"In 2005, the RAND Corporation released a study commissioned by the Wallace Foundation titled, "Gifts of the Muse: Reframing the Debate about the Benefits of the Arts." What the study revealed was shocking to many arts advocacy groups: that there really was not enough evidence, empirical data or solid research to measure the benefits of the arts.
Instrumental vs. intrinsic value
The study cites specific conceptual and methodological limitations like "weakness in empirical methods," "absence of specificity," and "failure to consider opportunity costs" as primary factors that limited the quality of previous empirical research about the "instrumental" benefits of the arts — particularly economic growth, improved academic performance and pro-social behavior among the young.
The authors challenge us to recognize that the intrinsic benefits — captivation, pleasure, expanded capacity for empathy, cognitive growth, creation of social bonds and the expression of communal meaning — are the primary reason that people are drawn to the arts. They argue that these intrinsic values are the missing link in the persistent struggle to measure worth.
The widely held view that these benefits are primarily private is reconsidered; instead, it is stated, that these benefits "can enhance individual capacities and community cohesiveness, both of which benefit the public sphere," particularly when art expresses the collective values of a community.
According to the study, "Intrinsic benefits accrue to the public sphere when works of art convey what whole communities of people yearn to express. Examples of what can produce these benefits are art that commemorates events significant to a nations' history of a community's identity, art that provides a voice to communities the culture at large has largely ignored and art that critiques the culture for the express purpose of changing people's views."
Lexington Art League responds
Motivated both by this study and opportunities provided by the Kentucky Arts Council (KAC) in 2005, the Lexington Art League (LAL) decided to start collecting its own evidence. According to Executive Director Allison Kaiser, "As part of the arts council's 'START Collecting Evidence' grant application requirements, LAL had to first build our list of authorizers, then determine who was at our 'red-hot center,' and, in our case, it was the artists."
What the Lexington Art League determined after examining its relationship with the artist was threefold: the LAL's programming was too narrow and traditional; a growing group of emerging artists, specifically those working in contemporary and conceptual visual arts, were not participating; and what the artists needed was a stage to develop a strong collective voice if their efforts were to affect the quality of life in Central Kentucky.
"The Lexington Art League's vision for the role of the visual arts in our community begins with the artist," Kaiser said. "We will continue to work to connect more deeply with our local and regional artists in order to engage the larger community, in a more meaningful way, with issues that are relevant to our collective life as a region and to contemporary society as a whole."
GeneratioNext
On May 25, the art league will open the stage to emerging artists' voices, and 18 Kentucky artists will get the chance to speak up in an exhibition titled GeneratioNext. The curators for this exhibit, Kate Sprengnether, Frank Close and Benjamin Withers, set out to identify new visual art voices and perspectives emerging in Kentucky.
Among the artists selected are Willard Tucker, whose work represents the economic and environmental conditions in rural Kentucky without the nostalgic desire to reclaim a point of origin or going back to nature; Christina Bogdanov, whose works deal with the duality of a natural/matriarchal and technology/modern society; and Ben Fryman, whose work, according to his artist's statement, "is intended to explore the symbolic stereotypes, history and hidden aesthetics" of the hillbilly subculture.
GeneratioNext spotlights emerging artists in the hopes that their works might shed some light on the future of the arts in Kentucky and generate consciousness on the larger public stage.
The exhibition will run through July 1, and Vice Mayor Jim Gray will be the featured speaker on Thursday, June 14, at Artalk. The exchange will be held at the Loudoun House and will begin at 7 p.m. Artalk is a regularly scheduled opportunity for the "art inclined" to get together and discuss art.
According to Vice Mayor Gray, "We have an opportunity in Lexington to create an environment that supports our young and emerging artists, to encourage the sometimes radical context of their work and the discussions that emerge from creative and inventive minds. Embracing and encouraging this creativity is also mission-critical in today's knowledge economy. This individual creative talent affects the larger community as the issues raised by these young artists will shape tomorrow's history."
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