The Place of Art

A bunch of interesting ideas from Bill Ivey, author and former head of the NEA, at Utne Reader. This one, in particular, has some resonance:

To start with, we need to have artists working on important nuts-and-bolts projects in their communities. If we’re talking about a new sewage disposal system, there should be an artist on that panel; there should be artists on school boards and neighborhood commissions, not to make the project look pretty, but to bring a unique approach. Artists are very good at metaphor, at seeing less-obvious links, at right-brain thinking that might not be linear but that gets you to a good result by making an imaginative leap.

The interview does touch on the Internet, but only briefly, and in the negatives -- i.e., not enough people have access. It would be interesting to hear Ivey's ideas on how the Internet may affect the role of the amateur, particularly when we are talking about entities such as YouTube and Flickr (not to mention LOLCats!). For example, there is a huge amount of stuff on YouTube, and it's not all political and music clips.

There are other possibilities. I have a friend who uses his blog as a showcase for new collages (see the "Blog O' Doug" link in the sidebar), and just about anyone can set up a personal website to show off their efforts.

At any rate, Ivey has some good things to stay about the state of artists and amateurs in this country and how we got here. Worth a read.