Part 2: THE CONTEXT

A WORLD ORDER IN TRANSITION

"The study of chaotic systems has revealed a totally unexpected order. When chaotic systems are plotted, graphically elegant geometric patterns emerge... demonstrating an underlying symmetry. The hidden order cannot be guessed at by studying a system's parts--it appears only as a property of the whole."

-"Chaos Might be the New World Order," Utne Reader, Nov-Dec, `91

With each passing month the chaotic dance of world events seems to be intensifying, building momentum. The globe is shifting beneath our feet in ways that would have seemed inconceivable just two or three years ago. Each morning's headlines leave us shaking our heads. "What's next?" we ask. "World order! What order?"

Early explorers imagined America as an island, a geographic impediment on the way to the Orient. Although they were mistaken in a literal sense, throughout our history we have maintained an "island-like" attitude about our place in the world. Our evolving power, and geography, have allowed us the luxury of choosing our connections.

Our island status has been tied to a world order that no longer exists. In the course of the past few decades we have witnessed extraordinary world change. Dramatic events such as the collapse of communism, a technology revolution, the rise of Moslem fundamentalism, and global economic turmoil have overturned the global chessboard. In the aftermath, America finds its triumphal "checkmate!" drowned in the cacophony. In our moment of victory the chessboard has been discarded. In its place is a new world game, or series of games, that are being designed and played simultaneously in Shanghai, Tbilisi, Caracas, Baghdad, Mumbai and elsewhere.

America, the lone remaining "superpower," must now learn to operate in an environment of shifting, toppling, and even flattening hierarchies-a world where information technology, multinational finance, world famine, ethnic conflict and ozone depletion are but a few of the interconnecting threads in the emerging global fabric. Two hundred fifteen years ago America declared its independence from the old world. For the second American revolution to succeed, we must re-imagine ourselves not as a separate island, but as one of many cells in a complex multi-celled organism.

THE SECOND AMERICAN REVOLUTION

While we were watching the transformation of the world on CNN, the U.S. has undergone a metamorphosis as well. The dramatic shift in population from north/east to south/west, the move from an industrial to a service- and information-based economy, the ongoing deterioration of our human services, education and public works infrastructures, our wide-spread political disaffection, and our emergence as the globe's first truly multicultural society, are but a few indications of the monumental changes taking place.

The real revolution in America, though, is rooted in our struggle over changing values. Very little of what was considered the cultural norm during the first half of the 20th Century has not been altered one way or another. As we begin the last decade of the century, the debate intensifies over such core issues as: the loss of the nuclear family, the changing roles of men and women, the definition of right and wrong, our relationship to the earth, the distribution of wealth, freedom of expression, the importance of cultural identity and much more.

Some see the changes that have taken place as a disintegration of the basic tenants of the American cultural fabric. To others, we are finally grappling with the gap between our stated ideals and the entrenched self-interest of the established power structure. In some sectors this questioning of values has precipitated a rekindling of the American spirit of creativity and innovation. In others the response has been defensive and reactionary.

Regardless of point of view, the movement, the change, the transformation, is inexorable. At home and on the world stage, America is in its "middle passage." We are pulling away from the old shoreline. As the grip of hierarchy, patrimony, and monoculture slowly fades, there is both jubilation and fear. Conflict is inevitable. But, beyond the rough seas, great opportunity awaits for those who wield the power of the creative process.

A NEW AMERICAN AESTHETIC

"In our modern world the artist is tempted simply to do stunts in order to attract attention. But the true task of the artist is to discover her or his relationship to a community, a community often in desperate need of the artist's power to see the world anew."

-Historian Page Smith, from the forward to Art in Other Places: Artists at Work in America's Community and Social Institutions

As we seek to reestablish the vitality of American community life we must turn our attention to more than bricks and mortar and job programs. We must acknowledge that there is more to a community than geography. Each community has a character, a spirit that rises from its citizens and determines the quality of its life. This essential element does not emerge from the structure of laws or codes or buildings. It comes from man's most powerful capacity-the ability to synthesize and innovate and make new-the power of creation. Our creativity mediates the tension between the need both to assert our uniqueness and to link to others. Its power allows each of us to make our own one-of-a-kind mark in the sand, using aspects of past marks, adding new elements, linking ourselves to those who have come before and those who will follow. It is a simple thing, easily called up in the right conditions, easily stifled.

The challenges of the next century must be met by citizens with enormous energy and a well developed capacity for imaginative discipline. Our communities need creative pioneers, adept at risk taking, challenging assumptions and questioning conventional wisdom. This is the domain of the artist: listening, translating, borrowing and synthesizing. The creator takes the old and new and links them. He or she celebrates the common threads and the dissonance, reflects our triumphs, our pain, our folly, creating fresh images and giving new vision. This is the creative process. This is the territory of the artist.

There are many among us who know this well. The native peoples of this land and our Asian and Central and South American neighbors have much to teach the American "mainstream" about the powerful place culture can occupy in society. For them, the creative forces are not separate, or extra, they are essential. Ironically, these cultural traditions are considered by many in this country to be an exotic curiosity, best kept separate from the "mainstream."

The time has come to give everyone in our community an opportunity to know and experience creativity as our most powerful human capacity. The time has come for all of us to discover this power beyond the realms of entertainment and decoration and investment. We must recognize how our neglect of, and disdain for, our creative capacities has contributed to many of our social problems. Together, let us rewrite our cultural dictionary and democratize our cultural hierarchies. Let us speak of a new cultural continuum, a 21st Century alliance of artists, arts organizations and an expanded array of community partners, working to build a New American Aesthetic.

Go to Part 3: Six Arguments in Support of the Arts in America