One of the statements that was made at yesterday's "Rally for the Arts in Pennsylvania" was that Art is the Heart of Pennsylvania (or of any community, by extension) though one could argue it is also (if not more importantly) the soul.
Signs reading "You Can't Spell SMART without ART" (or for that matter, HEART) focused on the importance of young people's exposure to the arts, whether it's active (as students taking lessons to become performers whether they become professional artists or not) or passive (as an audience to experience a response to that art).
Perhaps I'm mistaken, but I think we're talking about only $14M being cut from the budget to support all of the arts across the whole state. In terms of money spent on various projects of any kind, that doesn't seem like a lot of money, that $14M is going to close a gap measured in B's.
Later, I'll write more about the rally itself, but I found this today and wanted to share it with you. It's a talk from the founder of "El Sistema," the much talked-about music program in Venezuela. The second clip is a performance by one of the country's youth orchestras (not the more famous, more widely traveled Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra) with a talk by conductor Gustavo Dudamel, perhaps the hottest figure in today's music world, at 25 the in-coming music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and himself a product of El Sistema.
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What would have happened to all these children if the government of Venezuela, long before the present administration there, had said "Art is a luxury and funding for it is not important: we will cut it from the Budget"?
- Dr. Dick
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