Find The Others
"Now is not the time to abandon our can-do optimism, but to direct it toward priorities greater than world domination." -Douglas Rushkoff
What combination of elements must come together to form an artsy city or town, also known as a creative place where the arts and artists are important, well-funded, and on display? While I ask this generally, I think about it specifically.
We live in Bastrop, near Lockhart, Texas, and Lockhart is notably art-forward. There are prominent gallery spaces on the town square, an art house (with rooms for rent and an art bus), plus art exhibits in silos.
Lockhart also enjoys a lively food and beverage scene. It’s long been known as an epicenter of Texas barbecue, but there’s more going on than smoked meats. There’s New York-style pizza, a great coffee shop, craft cocktails, and fine dining.
Since relocating to the Austin area, we’ve gotten to know several of the outlying communities in addition to Bastrop and Lockhart, including Dripping Springs, Driftwood, Wimberley, Johnson City, San Marcos, Buda, Kyle, Leander, Liberty Hill, Georgetown, Taylor, Elgin, Smithville, La Grange, and Roundtop.
There are pockets of culture throughout Central Texas. I take a special interest in places where there’s a notable concentration of arts and culture, often indicated by the presence of breweries, wineries, distilleries, restaurants, art galleries, bookstores, record stores, coffee shops, and concert venues.
Small-town living needn’t be small-minded living, and when the town is full of welcoming people who make wonderful music, food, and art, I feel like I’m in the right place.
Find The Others
I recently read Team Human by Douglas Rushkof and I was impressed with his take on things and his offer of solutions to some of today’s most pressing societal problems. I also love his take on our intrinsic need for the arts.
Arts and culture give us a way to retrieve our lost ideals, actively connect to others, travel in time, communicate beyond words, and practice the hard work of participatory reality creation.
Some people support the arts because they sense it’s the right thing to do. In the above passage, Rushkoff explains why it’s the right thing to do.
Rushkoff ends his important book with a strong call to action: “Find the others.” He believes this is our best chance for survival. We are social creatures, and we need more connections with nature and physical spaces where we can be together and help each other learn, grow, and heal.
All the better if the physical spaces also advance arts and culture.
The Big Business of Art
The Art of Making It is a revealing documentary that gets to the heart of the New York art scene. Like any scene, it’s filled with characters.
One of the finer points made in the film is how one in five artists exhibiting at prominent New York galleries possess an MFA from Yale University. I don’t tend to think of MFA grads as part of an industrial pipeline, but it’s time to revise that thinking (and it’s time to discover and promote artists who are far outside this narrow corridor).
You Have Permission (To Become Accomplished)
You don't need anyone's permission to become an artist, writer, or entrepreneur. You do need the power of your own convictions, and an endless desire to connect with people through art and/or commerce. It also helps when you work consistently and without complaint.
In 1979, Toni Morrison said, "Writing has become almost a celebrity thing in the sense that people don't want to write; they want to be authors. And that's quite different." Yes, it is. Morrison says that writing, like carpentry, is “a job of craftsmanship. You approach it in a responsible, intelligent way.”
How do you approach something in a responsible, intelligent way? Morrison said, “The carpenter who is going to make a perfect chair has to know about wood, trees, the body, and how it looks when it is in a sitting position.” Likewise, a skilled writer understands people and knows a lot about the use of rhythm, story arcs, character development, dialogue, and so on.
Lagniappe
Lockhart artist Chad Rea spoke about simplicity at Creative Mornings in September.
What’s true in art is also true in advertising, film, music, and so on. To create high-impact communications that convert people into loyal customers, the same old stuff won’t do. [via Adpulp]
There’s an incredible new restaurant in East Austin. “Ezov celebrates the markets of Tel Aviv and the bounty of Texas.”
“While some brands may use storytelling to varying degrees of effectiveness, the majority of advertising contains no storytelling elements whatsoever.” [via Pinwheel Agency]
Just over 20 years ago, Susan Sontag wrote an essay for The New Yorker about seeing “other people’s pain” in war images.
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Like...preserving the world so the others have SOMETHING TO DOMINATE