (in the TedTalk) references the internet as one potential thing that stands in the way of people accessing the live performing arts, while others could argue that the internet provides a way for more people to be exposed to the performing arts.Your answer will come in two parts:

Choose one of these:

1. The arts (performing arts, industrial arts, visual arts, etc) are constantly being threatened as a way to cut budgets in public schools (K-12). Advocates say that students can access the arts in their communities and that school time should be used strictly for core academic subjects. Make a case for or against this movement.

2. Sixty years ago, a trip to an art gallery, a ballet, a symphony, a play/musical/opera, or being given a classic book of poetry or literature was considered a decadence (or at least a great move on a date!). While Ben Cameron says that the live performing arts are competing with the internet, discuss other 'roadblocks' that you see standing between the average 15-25 year old and their exposure to art (of any kind). Or perhaps you don't see much of a decline--if so, what (perhaps) could cause one?

AND Everyone respond to this:

What has been your best experience in your life thus far with being a purveyor (audience member) of performing arts? Perhaps you visited a big city where you saw a world famous production; perhaps you sat in a church somewhere and listened to Handel's Messiah one Christmas; perhaps you saw a mime performing in Paris, or maybe a play at our very own MCT that moved you). Why was this experience memorable? Do you see yourself as an adult who seeks out experiences in the performing arts?