The Back Track to Art

The question Tracy Davis posed in the midst of a local controversy over the Northfield Arts Guild’s decision to produce “Sex with Seven Women” —”What’s art for?”—has caused me much reflection over the past few days.

And since I’m closing in these days on the one-year anniversary of my start as director of this organization, I’ve also been pondering this question: What is the Northfield Arts Guild for?

How I’ve come to an initial answer to this question has been colored by comments offered by the originator of this controversy, Beth Benson, first in her original letter to the Northfield News:

We have turned into a society that seeks to be enticed rather than inspired. The things we watch on T.V., the books we read, even the plays we attend have been debased appealing to the lowest common denominator rather than our sense of decency. We seek entertainment that appeals to the lowest common denominator rather than learn to appreciate the finer things… You have an opportunity as a Guild to bring out the noble and beautiful in society. Why waste your time on highlighting the perversions of society? Use your organization to inspire greatness and not sink to a level that only intends to shock with debauchery… Help people to love beauty. Fulfill the calling of your guild to create and support the creation of beauty.

And also in comments she wrote afterward in the midst of discussion on Locally Grown:

…the reason I published [my letter] in the public is because it’s easy to dismiss one person’s opinion. It’s harder to dismiss a community’s opinion. You have a community arts guild. When you put the name Northfield in the front of your organization, you are representing a community. If you want to produce works that need warnings on content, the community has a right to respond. I also wanted to motivate the community to inspire you to do better which you will find in my original letter.

Why did I right [sic] this letter?… I am watching a community I love go down a slope into moral relativism where there is no foundation with right and wrong. It honestly grieves me. But this time it was different. I believe that the Northfield Arts Guild has a calling to be great… I wanted my very public letters to try to get community pressure to expect greatness from our Northfield Arts Guild.

If Beth Benson’s sentiments were our guide, the purpose of the Northfield Arts Guild would be to “inspire”, “to bring out the noble and the beautiful in society,” to be “great,” to “represent a community,” and to provide “moral instruction.”

While I think that these are great purposes for the arts in general, and arts presenters like the Arts Guild more specifically, to aspire to—and I also think the arts often do achieve these things—the reality of how an arts organization like the Arts Guild operates is much different from how Beth seems to perceive.

At the risk of getting too technical about this, the Northfield Arts Guild is a private, mission-driven, nonprofit arts organization that is supported by membership and charitable donations. This means a few important things. Foremost, the Guild is not a public institution in the way that, say, the Northfield Library or Northfield Public School District are. We receive no local public funds whatsoever—none from the city, none from the county—to do our business or to pay our bills. (*We do receive a bit of money from the state, and I’ll talk about that in a moment.)

In practical terms, therefore, the Northfield Arts Guild does not “represent” the community. (Having “Northfield” in our name is likely a condition of location, more than anything else.) While we strive to take into account community feedback about what we do, since the community does not pay for what we do its actual impact on our operations is negligible. Instead, we are much more accountable to the systems and structures that support us and help us pay our bills.

About half of our support comes from charitable sources—either foundations or individuals. These foundations or individuals generally determine their giving based on their affinity for our organization’s mission. As I wrote in my last post, the crux of our organization’s mission is to “stimulate artistic activity in the greater Northfield area” and to “organize, support, and promote the efforts of the community in expressing, developing and appreciating art.” You’ll notice this says nothing about “representing” the entire community. It says nothing about “inspiring” anyone, about providing “moral instruction,” about bringing out the “noble and the beautiful in society,” or about being “great.” It does speak toward supporting and developing arts in the community, which is partially why we’re producing “Sex with Seven Women,” a local production by local artists. (Another reason we’re producing it? To raise money to support our operations; we have to make up for that gap in public funding somehow!)

(*Note: The Minnesota State Arts Board gives the Arts Guild its only source of modest public money based not on how well the organization represents the community, morally instructs, etc, but instead based on criteria similar to our mission. By the way, you might like to know that the Minnesota State Arts Board’s mission reads: “The Minnesota State Arts Board is a state agency that stimulates and encourages the creation, performance, and appreciation of the arts in the state.” Sound familiar?)

If I were suddenly to suggest, as an administrator, that the Northfield Arts Guild should turn its attention to the moral instruction of our wayward society by jettisoning its longstanding commitment to art made by local, living, working artists and instead producing nothing but medieval morality plays, illuminated manuscripts, and madrigals, I’d likely—and rightfully—be run out on a rail by the members and supporters who pay the NAG’s bills (and my salary).

It’s actually quite encouraging and uplifting that members of the community should feel such a sense of ownership of the Northfield Arts Guild that they are compelled to issue challenges and directives about what the Guild produces and presents. It’s great that people like Beth Benson still care enough about art and the role it plays in Northfield to issue challenges and make protestations about productions and programs they personally are not inclined to appreciate.

However, the sense of ownership that a community has for its arts organization is worthless without its providing, in turn, practical support for that ownership. If you really want to have an influence on what the Art Guild does, how it operates, what it produces, then being a community member and making comments from the wings is not enough. Because our programs are produced by a dedicated (volunteer) membership who believe in and support our mission (through membership, donation, and volunteer hours), the Northfield Arts Guild listens to them carefully and actively seeks to produce what they want in art. Indeed, we have been growing increasingly committed in recent months to doing just that.

That all said, we are not an exclusive club. Any one can join. Indeed, community members can best affect the Northfield Arts Guild when they are active participants and supporters (members) of the Guild. And rest assured, we do need all the participation and support we can get! We welcome any and all participants and supporters from every segment of the community.

To go back to the original question, I guess in a real way that’s what the Northfield Arts Guild is for. It’s for everyone—every person in the community—who wants to participate in and support the arts. If you really want to have a practical hand in the Arts Guild’s programming into the future, perhaps you should consider becoming a member today.

I read with interest the comments of Beth Benson regarding the upcoming production of “Sex with Seven Women” at the NAG theater. Allow me to respond wearing my NAG director’s hat:

The mission of the Northfield Arts Guild is to “stimulate artistic activity in the greater Northfield area.” The Northfield Arts Guild strives to “organize, support, and promote the efforts of the community in expressing, developing and appreciating art.”

Part of the reason we decided to produce “Sex with Seven Women” was because it fit in well with our mission. It was written by a talented local writer, whose growing skill has been increasingly lauded by the community (Brendon Etter is the writer, among other things, of the popular Jesse Jane Jamboree productions). It is also being acted by local actors, developed by local theater talent, performed in a local venue, and, above all else, its subject is relevant to a large portion of the community, many of whom are men and women who are familiar with sex and sexual issues.

That said, the Guild recognizes the right of adults to avoid attending productions that make them uncomfortable or that they find objectionable. That is why we included strong disclaimers–that this show was for mature audiences only–in all of our advertising for the show, a likely reason the newspaper was asking that question of Brendon in the first place. It’s a delicate line. There is so much in the play that isn’t objectionable, yet we still have to make the disclaimer for the small bits that might make small portions of the audience uncomfortable–and of course it all gets blown out of proportion.

The Guild recognizes the right of any individual to voice objections to material that may make them uncomfortable or that they may deem objectionable–even when they haven’t seen the materials. Still, owing to our mission, the Guild is of the opinion that all art–whether it be uplifting, depressing, shocking, soothing, challenging, enlivening, or objectionable–will always find the audience it was meant to find.

The Northfield Arts Guild hopes that while you may not want to attend, for your own personal reasons, a performance of “SWSW,” you may still consider attending future NAG productions that are geared toward other audiences. In coming months, we will be producing the musical “The Pajama Game,” the post-war comedy “The Lady’s Not for Burning,” the children’s tale “Holes,” and Shakespeare’s “Merry Wives of Windsor.” And I’m not even mentioning the 10 art exhibitions we put on every year, the wonderful art by local artists that we sell in our shop, the dance classes for kids and adults, the CVRO concerts, etc etc.

As per our mission, there’s truly something for everyone at the Northfield Arts Guild!

Now, if I may, for just a moment, remove my director’s hat and comment as a citizen commenter:

I read a chunk of “Sex with Seven Women” when it came through the office (though I was careful not to read all of it–because I didn’t want to spoil my seeing it), and I have to say, it’s funny. And really good. While the situations are mature, Brendon’s writing is, as always, spot on–clever, witty, and full of sharp, unexpected observations about a subject that we all (may think we) know something about.

In the end, “Sex with Seven Women” has something for every mature adult to think about, chuckle over, and ponder–even as they might be grasping their armchairs to keep from falling out of their seat from laughter!

Today is essentially the end of my eighth month as director of the Northfield Arts Guild. It’s been, at times, an enjoyable ride; it’s also been hectic and draining and all the things you’d expect in an organization that does so much for so many people on such a tight shoestring.

I wrote about some of this activity in this week’s Progress section of the Northfield News: “It is through the Arts Guild that this community often shines and creates great beauty,” I wrote. “Visual art on display and for sale, fabulous symphonic music, wonderful dance programs, arts festivals and so much more!”

But I also wrote about how important it is for everyone in the community not to take this activity for granted, and to support it in practical ways: “…though the Northfield Arts Guild is not in danger of being overrun by revolutionaries any time soon, it is still vulnerable to the ravages of time and neglect. The Guild suffers when the community overlooks the arts and underrates what the arts can do through us. The arts suffer when people, institutions, businesses, organizations, and the government forget to support it in practical and tangible ways: through membership, donations, volunteer service, and so on.”

To be more explicit about this last point, you should know that the Northfield Arts Guild is struggling to continue providing all that it does for this community. Much of the reason for this is because, in addition to the organization’s chronic budget shortages, the Guild has taken a double funding hit in the past eight months.

First, this summer the State Arts Board cut its biennial funding for the Guild in half–giving us an additional budget-hole to fill on top of the traditional deficit. Among the reasons cited by Arts Board panelists for the cuts: A concern over our chronic budget woes; a concern over the lack of local city/government support of the arts; and a concern over the very breadth of programs offered by the Guild (that they suspect scatter our attentions and reduce our viability).

In addition to this cut in governmental support, the Guild has also seen, after nearly four hard months of work by me and numerous volunteers, a 50% reduction this year in financial support of the Arts Guild. The most often cited reason for this is business-owner concern over current economic conditions. Businesses who have long been supporters of the Guild have unceremoniously let their sponsorships and other forms of support lapse.

They tell you in arts management text books that these sorts of hits to arts organizations–shocking as they may be to the organization and its membership, and damaging as they can be to programs (that may need to be cut)–are to be expected. Business and governmental funding (when it even exists) can be prone to cyclical ups and downs–causing disruption to organizations and hard decisions about what programs and offerings to cut.

The key to weathering such ups and downs, say the experts, is to foster a dedicated and stable pool of individual and family supporters–people who will make sure that cuts by institutional funders can be endured, and who will rise to the occasion when an organization has need.

Well, supporters of the arts in Northfield, I’m here to tell you, your Northfield Arts Guild has need. If you ever had a reason to step in and lend your energy to helping the arts survive here in Northfield, this is it.

We welcome support and involvement from any and all lovers of the arts.

The following information was sent in by Arts Guild member Riki Kolbl Nelson. (She is going to be a presenter at this conference.)

Southeastern Minnesota Creativity and Aging Conference

Join us for a full day of performances, presentations, and artistic participation.

Keynote: “Creativity Matters! Arts and Aging across America”

Friday, September 14, 2007
SE Minnesota Creativity and Aging Conference
Cornerstone Community Church
Redwing, MN
Cost: $30.00 includes lunch

Keynote speaker Susan Perlstein is widely known for her pioneering, award-winning work in arts and ging. She is founder of the Elders Share the Arts (ESTA) in New York City and the founder and Executive director of the National Center for Creative Aging (NCCA). ESTA, founded in 1979, empowers hundreds of older adults each year to transmit the legacy of their stories through literary, visual, or performing arts.

Under Perlstein’s leadership, NCCA has launched a national campaign, “ The Art of Aging: Creativity Matters,” and has equipped artists, educators, and health care and social service professionals across the nation with the know-how and resources to engage older adults in the arts. She will highlight best practices from around the country and describe how involvement in the arts benefits older adults.

The event will also feature teaching artists in Southeastern Minnesota who will describe and demonstrate best practices they are using in their work with older adults. The day will include performances and hands-on activities plus creative conversations.

Sponsored by the Minnesota Creative Arts and Aging Network (MnCAAN)

Mail registration and payment by September 1 to:
Red Wing Senior Center
1407 West Fourth Street, Red Wing, MN 55066

For questions call:
Marie Marvin at (507) 732-7616 or Nancy Swanson at (651) 385-3296
For more information about MnCAAN please contact:
Pat Samples at patsamples@agingandcaregiving.com

The Minnesota Creative Arts and Aging Network (MnCAAN) is a Minnesota citizenled group of individuals committed to MnCAAN’S mission and led by a 20-member volunteer Design Team that meets monthly. It is affiliated with the National Center for Creative Aging and the Vital Aging Network. Among its accomplishments are holding two statewide conferences on arts and aging, sponsoring a visual arts “Art of Aging” project at eight sites around the state, and creating a highly interactive website as an ongoing information and communication center on arts and aging for Minnesotans.