Contemporary Art Month CAM will move from July to March, good thinking, let's get out of the heat.
I read a good bit of The Story of Art over spring break. Art History is the history of a civilization and how well it comes to depict itself. This simple fact seems to be lost on art education courses that require one to memorize the names and creators of art thereby boring everyone to death. What CAM needs is the integration of art and design to a profitable outcome. Just hanging a picture on the wall is not an outcome.
Robert Rivard Page 5B reports that in 2001 part of the River was weed choked. Now what eight years later, it is beyond what Mayor Peak back then imagined. Well I would hope!
What on earth does the street, parks dept at the City and County do all day long? What do all the volunteers in SA do? Eight years, we won WW II in four!
'The winding meander of the River is largely gone' Well how did THAT happen with the Sierra Club on the watch. If we can mow all the parks in SA you are telling me we cannot control the weeds on a stretch of meandering river? Gee how on earth did Mission San Jose ever get off the ground in 1550?
Now here is the best part, again I am not making this up
'Three years from now, a short time for public works projects, (now what was WW II but a public works project) nature will take over, bird life, butterflies, kayakers,
in short we will be back to 1550 when Mission San Jose got off the ground.
Good grief, these sorts of time lines are ridiculous IF the citizens really wanted this to happen.
How about the 15,000 Spurs fans (typical attendance at ONE game) gathering on the banks and clearing weeds for a few hours, I bet that would unchoke a few things....
Okay I feel like some sort of academic Lewis Black.. your comments?
When I was taking my class we had to head over to the Art Museum and select several different pieces to write about. It was actually pretty interesting. If not for that class, I would not have set foot in an art museum.
Posted by: Rick | June 29, 2009 at 03:52 PM
I read the Story of Art over the break, I agree, ir would be better if we integrated art and society into the curriculum, that would fit pretty well with my desing idea for highlighting an MBA
Posted by: Dennis Elam | June 29, 2009 at 08:47 PM
I took an Art course at SAC, and I must say it was pretty boring. I do not want to overstep the boundaries on teaching, but I do not think reading verbatim out of a book constitutes being called a professor. We did go on a field trip to the museum, which I thought was very enlightening and really captivated me into the Art world. I think real life examples really help motivate a student to want to learn more about the subject.
Posted by: Josefina Castillo | June 30, 2009 at 02:03 PM
Certainly an ability to describe how the art object reflected the sophistication of beliefs of a society at a time is the key to the appreciation. SA is blessed with several excellent art museums. Your suggestion about the field trip reminds me of my suggestion in class on process accounting.
Posted by: Dennis Elam | June 30, 2009 at 02:46 PM
You know as I get a little older...and i'm not that old.. i learn to appreciate art and culture a lot more! And i've learned that in Texas, or maybe just the part of texas we live in, we are totally drained of both! And teaching it, having stage shows or even 1st friday, is obviously not enough! i don't know what it is. And we can't say that its everyone being so busy with their own lives bc look at NY... One of the fastest cities in USA.. and their still better off than us, in that department... i love that city bc its so culturally diverse and the majority of the people are art savvy. i know after I'm done with school i'm off to NYC!
Posted by: Rose Hinojosa | June 30, 2009 at 09:29 PM