Narberth - Group Two

The Big Canvas - Oct. 6, 2008

There were nine people in our group: one man who is a retired school teacher from Friends Select, and eight women.  Four of the women are retired, one is an artist, one is an administrator with a philanthropic group. Some contention appeared over the issue of public funding for individual artists, with some feeling that it is necessary, and some feeling that it leads to mediocre art.

Key themes and points of consensus returned to the idea of bringing people together. “No matter what else we do for arts and culture, we should ….overcome the obstacles and use art as a means of accomplishing that.

Common ground:

• Better transportation to arts events, especially late at night, is needed.

• We need better communication about what is going on and where, especially Web-based, but with recognition of the fact that many people do not have access.

• Successful approaches will have both individual and community support. 

• It’s about broad connections:  demographic, generational, art disciplines, within the economy, business sector / arts.

Insights or action steps:

• The feeling that experiencing art together can bring people together was expressed in a couple of different ways, and quite poetically.

• Commercial media is detrimental to the arts, since so much emphasis is placed on sports.

• After 9/11, people felt the importance of art (for healing and expression of feelings) but that didn’t last very long.

• An approach that recognizes the worth of individual artists and expresses that to the community.

• Art education for children can be important later in life in many professions than that of being a professional artist.

• Early art experiences for children are very powerful.  One retired school teacher spoke passionately about the Opera Company of Philadelphia programs for students, and a woman described her outings to Philadelphia with her aunt (see next item).

• Part of the art experience in Philadelphia is the urban experience, just being out on the streets and walking around.

• People doing arts together makes the community better, with the example of the shops in downtown Narberth.

Quotes:

• The community is "so diverse, it is difficult to build consensus about what is of value.”

• The value of “art as a human right, transcendent, not instrumental.”

• Speaking of immigrants, “Art is a great way of getting people more comfortable with one another.”

Moderators: Harris Sokoloff and Kiki Bolender