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They Stand Like David Against Goliath!
By Ayers Baxter

Despite severe government cutbacks, the Lassen County Arts Council stands like David against Goliath. Do they think we really care? Is art important? This debate was never as political as it is today. Money and resources are tight.
Recently, I spoke with Colleen Thorn the Executive Director of the Lassen County Arts Council located in the county seat, Susanville, California. She outlined a modest five-year plan. "O.K, but…" I asked her, "What good is art?"

She began by telling me how, when she was a child, an arts education helped to open her mind as an adult. "When I was growing up," Colleen began, "probably eighteen…and the threat of the Soviet Union…I felt I was brainwashed into thinking they were all bad people. The Russians were so bad, a real threat. That's how I envisioned them. I thought they were all like that. Then, later on in my life I met some Russians… and I asked myself what was that all about? It was so misleading. Misconceptions about these people… and it probably goes on everyday with other people. I thought that was horrible. Actually, once I got to know them," she concluded… "They were regular people."

But as she talked, I thought to myself, what about today? Let's be practical. Is art worth anything today? Should my kids waste their time studying art? I did a little investigation.

Howard Gardner of Harvard University found studying the arts helps students learn better because they draw on a range of intelligence and learning styles beyond math. Really?

In a recent publication, "Investing In Prosperity," the Sierra Business Council claims studies show teaching children music, art, drama and dance increases their writing and verbal skills. Students who have studied the arts test 44 points higher in math. That’s interesting, I thought. They went on to point out that the benefits are particularly evident in elementary school where the kids test their ideas in drawing and acting their ideas out. They found Art works. Children are eager to learn. Teachers are motivated. Parents become involved. Administrators and school boards seem to excel. Is this what we want in our schools?

Unknown to some people in government, the arts are the incubator for thought. They are one of the greatest influences in the lives of great leaders. In modern time, those who have an extensive training in the arts are more apt to attain high leadership positions. Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger are supreme examples of such success. This is not historically surprising. From the moment the first person danced around a campfire, sang songs to the moon, drew a line in the sand, told war stories, painted a buffalo hunt on a cave wall, and recorded history in hieroglyphics, the artists were the thinkers who started what has been called for ages - the arts and sciences. Popes and Kings commissioned musicians to write some of the most glorious music on earth. Queen Elizabeth commissioned Shakespeare to write plays. The great artist Michaelangelo built more bridges in Italy than any other engineer in history. France commissioned artist to make the Statute of Liberty and gave us a work of art that is seen as a symbol of the strength of the USA around the world. Yet, when the little lady needed restoration for the 200-year anniversary, America did not have trained artists to do it. We had to outsource the restorative work to European artists. This foreign restoration of our Statute of Liberty stands as a contemporary symbol of how far we have come as a nation and how much farther we must go to be full bodied and mature.

Now, I ask myself who suffers most when the arts are underrated? The middle income people. Why? Because the middle income families lose the most. The rich can afford to own their art, visit world collections, attend expensive concerts, Broadway, world premieres and dine with celebrity artists. They can afford to pay for private piano lessons, sculpture and molding classes. They can afford dance studios and private tutors to teach their kids to become the designers of the future. They can afford to pay high prices for their art. But we, here in the trenches, work long hours everyday just to put a meal on the table and provide our children with the best we have. No wonder the rich seem to have it all. Is it fair?

What is the good life we all desire? Many rich people I know work long hours, too. They work weekends. And most find they have headaches when they pay their bills, too. Their bills are much bigger and a small disaster can force them to work that much longer and harder to keep what they have. So, what is it about their life that we think is so good? Could it be that it is the works of art, music lessons and concerts, great paintings, movie premieres and Broadway musicals, signed novels and dinning with poets? Could it be they can afford what we can only desire?

Fortunately, Art lives beyond what we see or hear for a moment. Music well written, a song well sung and a mural on the face of a wall of a rather ordinary building brightens up our day. The art of a flower arrangement for a wedding or funeral, the sight of our neighbor's artistry in their fruit or vegetable garden improves the scenery. Their fragrance, sweet with colors that dance in the wind, delight our soul. In a little significant way the artistry of our life tells us that we are all in this together. All our efforts to improve the beauty of this world are important enough to remember. Everyday on the news we see the carnage of a difficult life. Like weeds these sights and sounds seem to choke us. Art in our life smiles like flowers in the weeds. Art reminds us that all things want beauty and joy. But shouldn't we be practical? Can we afford it?

The US Labor Department reported that the study and practice in the arts is important for building skills to succeed in the business world of today, where logos, slogans, commercials, pictures, drawings, music, public speaking and audiovisual presentations are necessary for success. Art improves our self-esteem and ability to think on our feet, solve problems and become increasingly more confident and personally responsible for our work. These studies show that Colleen's childhood experience in art broadened her mental perceptions of life allowing her to see that the Russians were regular people, too. The Labor Department report concluded that children who engage in an arts program improve their understanding of who they are in relationship to the rest of the world. In a rapidly evolving social and business climate that includes every country on earth, understanding our relationship to the rest of the world is a most promising proposition. But do our children need training for a future that is ever changing and increasingly competitive on an international scope?

Well, I thought about Susanville's empty buildings. I thought about the two prisons nestled inside this beautiful landscape that surrounds us. I thought about a county with the highest unemployment in California. And I thought about jobs outsourcing to foreign countries. Wow! Perhaps art is important when considering the whole thing.

So, what are my city, schools, county, state and government doing to help? Let's see. The Federal government and California seem to have ignored their own studies and cut the funding for the arts by 90%. Despite this action by our representative government, the Lassen County Arts Council stands together in their determination to provide Lassen County and their children with a plan for providing cultural arts to the entire community. In the face of such drastic cuts, their efforts stand like David against Goliath.

Colleen continued to briefly outline a five-year plan. They are working to establish the first Performing Arts Center in Susanville, expand their development of an Arts in Education program for the kids, expand the current programming to include more cities and townships, and be an example of community leadership enhancing our quality of life here and now. They dare to be brave and they just may succeed. They have a plan to integrate their ideas within the community of businesses throughout the county. This collaboration with business shows a potential to do more than educate. It will offer business opportunities that may some day provide jobs for our kids, and provide a vibrant and responsible economic force that will improve all levels within our local community without a detrimental impact on our environment. "Our life in Lassen County has a chance to see and feel an immediate return on our efforts."

Has our 4th of July, our Sunday music, our evening news, our Thanksgiving and Christmas, our Yom Kippur, our New Year celebration, Easter, birthdays and holidays been dull? Or have there been some brave and courageous workers who have helped to give us a moment of pleasure in the face of the heat and chilly winds of our days? Like the Lassen County Arts Council and their friends who have been beneficial to the life in Lassen County, would it be inappropriate to thank the people in our neighborhood for their contribution to our happiness? Perhaps a thank you will give them support to continue to stare Goliath in the eye.

For those people who have decided to do their part in improving the world we live in… Thank you one and all.

Copyright July 2004 Roy Ayers Baxter, Jr. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction of any kind is expressly prohibited without the permission of the Copyright owner.