Survey finds local arts organizations lack objective standards for morality
By Crystal Hutchens
Research by Jennifer Johnson
Alaskan arts organizations do not have standards to judge what is beneficial for viewers, according to a recent survey undertaken by Alaska Humanity News. Most do not have any standards at all to judge what is of transcendent or universal significance in artwork; although a minority of groups claimed to have personal or implicit values for judging what was meaningful, none had explicit standards of this kind.
Leaders of Alaskan arts organizations demonstrated a great deal of concern for being of service to Alaskans, and deepening awareness seems important to all who responded. But even when improving the welfare of citizens is a written objective of the organizations, as is the case with the Alaska Council on the Arts, such ideas are often not taken seriously. According to Charlotte Fox, director of the organization, “That’s our enabling legislation, which was written in 1966, forty years ago. ‘Welfare’ may have had a different meaning then. The enabling legislation is quite quaint, because they talk about how people have more leisure time, and therefore we need to have a state agency that provides arts and cultural events. Welfare and moral quality do not have a direct a connection as far as our work goes.”
Ira Perlman, director of the Alaska Humanities Forum, is clear that moral and spiritual values do play a role in their programs and in the grants that they make, but only implicitly, through the personal views of the members of the panel that makes those decisions. The standards are not explicit or objective.
Many of those who responded to our survey felt it was not their duty to judge artists by any standards in particular. Out North, for one, suggested that ur questions should be directed to the artists themselves. But we were digging deeper for a response from the people who do choose what art to display.
We addressed our survey to many more art organizations and venues than we received responses from. Some did not respond at all and some, like the Rasmussen Foundation, which gives out grants and fellowships to working artists, said our questions did not apply to them, despite the fact that there is a lengthy application process to be considered for a grant. The International Gallery of Arts responded to our survey by sending the answers to questions another newspaper had asked them in the past. It included their mission statement, but failed to directly address our specific questions.
Those who make the decisions about what art is made available to the public are in control of what comes through to the consumer or the participant in any art form. This survey is an attempt to make sense of how those decisions are being made.
The following is a selection of responses from organizations that responded to the survey. The complete interviews, along with a summary of the mission statements of each organization, appear on our website.
1. On what basis do you decide what works to promote, exhibit, or perform? How do you determine what ideas are worthy of expression?
Alaska Center for the Performing Arts (ACPA)
Interview with Codie Costello, Director of Development
The ACPA is not a producing organization. The facility is owned by the Municipality of Anchorage, and managed by the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. The seven resident companies and other clients that use the facility determine their own programming based on their mission and goals
Snow City Café
Interview with Laile M. Fairbairn
We choose artists that reflect a variety of media, and who seem to have a cohesive theme or style. The cohesiveness of the show is important to us because we want our customers, who are at the cafe primarily to eat the food rather than view art work, to understand that one artist is showing his or her work and not a hodgepodge
Cyrano’s
We choose a season that is eclectic, and for artistic reasons. There must be a passion factor involved.
Out North
Out North provides opportunities for contemporary creative visual, literary, performing and media artists to exhibit original work. As we support both professional and community-based artists, we embrace a wide range of work and expression that very often reflects a progressive value system, at its heart.
Radio Free Palmer (http://www.radiofreepalmer.org. Not yet broadcasting)
Interviews with David Cheezem, Mike Chmielewski, and Jim Sykes
Webcasts of public meetings to invite people to cooperate and solve common problems. Interview programs and debates that focus on current issues are also envisioned. The station is envisioned as an open and grassroots oriented station. Issues that affect the community broadly will likely receive top priority.
Alaska State Council on the Arts (ASCA)
Interview with Charlotte Fox, Executive Director
We don’t make decisions based on what is worthy of expression. Rather they are based on artistic excellence and creativity, and all the criteria that you can find on our website.
Alaska Humanities Forum
Interview with Ira Perman, President.
Like every organization in a democracy, our decisions are made by committee. It is difficult to do. No one person makes those decisions. And they are generally made in response to requests.
Anchorage Symphony Orchestra
Interview with Sherri Burkhart Reddick, Executive Director
For us there is a long history of repertoire. We have a whole history. These works have stood the test of time. What is the piece that we haven’t done in a while? And things relate through time and in history. It’s our sixtieth anniversary.
2. Is the effect of the cultural work on the inner life of the viewer an important variable in your decision-making? If so, in what way? (For example, the effect on sensitivity, imagination, or understanding.)
ACPA
Refers to the answer of question 1
Snow City Café
Not answered
Cyrano’s
Theater is a two way street and does not exist without the audience. We always hope that what we choose is not only entertaining but enlightening but also sparks the mind and heart and imagination. In addition, theater has the power to evoke understanding or at least to consider another point of view, along with the universals that connects us all.
Out North
We work with our community, artists and ideas as if this were a holy space without the dogma. We’ve found our audience wants us not to make their art easy, but challenging and rich in the possibilities of understanding a common human condition across what would seemingly separate us.
Radio Free Palmer
(RFP combined answers 2-5 into one multi-layered statement)
What role does a radio station have in defining these terms? I would say that the role has to be pretty minimal. We are a conduit for the artistic community. As such, we should try and represent as broad as possible range of content, allowing the community to define that range. One thing we cannot be in the business of is defining good art. Even if we could define it, I don’t think it would be good for the community to restrict all expressions to ‘good art.’
People don’t like to admit it, but every piece of ‘good art’ is built on a foundation of ‘bad art’ that preceded it. Good artists need bad artists to work off of--even if we were qualified to
decide what was ultimately beautiful, doing so would do more damage than good.
ASCA
I would say, No. That’s not an issue, for us as a public agency. How people are going to respond to a work of art is not part of our mandate or mission.
Alaska Humanities Forum
We look for this quality [of understanding] in general in our grants. For example, in research grants, where someone is trying to uncover a piece of history, this is a process of helping to understand how we got to where we are. Especially in a state like Alaska, aside from natives a lot of us come from someplace else, and we are detached to some degree from our history. We try to encourage everyone, in one way or another, to ask those important questions–of who we are, and what are our values.
Anchorage Symphony Orchestra
It is interesting in symphony orchestra: we are selective and yet it is a personal experience. I see people leave the concert hall and they are like ‘wow,’ ‘wow’. We had a concert after 9-11 and never was it more apparent. We saw people coming together. We selected certain pieces that we had collected. We felt people needed to come together and they needed to be reminded of beauty.
3. Does culture have a moral quality? Do cultural venues have a moral responsibility for the consequences of their productions? Do you seek out works that have a strong vision of what is good, true, or beautiful?
ACPA
As mentioned above, ACPA is not a producing organization. Alaska Center for the Performing Arts is a venue that seeks to provide a safe and pleasant environment for all patrons, enabling access to programming of their choosing. Each client manages their own marketing and communications in relation to their productions.
Cyrano’s
The works that we produce can have that outcome, but what we look for is vision and substance, and that might ask questions rather than simply provide answers.
Out North
Insomuch as art, philosophy and science deal with matters of the mind and body, and how we relate to one another and our world, yes. It doesn’t require that all we do be good, true or beautiful. Art, like nature itself, is gloriously and ingloriously all that it is.
ASCA
I guess if we talk about the moral as being something that could be pornographic I would say yes. I’m sure that art does have a moral quality, but whether that is a concern of ours, or something that we ponder in our work, I would say no. We don’t address this. None of our criteria is based on any kind of a moral quality, so I would say no.
Alaska Humanities Forum
Culture itself does have moral qualities....One of our goals is to reinforce and remind people of those qualities. It applies morals and values, good and evil. They’re all embedded in culture. It’s a code. The Ten Commandments is clearly a cultural foundation of Western culture....As I’ve watched it play out around this table, morality is an intrinsic part of our discussions. Our members have this deeply embodied in their instincts
Anchorage Symphony Orchestra
Of course – it is the culture. I don’t know how you can separate it! We create our culture. I don’t see how you CAN separate them. Obviously, we set out to enhance the quality of life that can be what is good, true or beautiful. Sometimes you have to play what is not – like a performance we had on the AIDS crisis, or a piece from the movie Platoon
4. What is the role of spirituality in the cultural works you endorse? Does culture affect the ability to grasp noble ideas and to lead a noble life? What is the source of these qualities? In your artistic works do you look for a spiritual dimension?
ACPA
not answered
Snow City Café
not answered
Cyrano’s
I would say the answer to your question is yes. In most plays there is a transformation of some sort. This was the original purpose of theater and of course, story telling in general. Sometimes we do hope to inspire with the plays we do.
Out North
Inspiration is one of the true forces of art and culture. Because we look for work that can either challenge or inspire, we feel we offer the world as it may be and as it could be. We promote an examined life where one considers not only one’s own well-being but also the well-being of others.
ASCA
Some grants and programs have a great deal of spirituality and some have very little, but again that’s something that is determined by the audience or the viewer, and not by us. We look at a work or a piece or a painting or a score, and we don’t make that kind of judgment in our criteria.
Alaska Humanities Forum
It’s intrinsic in the word ‘culture’ that spirituality is there to some degree. Perhaps certain works are less likely to bring this out than others. I know that in the performing arts world there is a magical quality that can sing out to you, and that makes your soul soar.
Anchorage Symphony Orchestra
I don’t think you can answer spirituality in a sentence or two. We do not necessarily approach our decision on its spiritual impact. W have some work that is expressive of spirituality, and some that is expressive of sadness. It isn’t necessary to make those choices in terms of spirituality. But, it is not from our perspective the number one choice. We are sharing not only spiritual impact but emotional impact.
5. Will you promote a work that is violent, obscene, or degrading? What role does the ugly, the vulgar, the base, the corrupt, the deceitful, the dishonest, the false, the vile, and the wicked play in cultural venues? Do these destructive qualities have a role in the works you support?
ACPA
not answered
Snow City Café
We do not show work that we think the general public would find disturbing while eating their pancakes. We had a painting of Jesus bleeding from his nipples and an anatomically correct male Ken doll on a pedestal that we thought, in hindsight, weren’t appropriate for our audience.
Cyrano’s
A theater reflects the people involved and our taste in plays. Sometimes the words/values you suggest are part of piece because triumph over these concepts (good winning over evil) is what creates the conflict. There has to be conflict in a good piece of theater. I think your question is not well put.
Out North
Yes, without ugliness we cannot know beauty. Additionally, too often majority culture defines what ‘ugly’ and ‘beauty’ is, and sometimes very wrongly for a minority culture. Important art necessarily deals with this paradox in definition and practice.
ASCA
I hope not. But, again, that is in the mind of the viewer. No. We wouldn’t say we’re not going to fund that because it is violent, or because it is not violent. That’s not part of our criteria. I think of Shakespeare. There’s a whole history of violence and deceit in theater, that is all part of a reflection of people’s lives. In theater you will see a piece that has violence or that is degrading, but the whole point of the piece is to come to some kind of resolution that that is not a good thing.
Alaska Humanities Forum
Absolutely these qualities exist in works of art, although it may be driving at the opposite of these things. It’s not all beautiful. There may be a value in catching someone’s attention by bringing something shocking. To cause them to question. You might get a better understanding of what beauty can be. The Hunchback of Notre-Dame: was he ugly? Was he beautiful? Posing the question is
important.
Anchorage Symphony Orchestra
Sometimes the only way to demonstrate beauty is through the beautiful overcoming the ugly. In the repertoire of music through orchestra we understand the performers intent, and there are decisions to be made with the placement of the repertoire to be heard. There are characters, opera and different stories with a heroic ending. The beauty of humanity will overcome.
6. Is there anything else you’d like to say about the state of the arts in Alaska, or in your own endeavors?
ACPA
not answered
Snow City Café
I bought a bumper sticker from Killer Designs—“The artless are in charge of funding the arts.” I totally believe that. Showing art at the cafe is our way of supporting the arts.
Cyrano’s
The state of the Arts needs more media coverage so people are aware of the thriving arts offerings there are. Alaska is fortunate to have such a rich variety of arts and artists.
Your questions seem to want simplistic answers. It reminds me of a survey that is wanting certain answers and slants the questions. And although what your getting at I may or may not agree with, it forces me to an ACLU position of first amendment rights of free expression of art and artists.
Out North
Out North respects the life of the mind, therefore choices regarding content and intent are rightfully the artists’. We have a choice to view or not view artists’ work. These twin freedoms—of expression and choice—are as sacred to us as the Bible may be to you.
Radio Free Palmer
From the response to the relatively simple act of making available podcasts of meetings, interviews and talks--I submit that Alaskans seem to thirst for information about activities that affect them.
Observing the increased activities of organizations such as the Palmer Arts Council and their current well-received production of {proof} suggests that at least here in the Mat-Su Arts are enjoying a lively surge of creativity.
ASCA
I pride ourselves – the State of Alaska – and I admire the individuals and organizations that persist in bringing arts to their communities in little, tiny spots. Despite money and geography, they say, “We’ve got to bring the arts to our communities.”
Alaska Humanities Forum
It’s a constant effort. We’re trying to make Alaska a better place – that’s a two second summary of what we’re trying to do.
It’s a challenging field to be in. In this crazy day and age, in which people are just trying to make it day to day, paycheck to paycheck, people don’t have a lot of time. It’s hard to think of the big questions. But you’ve got to live your life by some code. Your life has to have meaning.
Anchorage Symphony Orchestra
I am always wanting to encourage people to participate. I hear people who received concert tickets and then they were hooked. I always encourage people to hear the music. I can’t see life without music and not just music but arts and cultures too.
mission statements
ICGA
The mission of the International Gallery of Contemporary Art (IGCA) is to present new works in visual and interdisciplinary arts, to provide the community with a place where provocative ideas, diverse art forms, artists and audiences can come together, to offer a point of view that encourages vision, risk-taking and discovery, and to be an art space where experimentation and risk are still
possible.
Alaska Center for the Performing Arts
Alaska Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. is an organization founded to operate, promote and maintain a four-theatre complex which serves as a social and cultural meeting place for all Alaskan residents, the visiting public and performing arts presenters and producers. In addition, it promotes the artistic endeavors of all Center users and presents special events which complement other activities and enrich our community.
Snow City Café
Our cafe has a mission statement about the food, atmosphere, etc., but I assume you want our mission statement regarding artwork. We don’t have one—essentially, we strive to provide our customers and staff with an interesting and varied show every month. I’ve never tried to articulate our art mission before so I’m not sure how it will stand the test of time.
Cyranos
To provide a full season of professional-quality live performances of
classic, contemporary and original plays. We cultivate and nurture
Alaskan Theater Artists. We strive to bring the very best theatre
possible to Alaskan audiences at affordable ticket prices.
Outnorth
We have a mission, but we prefer to answer this question with our “guiding principles”. It helps give someone a deeper insight into our organization. Here it is:
Out North’s its all about: creating and connecting art, community and change. We work: to discover and share cultural explorers whose ideas challenge and inspire our lives; to build lasting and momentary space where all generations gather and learn; and to raise up, through the arts and humanities, people marginalized in our times. We value: creativity | supporting creation and circulation of contemporary ideas and work in the arts. expression | exploring our life and times fearlessly through the arts and humanities. community | building a community of learners who welcome gay and lesbian people. change | serving as catalysts for progressive culture and policies in our region. stewardship | respecting our mission, work and values in all we do.
Radio Free Palmer
Radio Free Palmer is a non-profit formed to establish, develop and operate a radio station in the Palmer area to facilitate building
an informed, involved, diverse and reflective community and to
provide broad citizen access and participation in radio.
Alaska State Council on the Arts (ASCA)
The Alaska State Council on the Arts exists to enhance cultural development in the state by ensuring that art of the highest quality is accessible to all Alaskans.
Alaska Humanities Forum
The mission of the Alaska Humanities Forum is to use the wisdom and methods of the humanities to enrich the civic, intellectual and cultural life of all Alaskans. The Alaska Humanities Forum engages Alaskans in humanities-based projects and innovative programs which are either funded by the Forum or run directly by the Forum.
Anchorage Symphony Orchestra
No mission statement given