How Art Can Change Communities

by Francisco Loyola

“…For more than a century, the university has been guided by the Wisconsin Idea, a tradition first stated by UW President Charles Van Hise in 1904. Van Hise declared that he would “never be content until the beneficent influence of the university reaches every family in the state.”
~from the University of Wisconsin Madison website

According to two recent visitors of Kenosha, Maryo Gard Ewell, past Executive Director of the Colorado Council for Arts and Karen Goeschko, Assistant Director for Programs and Services, Wisconsin Arts Board, Wisconsin has a special way of embracing the Arts and Humanities. They believe our widespread community involvement is based on a century old concept called, “The Wisconsin Idea”

“The Wisconsin Idea is a philosophy embraced by the University of Wisconsin System, which holds that the boundaries of the university should be the boundaries of the state, and that research conducted at the University of Wisconsin System should be applied to solve problems and improve health, quality of life, the environment and agriculture for all citizens of the state.”
~from Wikipedia.org

It’s purpose is captured by this quote from the University of Madison’s past president, Van Hise:

“…to assist the ordinary individual as well as the person of talent by carrying light and opportunity to every human being.”

Maryo and Karen stated that this revolutionary idea created a series of initiatives and groups such as the first correspondence schools. More specifically, it helped produce the Wisconsin Dramatic Society, which encouraged all town residents to participate in community plays, and the first Wisconsin radio station, which included a uniquely broad educational, cultural and art programming, intending to spread those three benefits to all the inhabitants of the state, including those living in rural areas.

All of these programs stemmed from the extraordinary “Wisconsin Idea” and were therefore reinforced by their common intentions.

But these programs were in the past. Today, however, while Maryo and Karen see the decline of government funds for Art related initiatives, they also notice the resurgence of community based efforts to promote the arts and humanities as an economic catalyst in the renaissance of Wisconsin communities. They cited AHA! Kenosha as a prominent example.

At the beginning of the seminar, Maryo and Karen asked the participants to think about the slogans and common phrases that are frequently used in artistic circles such as “Arts Build Communities”; “Arts and Social Change” “The creative economy” etc. and they asked What do they mean?,To what end? So what?

I believe now, finally, that the arts and humanities are widely recognized for bringing economic development to the communities which embrace them. However, the main objective for an artistic community must be to nurture individuals in their own potential talent. From this, the Arts and Humanities activities that talent generates, economically and in many other ways, will ultimately result in enhancing the quality of life for both the individual and the society as a whole.

Let there be art!

Karen Goeschko, is the Assistant Director for Programs and Services, Wisconsin Arts Board
Maryo Gard Ewellis is the co-author of “The Arts and the Small Community 2006”

This poem, by Robert Gard, concluded the 1969 edition of The Arts in the Small Community - and was retained in the 2006 edition:

If you try, what may you expect?
First a community
Welded through art to a new consciousness of self:
A new being, perhaps a new appearance –
A people proud
Of achievements which lift them through the creative
Above the ordinary –
A new opportunity for children
To find exciting experiences in art
And to carry this excitement on
Throughout their lives –
A mixing of peoples and backgrounds
Through art; a new view
Of hope for mankind and an elevation
Of man – not degradation.
New values for individual and community
Life, and a sense
That here, in our place
We are contributing to the maturity
Of a great nation.
If you try, you can indeed
Alter the face and the heart
Of America.