Dear Reader — I am so happy to have a website for the Center for Rural Arts Development and Leadership Education, and to have a blog available to share my thoughts about the development of this project within the larger context of the arts in America.
As some of you probably know, for about four years now I have written the Theatre Ideas blog, where many of the ideas that led to CRADLE were developed. It was a rich, sometimes contentious place where I found myself spending a great deal of time responding to people who either felt insulted by my focus on small towns and rural areas over the large metropolitan areas, or who felt that such a focus was simply impractical. As a result, I had to make certain that my ideas were clear and well-reasoned, which is a good thing.
When the National Endowment for the arts gave me an “Access to Excellence” grant for the development of this project (then called the <100K Project), it set in motion a chain of events that I continue to find amazing. Over the past year, more and more people have become aware of the need for geographic diversity in the arts scene, and I have heard from many people who, until they heard about this project, had felt alone in their desire to focus their artistic lives outside of the metropolitan areas.
The fact is, however, that this movement has a long, long history in the US, and many counterparts throughout the rest of the world (Great Britain seems to be particularly supportive). People like Patrick Overton of the Front Porch Institute in Oregon and LaMoine MacLaughlin of the Northern Lakes Center for the Arts have been deeply involved for decades in promoting this movement. But they are rarely heard about.
Similarly, the history of this movement extends back over a century, with figures like Alfred Arvold, Baker Brownell, Percey MacKaye, Frederick Koch, Paul Green, and Robert Gard among many others having made tremendous contributions to the development of what Koch called a “people’s theatre” throughout the US.
It is my hope that part of this blog will serve to right these wrongs, and bring to the forefront the amazing work of these arts leaders.
In addition, I will use this blog as a place for advancing the ideas, approaches, and techniques of the CRADLE project, which I hope will eventually become national in scope. At a time when the focus on participatory arts is high, when thinkers are pointing to the upsurge in homegrown creativity spurred by the development of Web 2.0, and when arts leaders like Rocco Landesman and Ben Cameron are finally recognizing that the arts business model needs an overhaul, it seems like a tipping point may soon be reached.
For 75 years or more, there has been a process of devaluing our small and rural communities. People like H. L. Mencken and Sinclair Lewis were early examples of what became a mass media assualt on anything non-metropolitan. Television shows like Hee-Haw, and Green Acres, and The Beverly Hillbillies, and movies like Deliverance promoted an image of people who live in small and rural towns as being backward and stupid. This allowed the continued assault on family farms to continue apace, and encouraged the emigration of young people to the cities in what has come to be known as “rural brain drain.” All of this must be counteracted, and the arts is one way to accomplish that.
This is going to be a long path, one that I am going to need help walking. I know that many people read blogs and never comment or contact the writer. I hope that this blog will be different. If you want to be involved in some way with the CRADLE project, even if you just want to be kept in the loop, please don’t hesitate to email me — my email address is on the main page.
Also, I want to turn a spotlight on existing arts organization in small and rural communities, like the Northern Lakes Center for the Arts that is featured on the front page of this website at the moment. If you know of other arts organizations to which you think I should draw some attention, please let me know.
In the future, I am hoping to have a podcast available for CRADLE in which I interview arts leaders and share ideas in a way that is portable, so you can listen in your car or on your music device or phone. Keep a eye out for that.
Also, there is another blog attached to this website: TACT. This is the educational arm of CRADLE, and while it is primarily focused on theatre education, the ideas are easily applicable to the arts in general. Tom Loughlin and I will be sharing ideas and doing a podcast (eventually — soon, we hope) on a regular basis. So be sure to check both blogs out.
Finally, let me welcome you once again to CRADLE. I hope you will not only be a regular reader, but also a commenter and participant. I look forward to hearing from you in the future.
Scott,
Thanks so much for your important work. How can I help?
–mike.
Good start Scott. I’ll be curious to see how people respond to this. I think less of us reaching a tipping point than I do a “turning point.” We have lost our direction as a nation, as a culture. We think only the art of our great metropolitan centers has anything to offer about who we are as a people. Sandburg knew. Walt Witman knew. Vachel Lindsay knew. The stories they wrote about were the stories they witnessed – real people
expressing themselves where they were, how they were, why they were. It is an art whose power transcends place and time and speaks to every human being. It is the art of rural genius.
Keep up the good work. We may be few who promote the community/cultural development work but the people with whom we work are many – they are the citizens of this great country. Rembmer, the movement never dies and the dream lives on. . .Patrick
Mike — Thanks for the offer of your assistance. One thing you could do is pass along the name of any arts organizations in communities of 20,000 or less that you think ought to have a spotlight shown on them. I am also going to want to consult you about sustainability as the project continues.
Patrick — I am very happy that you like the website. “Turning point” is a good image — I am reminded of David Korten’s book “The Great Turning,” which describes the global issues that connect very deeply to this work. So much seems to point to an increased interest in local economies, but all too often this doesn’t include local entertainment. I read a really good essay, the title essay of a book called “Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache” by Keith Basso which I think you might find interesting…
I am very excited about this and I cannot wait to read more posts and advice from you guys on how to reach Americans in rural areas and encourage them to embrace theatre (and other arts).
x
Thanks, DIMA! Things have been a wee bit busy over the past couple weeks, so I haven’t rolled out as much new material as I had hoped. But it will pick up