PAR 460 assignment 8

skipping around alittle now, we were faced with the question: How can the arts revitalize urban areas and why this matters.

How can the arts revitalize urban areas? And how is this important? Hmm, well first off it would give kids somewhere safe to go, assuming this would happen at a community center type of facility. And being in a community center it could give people the feeling of family, since most urban areas are broken homes.
It could also used as an outlet for aggression, depression, and happiness. People could dance while other play music. Plays could be presented that are written by community members. All of these would promote creativity in people who wouldn’t necessarily think they can do anything with their lives.
Having never lived in an urban area, I don’t know how widely it is applied but from what I’ve seen on television, many people in these settings are lead to believe they live in a rut and they are destined for nothing. Having somewhere to go and get their thoughts and emotions out in the form of music, dance, or acting would help people feel better; those who performed and those who were to watch.
It’s very important for people to be able to express themselves, it’s unhealthy to keep everything bottled up inside. This would just lead to violence and other unacceptable acts. It would also lead to the deterioration of their health. Stress can cause many chronic medical problems and many people in these situations are either without medical assistance or on state medical assistance which in turn would raise costs of taxes for those not on the program.
Looking at pop culture today, how many hip-hop or R&B artists came from urban neighborhoods: 50cent, Eminem, Sean “Puffy” Combs, T.I., Lauryn Hill, Missy Elliot, Eve, Aaliyah, and Alicia Keys to name a few. Alicia Keys is even a classical trained pianist. But, see what they have become today, I’m sure they all had somewhere to turn to get their thoughts out back in their hometowns.
Many of these artists have even given back to the communities, T.I., for example as a form of community service linked to his recent arrest attempted to change 7 teenagers lives before his march sentencing of gun charges, this was broadcast internationally on MTV’s "T.I.'s Road to Redemption".
You can even look at suburban areas; there are community centers and organizations all over. And these communities don’t have the problems there are in urban areas, perhaps we need to follow the example and try to help these people instead of just looking down on them.
So, yeah, I’d say it’s very important to set up arts revitalization in urban areas, for the good of not just those communities, but for the good of everyone on the planet.

PAR 460 assignment 5

Who would have known there were so many parts to the distribution of music? The first diagram on page 52 was incredible; to get from creator to audience can take as many as 4 steps?

The book speculates about the connection between what an organization actually does and “making art”, plus defining what would be considered part of the organization. The idea of distributors being included as “arts organizations” is kind of conflicting. Yes they are helping with the spread of art, but they are not actually participating in the process of making art. I think this is a question best answered by ones personal opinion, some might say yes they are a part of the arts organizations, while others may disagree.

I do not understand how we can still be having problems gathering accurate data when we have been collecting it since 1977. If it is difficult to get precise information from large employers, why have we not adjusted our screening process so we can collect the data properly? As well as not being able to collect data from “arts activities of organizations embedded within larger non-arts organizations such as universities and local governments” (pg 56). This sounds ridiculous. Does the university not have records of who is enrolled in which activities? I bet sports organizations do not have these problems. With educational institutions being one of the most common type of presenter for art, why is it we cannot get accurate data?

It is somewhat appalling that over the past 42 years, we have yet to come up with a successful way of measuring data; especially since we currently have three or four different entities that attempt to collect this data, but without success because of improperly collected data; therefore a lot is missed because the questions are not answered properly.

I find it difficult to believe that most recorded arts organizations are for-profit when we do not have sufficient data to support this conclusion, since our information on non-profits is lacking a significant amount of information. But I can believe that the concentration of the industry is higher in the recorded arts.

The recorded arts are just as important as live performances; we can take video and audio recordings of the live performance and distribute it. This way, not only does the live audience experience the performance, but those who could not attend, for whatever reason, have the opportunity to hear the performance. The performance can also be reproduced in a studio and distributed as a more “professional” copy of the original performance, which many find pleasing as there are no errors present on the studio recording that you might hear on a recording of a live performance.

It is a shame that nonprofit groups are growing smaller and smaller. Being a member of a non-profit orchestra, I know the joys of sharing classical music as an art and not having to worry about how many CDs we sold. We perform in order to enrich the lives of our audience members and in turn they make donations so that we might continue to enrich their lives and the lives of other community members.

I have been a member of three different nonprofit orchestras, Eastern Connecticut Symphony Youth Orchestra, the Thames Valley Orchestra, and the Willimantic Orchestra, and I do thoroughly enjoy it. I can see myself continuing to be a community orchestra member wherever my life might take me. It is a dying art form that needs to be embraced.

PAR 460 assignment 4

Chapter five made me think about my particular journey through the performing arts, and where my journey will continue to take me.

I have performed in many different places, seen shows in many different halls, played music from all periods of music, played multiple instruments, and had a blast every single step of the way. I have met many incredible people, and played alongside some wonderful musicians.

I have tried my hand at creating, but I seem to better at just learning about a particular aspect than attempting to compose something. I cannot categorize myself as a professional or an amateur. I may not be making a living in performing arts (at least not yet), I’m sure to a young elementary school student I might seem to be a professional.

It is difficult to define a professional from an amateur. Is it based on skill, success, and self worth? And is success defined as how much money I make, or how many concerts I perform, how many songs I compose?

Why must we always talk about things in terms of money? Is there more to living than cash?

Perhaps the small number of musicians is why it does not seem an ideal career path. But if I’m happy shouldn’t that be all that matters?

There are so many different ways you can make art your career. Music teacher, record producer, advertising, graphic design, choreographer, composer, jingle writer, lighting specialist; these are all art related jobs anyone could use to build a career.

Although we see the numbers are small, they’re still growing making this a dog eat dog industry. There are only so many positions available.

I just hope that I can finish school and move on to spread my love of music to those who may not see eye to eye with me, but at least convince them there is a chance they might like it too.

PAR 460 assignment 3

The introductory to chapter four highlights the main questions and ideas it will cover: What does the demand of the performing arts look like now? How has that demand been changing? And what issues are these changes likely to pose for the future?

Obviously, number one is public involvement. Without the community to support organizations by attending shows/concerts/gallery viewings, without their donations of time, effort, and money, these organizations would fall apart. The more spread of these people’s commitment the better. Helping multiple organizations will not only help the organizations, but increase their fluency in all aspects of art.

Not all involvement has to be hands on, such as playing within an organization, or helping to plan performances. Others may simply attend the concert, listen to a recording, or watch the performance being broadcast on television. These are all different levels of participation. Any participation at all is an enormous help.

Even within these levels there are sublevels. One might not necessarily plan an event, but they might decide who will provide what refreshments, or where to order printings of the program. Some do more than others, and those that soar above and beyond the rest deserve a little recognition now and then.

Every person does have a mind of their own, and a life of their own. So it is understandable that someone’s participation may change, depending on the content of the upcoming event, when the event is, if there is an emergency or medical obligation.

The book uses two different types of data to make their analysis; survey data, and aggregate attendance data. Since everyone is different, all data must be collected and taken into account so a thorough investigation of people’s participation, commitment, and interest can be taken into account when planning future events.

Being a community orchestra, Willimantic has a number of adult members, who for whatever reason may not be able to attend an upcoming concert. This could be due to pregnancy, surgery, family commitments, accidents, any number of things. So for instance, we are missing a few cellos, our director might not play that cello concerto, and he would have to hold off until we have the numbers to really provide an excellent performance of a piece.

It is interesting to look at the graph in the book that illustrates the different levels of participation in the arts, divided by discipline. Media is always right on top of everything and has a high level of participation, while actually doing an activity is minimal, even to those just attending. However, ballet is the outlier here with little to no media involvement.

It comes as no surprise that Jazz, Classical, and Visual Arts (such as painting/sculpting/photography) are among the most widely spread via media. Media itself is a form of visual art, which could be why the number on the graph is so high.

The education as a Correlate of attendance graph does confuse me a little. It looks as though doing has a very low turnout, while attending increases as someone education level raises. Media, however, is highly involved throughout someone’s entire education and even beyond it.

Page 25 of our textbook asks: Why do people participate in the arts? Why do they choose to become involved in different ways? And why do they choose specific art forms of disciplines? I think the answer to all of these depend on what makes an individual happy. Someone may enjoy painting more than playing the trombone, and vice versa. We are all human, and we all have different thoughts, ideas, and feelings when it comes to the arts. Some people may not have an artistic bone in their body, but somebody has to do sports, I say.

PAR 460 assignment 2

Being a citizen of a technological age we currently live in, the possibilities of expansion in the performing arts are endless. Now, music can be shared with everyone, not just those privileged individuals, and all music can be shared not just “high art”.

Although the Willimantic orchestra is generally described as a classical chamber orchestra, the possibility of hip, new music is always available. This coming concert we will be performing works from Andrew Lloyd Weber’s “Phantom of the Opera”, Rogers and Hammerstein, Georges Bizet’s “Carmen”, and Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story”. Although we are a classical orchestra, we are going to show our patrons how classical music is not just Bach and Beethoven.

As numbers in community performing groups are declining, it is forcing the number OF community performing groups to decline. And yet, somehow these “cookie cutter” pop sensations are making a breakthrough. None of which have substance to their music, nor do they even write it themselves. They have a team of “writers” in a studio who push buttons, layer some preexisting drum and beat tracks and, boom! Call it a song.

It reminds me of the scene in “The Goonies”, where they have to play the bone organ, and the girl performing says she does not know if the note she has to play is a B flat or an A sharp. It is a very negligible instance of ignorance in the movie but one that irritates me, nonetheless.

If only we could go back to when artistic music was in a revival. “This reversal of the long-standing opposition to public support of the arts was triggered by a combination of factors, including a desire to demonstrate to the world the value of US culture” (pg 13).

If we utilized the new methods of funding, such as leveraged investments, establishing new regional institutions to spread past New York and other metropolitan areas and to establish more conservatories and visual arts schools, as the book outlines on page 13.

I know that in our area there is a magnet school on main street Willimantic, and a magnet school on University of Hartford: Hartt School of Music’s campus. But aside from those two I couldn’t tell you were there may be more. I have a friend who attends Boston Conservatory, but it is a very small school of approximately 700 students.

When I was going through my primary education, I flip flopped a lot about whether or not to go to a real performing arts school, like Julliard or Berkley, but the audition process scared the bejibbers out of me. I ended up applying here at eastern as a mathematics major, only to change from that to my real passion of music, halfway through my third year. Although I did not have to audition, I know that I will have to for graduate studies, and I am not sure whether I can personally handle that or not.

I can say that the people I have met along the way have changed my life more than any of them will ever know. As a Math major, you generally interact with the same type of people. Very cut and dry personalities. But musicians come from all walks of life, are interested in everything under the sun. I have met people who build their own electronic instruments, a man from Uganda, vocalists, guitarists. People can even come in from nothing and take an introductory course and fall in love.

The wonders of music are endless. Music is its own language, and that language is universal. Not all noise is music, but some see it that. Music is organized noise. And I absolutely love this definition of music. I hope to be someone who can carry on musical educations of children all over. To spread music is to spread joy.

PAR 460 assignment 1

From what I have read within the first two chapters of our text book, it seems as though it will be discussing more the business aspect to performing arts. Discussing the differences between profit and non-profit organizations, the struggle of these organizations, and how we might possibly relieve their struggles.

I can honestly say that it is not an aspect of the performing arts I think about much. Although I am a member of the Willimantic Orchestra (or Willi Phili as we like to call it) my dues are covered through my ECSU tuition. I cannot imagine being the treasurer for our organization. Attempting to collect dues and finding a way to fund our music rentals does not seem like a walk in the park to me. In an effort to cut back on cost, we do provide our own refreshments for intermission, where there is a donation box, but I do not know exactly how many people are actually making a contribution to our program. Volunteers can only sustain us for so long. However, I would not be surprised if those who did not contribute would be among the first people to complain if the organization were to cease to exist.

An approach to helping organizations like our own Willi Phili, the increase in elementary level music is very essential. The earlier they start the better, I think. Growing up performing, there is usually a higher turnout of adult classical musicians than say someone who picks up an instrument for the first time in high school.

I wonder if the band is run the same way. Or is the band a school organization that community members allowed to join? Do they have a real budget, provided and paid for by the university? If this is the case, why did this happen? What makes the band so different from the Willimantic Orchestra? Can this, or will this be changed in the future?

Last year, the university decided to bring the conductor/director of the orchestra on board as an adjunct professor, giving him a small budget. Does the band get a bigger budget? Is much of how the organizations are run based on the state of today’s economy?

What qualities make art “high art”? When did it become to use “popular music” only as a business venture, a way to make money? Almost exploiting people’s natural talents, and sometimes not as natural as we have witnessed from pop star’s live performances.

With all the branches of music, performing, media, visual, and literary, how can we melt them all together and use them to promote small organizations such as the Willimantic Orchestra? Or can we only market “popular music” and be successful?

What can really be done to change how the performing arts are shared, “High art” and all? Every little bit counts, and I do not think those with the ability are working hard enough.

How can we get an accurate analysis when most of the information needed to answer these, and many more questions, does not actually exist?