Coming Together to form a New Understanding
I’m dreaming about the word SYNTHESIS.
The composition or combination of parts into a whole.
An interweaving of inspiration into one solid idea.
A coming together to form a new understanding.
And I’m considering the 1,600 high schoolers I watched this weekend, coming together from all over the state, from all different backgrounds… to play in concert bands together. Horns and flutes, sax and drums, trombones and tubas. Only one day of rehearsal and these teens helped us all to transcend. Their parts came together in perfect SYNTHESIS to create an experience of lift. Of communion. Of community. Didn’t matter who you were, or your politics, or if you cared about the CAPITAL-A-ARTS. You came out to support your kid doing their thing, to hear them make music, to witness the creating of a whole out of a part. And we all felt joy.
I’ve been in Atlanta for more than 30 years. Growing up North of Boston, we had culture woven in pretty much into everything we did. Every other person you met on the street was a painter, terrific at seascapes. Everyone was a wood-worker. Heck, you’d find a fisherman-poet in line at the post office. It’s all kind of knotted up together. When I moved to Georgia, I saw culture woven through, but it was somehow separate from the ARTS. It was ok to be a part of a church choir, or a holiday pageant, but going to see a play or stroll through an art gallery seemed to be something different. Not for everyone. Somehow set APART.
I have seen this change so much in the time I have been in this community. We have a tremendous, diverse, complex, and beautiful arts ecosystem here, impacting every corner of our community. And yet there is still a feeling that many people still feel a disconnect, a sense that the arts aren’t for them. Or, worse yet, a lack of awareness.
I long for a synthesis. A coming together around the idea that art can’t be apart from our daily lives. A realization that both little-a-arts and big-A-ARTS are part of a yearning to express our human condition. They aren’t relegated to places of worship, or elementary schools, or for someone else. They are a vital necessity and need to be accessible to all. They are the synthesis of our parts. A coming together as one community. One whole.
As I have worked with the fine people who run Metro arts organizations, across nearly three years through Arts Capital | Atlanta, I have seen this synthesis. Different perspectives are woven together toward a common goal – ensuring that all arts organizations in the area are funded, so all arts organizations can impact the entire community. ‘Arts for all’ is perhaps too simple a way to describe it. Our audacious goal is arts in communities. Arts AS community. Arts expanding and nurturing human connection and civil discourse. Arts making space for different ideas and uplifting communication. Arts and community synthesized.
I’m looking forward to this spreading to the broader community – as the corporate community acknowledge (with dollars and attendance) the importance the arts have on their employees and their business. As legislators understand that the billion+ surplus in our state is, in many ways, because of the business impact of the arts. As people across the metro discover all of the arts experiences waiting for them, and are welcomed in. And the arts synthesize into their lives as a necessity, a neighbor-introducer, a family re-uniter, an empathy producer, a mental-health healer, a laughter-inspirer, a heart-opener.
I’m dreaming of a coming together of parts that has already begun, but needs investment to fully synthesize.
