investing in the arts

Dressed in familiar traditional garb, a Tibetan Buddhist monk hunched over a square table in the middle of the glass-enclosed atrium of the Jepson Center for the Arts in Savannah, rubbing a metal rod he held in his right hand against the serrated surface of a long, thin metal funnel (called a chak-pur) in his left. As tourists of the historic district’s antebellum mansions entered the conspicuously contemporary structure to escape the sudden summer storm, joining those who intended to attend this event, the monk remained solely focused on task before him, despite the squeaking sneakers, increasingly audible chitchat, and camera flashes. The colored grains of sand flowed like liquid through the chak-pur (a result of the vibrations caused by the metal rod) on to the wooden platform, guided by the monk’s steady hand and concentrating mind.

After nearly 30 hours over several days, the group of lamas from the Drepung Loseling Monastery eventually completed the mandala, a remarkably intricate circular design composed of millions of grains of various colored sand. Once finished, it was destroyed. Read more…

“What art offers is space—a certain breathing room for the spirit.”
—John Updike

If you’ve ever been required to sit through a excruciatingly boring lecture by a self-important professor, it’s easy to understand why the mere mention of the word itself—lecture—might trigger a negative reaction, or even sheer terror. If you’ve ever been required to attend a mind-numbing, time-wasting conference by your employer, it’s easy to understand why the suggestion of attending such an event could cause unease, at the very least.

So when I stumbled upon TEDTalks a while ago, I was surprised by what I discovered: lectures that were intriguing, insightful and inspiring. Could this really be possible? These few clips must have been anomalies, I thought, rare standouts plucked from hundreds or more of the aforementioned variety. But over time, as I watched new and newly discovered selections, TEDTalks—videos of lectures given at annual conferences put on by TED (which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design)—rarely failed to deliver, even when the subject matter seemed a bit outside my typical interest zone.

TED, a nonprofit, has a simple but noble mission: “Spreading ideas.” And it does so through a well-designed, fun-to-explore site (along with a YouTube presence). The themes of the engaging and thought-provoking talks are wide-ranging, from arts, culture and entertainment to technology, science and a host of global issues. The styles, backgrounds and expertise of the speakers are equally diverse. TEDTalks, as a result, is fairly addicting (and healthy) Internet fare, especially considering what’s on the rest of the menu.

With TED2010 only a few weeks away, The Madness of Art presents its Top 10 TEDTalks—most of which deal with the topic of creativity (in some way) and its powerful effects. So, in the spirit of TED, here are some ideas I thought were worth spreading. Read more…

“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldy cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.”—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Some suggestions to satisfy your reading, viewing and listening appetite throughout the weekend… Read more…

For anyone who toils in the creative realm, surrounding oneself with sources of inspiration is vital to survival.

While the muse often manifests in the strangest places at the most unexpected times, she’s notoriously fickle, often ignoring even the most desperate distress calls. Mystifying and unreliable is the muse, and creators cannot idly wait for some outside force to trigger the cogs of the imagination.

Art begets art.

Yet, the creative process inherently demands recurrent sparks of inspiration. The presence of art, in its multitudinous incarnations, emits such an energy to kindle the nerve endings of the mind’s eye. Personal libraries—of books, of music, of movies, of art and other creations—offer a milieu conducive to creative work, filling a space with spirits that urge us to imagine and re-imagine, to continually seek new knowledge, to see the possibilities in and of our artistic endeavors. Art begets art, creativity breeds creativity.

Jay Walker knows this.

For more than 30 years, throughout his adult life, Walker has been amassing a large collection of books; for the last 20 years, he has added countless artifacts, along with rare books and manuscripts, to his treasury. Without a dedicated room to house his growing collection, books and other items spread throughout his home, occupying any suitable space in various rooms. But Walker had an idea—one that would not only solve the practical issue of storage but also bring together the pieces of his vast, unique collection in inspiring yet functional fashion.

“I’m an inventor by trade,” said Walker, founder of Priceline.com and Walker Digital chairman/lead inventor, during our conversation last week. “Why not build a library of human imagination?” Read more…

Supporters of the arts received good news late Friday when the Senate voted 60 to 38 in favor of a $787 billion economic stimulus bill following a 246-183 House vote earlier in the day. The bill included $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts, which seemed to be in serious jeopardy mid-week. Read more…

Critics of the economic stimulus plan (read: impotent Republicans in Congress) have, throughout the debate over the size and scope of the package, cherry-picked various programs—ones, of course, that they don’t like or that run counter to their ideology—as evidence of “pork.” And in some cases, both in the House and especially in the Senate, Democrats have caved, stripping billions of dollars from the package in the name of bipartisanship, despite the obvious ways in which these programs would have played important roles in moving this country forward during tough economic times. Read more…