Ignore the arts at your peril

Robert Henry Becker Arizona Daily Wildcat A surprise appearance by mock-Zapatista revolutionaries at the Jos‚ Galvez Gallery opening on Saturday.

You might think this is the case if you learned about the fine arts by watching television news. Unless there is another Van Gogh up for auction at Christie's, a photography show that's been declared pornographic by "local authorities," or a member of Congress offended by a picture of a crucifix in a bottle of urine, you don't hear much about the arts in the popular press. Within a society that favors the ability to produce concrete results over all other human traits, this sort of coverage isn't surprising - a painting isn't news until it offends someone or flattens someone's bank account.

For the last two years I have written extensively about the Fine Arts in Tucson, both on campus and in our community. From photography shows to performance art to alumni exhibitions I've covered it all, or at least tried to do the shows some justice.

There were times when I felt I was writing for no one but myself. Student attendance at arts events is for the most part dismal. Even shows of exclusively student work are lightly attended. I can't remember a time when I've seen more than five people at once in any of the campus galleries, except for a show opening - a pretty dismal figure considering the huge turnout Miles Simon could get if he just randomly showed up on the campus Mall and offered to sign t-shirts.

So at those times when I felt some self-doubt I had to console myself with the (slightly cheesy and romantic) belief that perhaps just one or two interested people would spontaneously decide to attend, and maybe would walk out of the museum with a slightly altered perspective; might be inspired; perhaps would go on to create art of their own. Silly and foolish thinking, no doubt.

Yet the arts do have that power - to alter the way people think, to provide a catalyst for social and political change, to incite passion and inspiration. When the arts were closer to the surface in society, not neatly packaged between fashion tips and comics in the "lifestyles" section of the daily paper, artists and writers had the power to change the face of society. Stravinsky's symphonies caused riots in the streets; the Absurdist playwrights destabilized Europe's faith in language following World War II; Picasso taught the world a new and difficult way of seeing that helped usher in the Modern age.

It is no coincidence that both Stalin and Hitler moved to suppress writers and artists immediately after coming to power. They knew the truth - that the arts are not merely decorative, precious things made to amuse the wealthy. Politicians, monarchs and despots have of course wreaked a little more havoc in the past than the average person with a paintbrush, but that's the secret of the arts: they are subversive. The have the power to alter peoples' minds. Revolutions are acted out by peasants but are incited and fueled by poets and artists - see a history of the American revolution for proof.

I'm not going to claim that any of the works in our campus galleries over the last few years were powerful enough to start a revolution - some of them weren't even powerful enough to inspire mild disgust. Yet they were evidence of passion and desire on the part of the artist, an attempt to challenge the viewer's standard reactions by presenting them with an altered point of view: that artist's personal vision. I have seen works of art that changed the way I look at the world; that conjured up deep emotions; that inspired spontaneous tears of joy, as an artist successfully expressed something I've always held bottled up inside. Have you given yourself an opportunity to be inspired or challenged in this way?

The outside world is hostile to the arts, only interested in how much a painting sells for or how many Federal dollars went into it. Here within the fragile eggshell walls of our university may be your only chance to see the Fine Arts in an untainted form before the bean-counters get to it. Take advantage of what your fellow students have labored to produce for you - perhaps you will share in their inspiration. We live in a world in desperate need of new ways of seeing and doing.