Art and About
Engaging with the creative force in everyday life

One form of creative expression about which I contemplate occasionally is graffiti. Mostly, I’m talking about the mural-like paintings that appear on large public structures, and not simple profanity or scribble scrabble. I believe that someone picking up a paint can and creating art is, at its essence, engaging the creative force in everyday life. However, the goody-goody in me can’t ignore that it is marring someone else’s space, someone who was not consulted in the artistic process, and therefore is disrespectful.

An article in Stanford Magazine has helped me to reconcile my emotional vs. intellectual response to graffiti. It tells the story of a woman in Philadelphia who has found a way to harness the creativity in tagging and channel the positive force behind the vandalism. It seems most cities could follow her lead. Have a read:Painting the Town

Here are a couple of people who get it, and when I read their prose, I shouted, “Hear, hear!”

Why California must fund music education

Ted Barone

Friday, July 31, 2009

The budget straits the state of California is facing are forcing our leaders to make a series of pernicious choices with legacy implications. One such choice is whether to fund music programming or refocus our funding priorities to the “core academics” (which happen to be those subjects tested in the statewide testing system).

I propose that we really don’t have a choice. We must fund music.

From the rhythm of our breathing as infants and the comforting lullabies that helped us sleep, to the cacophony of song and sound that envelops our modern everyday lives, music is an essential factor in what defines us as human. Music is a messenger that carries the history and collective experience of a people across time and space. Music also helps develop our brains in a way that will increase our ability to address and solve the extraordinary challenges that lie ahead of us as a people. The musical key is the proverbial key. In other words, the structure and organization of music is exactly what makes it so important for brain development. From the notes, chords are built. Chords determine keys, within which a skillful musician creates an experience, a message, a movement. Mix in rhythm and a new order of time emerges.

Music is all about creating neural networks and expanding the speed and capacity of the pathways that determine skill and memory. A key finding from brain research is that once a neural pathway is established, and the more that pathway is used, especially with passion and emotion, the greater the “bandwidth” and strength of the connection. Memory is improved, processing speed is increased, and better, more sophisticated decisions are a result.

Music is all about the structural connections that are used to support memory. It’s much easier to remember something that follows a familiar structure or pattern than something random and unfamiliar. These familiar structures serve as the foundation for building greater knowledge and even stronger and more extensive neural networks that support learning of all kinds.

In a world of extraordinary complexity, a premium is placed on one’s ability to quickly process massive amounts of wildly varying types of information. Musical instruction helps young people develop the brain capacity to process a lot of information and to organize and present it.

Playing music cultivates a mind that is prepared to process and make sense of the rush of information and problems that have come to characterize the 21st century. Music is a core subject. We can’t cut funding for music any more than we can cut funding for math.

Ted Barone is the principal of Albany High School.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/31/EDQ01910HK.DTL

This article appeared on page A – 15 of the San Francisco Chronicle
© 2009 Hearst Communications Inc.

A New Day of Joy!

Dear Members,

There are over 70 pieces in the Choristers Guild catalogue that contain the word “joy” in the title. Choristers Guild composer, Larry Schultz’s A New Day of Joy is among the newest, published as part of the Spring 2009 packet. Terry York’s text for this anthem posits, “This third day of sadness is a new day of joy!” I love that reassurance.

It is easy to name all of the things that seem to be going wrong around us. We seem to be living at a time when there is clear, palpable and global recognition that our planet is crossing a tipping point. No one can make the claim that they are not affected by or connected to social, ecnomic or ecological changes. Now more than ever, we may wonder, where is the joy?

As musicians, we are poised to be catalysts of change. Music, song, and singing connect us to a life-blood creativity that we must not forget. Most of us began this work because of the pleasure we felt making music. Have you stopped recently to consider the physical sensation of singing? It is a pleasurable experience! It is natural and in its purest form, it is easy!

We at Choristers Guild are here to inspire, nurture and support you as leaders in your diverse settings. Spend some time with our music and resources, take advantage of one of the director’s workshops this summer, and then dare to share the joy you experience.

Blessings,

David Hein, Choristers Guild, National Board President

Printed in The Chorister: Volume 61, Number 1, page 3

You can see by my stellar record in keeping up the Art and About “column” since it evolved from newspaper to Web, that I’m not as sparked to write in blog form as I was for the paper. I think I was fueled by the fact that at one time, all newspapers with my column were being delivered to homes and newsstands at the same time and potentially, being read within a certain timeframe. There was a sense of immediacy with the communication, real or imagined, and that helped my initiative. I may not having been writing breaking news stories, but there was an energy to being in print that made me feel like I was. (Ironic, I know, with the death of the dinosaur newspaper and the 24-hour news cycle on TV and the Web.)

I like that on the Web, my columns can live forever, and I never know when someone, somewhere in the world, will get introduced to Art and About. That’s why I leave everything here. I DON’T like knowing I have a stale posting. Since most of my writing isn’t timely, in reality, it is not any more stale than a book published years ago. But I know in the Internet world, someone could come to my site, see the latest posting date being months or years ago, and think that nobody cares about Art and About any more.

NOT TRUE.

I still care deeply about showing people how to recognize and appreciate the arts and creativity in the world around them on a daily basis. I continue to talk to my family and friends about it. My work with children’s choirs means I get to touch young lives weekly and teach them to keep their senses open to the Creative Spirit at work among us. In my personal laboratory at home, in which I keep my own children in Art and About petri dishes, I have seen that by showing children how to live creatively, they themselves live creatively. My children are 6 and 8 now, and they are very open and free creative thinkers, both in how they approach work and play, and in how they remark on creative encounters in the world. They never, ever think inside the box. They refresh my way of thinking on a daily basis.

If I feel compelled to write a blog column, I still will. In the meantime, there are people past and present encapsulating the Art and About way of life as well, if not better, than I do. If you need a fix, check them out.

Thank you for embracing and spreading the Art and About way of life!

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”
–Pablo Picasso

“Dance is your pulse, your heartbeat, your breathing. It’s the rhythm of your life. It’s the expression in time and movement, in happiness, joy, sadness and envy.”
~ Jaques D’ambroise

Jean Van’t Hul in North Carolina TOTALLY gets it! Check out her blog,

The Artful Parent

Here’s an interview with Jean on Creative Construction. Did I mention she TOTALLY GETS IT?

You must get your hands on a copy of “A Child’s Book of Art: Great Pictures, First Words” selected by Lucy Micklethwait. Here’s an excerpt from the inside cover:

Every child loves to look at pictures. If we give them paintings to look at, children begin to develop a lasting appreciation of art. Children look at paintings with freshness and honesty. They are eager to explore, find something new, and study the details. A Child’s Book of Art presents more than 100 pictures for children to delight in as they start to discover the fascinating world of art.

Each picture in this book is accompanied by a first word that can be the starting point for conversation. Scenes from everyday life around the world and throughout history offer endless opportunities for discussion.