Responses - Dec 28th

Name: Michelle
Subject: Hrm....
Date: 12/28/2011

Your idea seems to be well-intentioned, but I feel that it is rather narrow in perspective.

YES, math, science, medecine et al are very important. But the true advancements in these fields come from CREATIVITY.

Can creativity be taught, I don't know. But art classes activate the creative aspects of a developing mind. The student needn't become Van Gogh, but developing creativity is essential if the person wishes to develop into anything but a mindless drone who does what is expected of them and nothing more.

Einstein, Galileo, Hawking, Jefferson, and countless others who overturned established paradigms were ALL artists in their own right. An artist doens't need a brush or a piano to be an artist. The artist is the creative mind, the one who isn't afraid to look outside the box and challenge what has been accepted. This is where true advancement comes from.

I'm not from Syracuse, I came across your organization via a link on the Internet, but regardless of budget, I feel that some form of art education is ESSENTIAL. Its not about this vauge concept of being "well-rounded." Its about raising free-thinking, critical and creative people.

Marshall McLuhan said back in 1968 or so something along the lines of "The present is only faced, in any generation, by the artist. The artist is prepared to study the present as his material because it is the area of challenge to the whole sensory life, and therefore is anti-utopian; its a world of anti-values. The artist who comes into contact with the present generates and avant-garde image which is terrifying to the contemporaries."

Without artists, we would live solely (to use another McLuhanism) , "In the rear view mirror."

Art is essential.

I'm not trying to rail on you guys here. Like I said, I think you're well-intentioned. But just consider for a moment where we would be without creative minds to push us forward.

I hope this message reaches receptive ears and an open mind. And I would love to hear your rebuttal if you care to do so.

-Michelle

After the Reveal

Date: 1/3/2012

Haha, this is brilliant on so many levels! I look forward to seeing where this goes in the future. You may feel free to use my response as you like, and if theres anything I can do let me know!

Michelle