"This past October, I attended a "biennale," which is an Italian term that describes an event that takes place every other year. It was the 52nd Venice Biennale, an international contemporary showcase of cutting edge trends, movements, schools and personalities of artistic research.
This year, and for the first time in the history of this venerable event, the exhibition was organized by an American, Richard Storr. Think with the Senses - Feel with the Mind: Art in the Present Tense was the result of his look at rapidly developing artistic languages and trends emerging on all five continents. Over 76 countries were represented throughout the cultural hub of Venice, Italy. Why then did all of my journal entries reference a longing to be back in Lexington?
Artist chosen to represent the United States
It was only by coincidence that the artist chosen to represent the United States of America had me continually drawing parallels to the current state of the arts here at home, particularly as the arts relate to the economic revitalization of our downtown.
Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1957-1996) is known for his investigations into audience participation. His artwork, often rigorously conceptual, engages the audience in such a way that, without them, the work itself has no meaning. Within the four sterile walls of the Palladian-style U.S. Pavilion, we were invited to take from an endless stack of oversize copies carefully situated in the middle of the gallery floor.
People carried that oversize work out of the gallery; some rolled it with great care and seriousness, others laughed about it, some folded it unwillingly, wrinkled it accidentally, dog-eared it unknowingly, bent it, shoved it, loved it and shared it. But as they all moved in both harmonious and disparate realms with their own meanings in play, they were bound together by this single act.
In Lexington, a similar kinship seemed to be growing around the arts. Over 50 percent of the ideas submitted for Knight Foundation's World Equestrian Legacy Initiative were arts related, a citizen's task force to study downtown arts and entertainment issues was formed, and a new level of excitement was growing on Manchester Street.
Knight Foundation Legacy Projects Workshop
One of the first events I attended on my return was the second community workshop hosted by the Knight Foundation, designed to evaluate more than 100 submissions for legacy projects.
During this workshop, I sat with leaders from LexArts, the Lexington Art League, the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra, and the University of Kentucky Art Museum and Art Department and discussed the various project ideas that would further the development of our downtown as an arts destination.
In my opinion, two very interesting things emerged from those conversations and made me understand more fully what I had experienced at the Venice Biennale.
First and foremost, everyone acknowledged that the current state of the arts in Lexington is inhibited by the fact that most of the arts organizations exist as very separate and distinct entities — operating, if you will, in very dissonant realms.
The solution, it seemed, was outlined in a number of the projects, all of which held greater participation at the center, as described in phrases like "break down the single project owner mode," "inclusive collaborations," and "encouraging a new generation of arts participants and patrons."
Secondly, during a Q&A session to identify what projects might have a lasting legacy for Lexington, someone in the back of the room (and I don't think it was Gonzalez-Torres) recognized that it is was the very workshop itself and our participation in it that would, in turn, leave behind the greatest legacy.
Downtown Arts and Entertainment Task Force
Having learned about the formation of this task force via e-mail while I was too far away to engage, I found myself really frustrated. So, on the plane, I set my mind on the various subcommittees and considered to which I might best contribute. When I woke, back in Lexington, I met Theo Edmonds over the phone.
Theo is the head of the Marketing/Outreach Subcommittee for the task force. He is also, in his own words, "a poet, a painter, a sponge, a theater major from Transylvania University, a pied piper, a pioneer, a renaissance hillbilly man, and a rebel prophet." I wanted to go back to sleep. Instead, I decided to seek consultation.
When asked for his take on Theo Edmonds and his recent contributions to a broader participation in the arts and in particular his efforts to revitalize Manchester Street, the President and CEO of LexArts replied, "No comment."
Vice-mayor Jim Gray, who has been involved with this citizen's task force from its inception, responded, "Every advance in history, at every civic, cultural, and social level, whether a big deal or not in hindsight, is preceded by radicals, often theatrical objectors to the current condition ... those who challenge today's comfort zones, and they often don't do it in a 'refined' way, or by accepted convention."
So here comes Theo from almost nowhere — appearing on the local stage — and seems to be the man for this moment.
Near the end of October, Theo held a Town Hall meeting at 903 Manchester, where he not only facilitated greater participation in the arts, but also called on each of us to engage in a very important process — the formation of a more harmonious realm.
That night after the meeting, I recalled that for Storr, Think with the Senses-Feel with the Mind was predicated on one thing: that art is the means by which humans are made aware of their whole being. In the exhibition catalogue he states, "To make sense of things in a given moment or circumstance is to grasp their full complexity intellectually, emotionally, and perceptually. That effort does not promise that our grasp will hold for long, or even much more than the instant in which we awaken to the fact that such fleeting powers of concentration and transformation are ours."
Before going to sleep, I unrolled some oversize copies that Theo had given me — marketing materials or something, and found the following phrase: "The completeness of the 'we' is found within the wholeness of the 'me'." I carefully smoothed out the wrinkles, noticed the dog-eared edges and smiled. I had never been so happy to be home.
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