Why the live arts matter | Ben Cameron | TEDxYYC
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0:00 - 0:02I am a cultural omnivore,
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0:02 - 0:06one whose daily commute is made possible
by attachment to an iPod... -
0:06 - 0:08An iPod that contains Wagner and Mozart,
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0:08 - 0:10pop diva Christina Aguilera,
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0:10 - 0:12country singer Josh Turner,
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0:12 - 0:14gangsta rap artist Kirk Franklin,
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0:14 - 0:17concerti, symphonies and more and more.
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0:17 - 0:18I'm a voracious reader,
-
0:18 - 0:21a reader who deals with Ian McEwan
down to Stephanie Meyer. -
0:21 - 0:24I have read the Twilight tetralogy.
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0:24 - 0:26And one who lives for my home theater,
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0:26 - 0:29a home theater where I devour
DVDs, video on demand -
0:29 - 0:31and a lot of television.
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0:31 - 0:34For me, "Law & Order: SVU,"
Tina Fey and "30 Rock" -
0:34 - 0:36and "Judge Judy"...
-
0:36 - 0:39"The people are real, the cases are real,
the rulings are final." -
0:39 - 0:40(Laughter)
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0:40 - 0:43Now, I'm convinced a lot of you
probably share my passions, -
0:43 - 0:46especially my passion for "Judge Judy,"
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0:46 - 0:49and you'd fight anybody
who attempted to take her away from us, -
0:49 - 0:53but I'm a little less convinced that you
share the central passion of my life, -
0:53 - 0:56a passion for the live
professional performing arts, -
0:56 - 0:59performing arts that represent
the orchestral repertoire, yes, -
0:59 - 1:01but jazz as well, modern dance, opera,
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1:01 - 1:03theater and more and more and more.
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1:03 - 1:06Frankly, it's a sector that many of us
who work in the field -
1:06 - 1:09worry is being endangered
and possibly dismantled by technology. -
1:09 - 1:13While we initially heralded the Internet
as the fantastic new marketing device -
1:13 - 1:15that was going to solve all our problems,
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1:15 - 1:18we now realize that the Internet
is, if anything, -
1:18 - 1:19too effective in that regard.
-
1:19 - 1:22Depending on who you read,
an arts organization -
1:22 - 1:24or an artist, who tries
to attract the attention -
1:24 - 1:27of a potential single ticket buyer,
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1:27 - 1:32now competes with between three and 5,000
different marketing messages -
1:32 - 1:34a typical citizen sees every single day.
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1:34 - 1:36We now know, in fact,
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1:36 - 1:39that technology is our biggest
competitor for leisure time. -
1:39 - 1:40Five years ago,
-
1:40 - 1:44Gen Xers spent 20.7 hours online and TV,
the majority on TV. -
1:44 - 1:46Gen Yers spent even more...
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1:46 - 1:4923.8 hours, the majority online.
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1:49 - 1:53And now, a typical university-entering
student arrives at college -
1:53 - 1:57already having spent 20,000 hours online
-
1:57 - 2:01and an additional 10,000 hours
playing video games... -
2:01 - 2:04A stark reminder that we operate
in a cultural context -
2:04 - 2:09where video games now outsell
music and movie recordings combined. -
2:09 - 2:10We're afraid that technology
-
2:10 - 2:13has altered our very assumptions
of cultural consumption. -
2:13 - 2:15Thanks to the Internet,
-
2:15 - 2:18we believe we can get anything
we want whenever we want it, -
2:18 - 2:19delivered to our own doorstep.
-
2:19 - 2:22We can shop at three in the morning
or eight at night, -
2:22 - 2:25ordering jeans tailor-made
for our unique body types. -
2:25 - 2:27Expectations of personalization
and customization -
2:27 - 2:29that the live performing arts...
-
2:29 - 2:32Which have set curtain times, set venues,
-
2:32 - 2:35attendant inconveniences
of travel, parking and the like... -
2:35 - 2:37Simply cannot meet.
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2:37 - 2:38And we're all acutely aware:
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2:38 - 2:40what's it going to mean in the future
-
2:40 - 2:42when we ask someone
to pay a hundred dollars -
2:42 - 2:45for a symphony, opera or ballet ticket,
-
2:45 - 2:48when that cultural consumer
is used to downloading on the internet -
2:48 - 2:5224 hours a day
for 99 cents a song or for free? -
2:52 - 2:56These are enormous questions
for those of us that work in this terrain. -
2:56 - 2:59But as particular as they feel to us,
we know we're not alone. -
2:59 - 3:01All of us are engaged
-
3:01 - 3:06in a seismic, fundamental realignment
of culture and communications, -
3:06 - 3:09a realignment that is shaking
and decimating the newspaper industry, -
3:09 - 3:13the magazine industry,
the book and publishing industry and more. -
3:14 - 3:18Saddled in the performing arts as we are,
by antiquated union agreements -
3:18 - 3:23that inhibit and often prohibit
mechanical reproduction and streaming, -
3:23 - 3:27locked into large facilities
that were designed to ossify -
3:27 - 3:30the ideal relationship
between artist and audience -
3:30 - 3:32most appropriate to the 19th century
-
3:32 - 3:35and locked into a business model
dependent on high ticket revenues, -
3:35 - 3:37where we charge exorbitant prices.
-
3:37 - 3:40Many of us shudder in the wake
of the collapse of Tower Records -
3:40 - 3:43and ask ourselves, "Are we next?"
-
3:43 - 3:47Everyone I talk to in performing arts
resonates to the words of Adrienne Rich, -
3:47 - 3:49who, in "Dreams of a Common
Language," wrote, -
3:49 - 3:52"We are out in a country
that has no language, no laws. -
3:52 - 3:55Whatever we do together is pure invention.
-
3:55 - 3:59The maps they gave us
are out of date by years." -
3:59 - 4:01And for those of you who love the arts,
-
4:01 - 4:04aren't you glad you invited
me here to brighten your day? -
4:04 - 4:06(Laughter)
-
4:06 - 4:07(Applause)
-
4:07 - 4:11Now, rather than saying that we're
on the brink of our own annihilation, -
4:11 - 4:14I prefer to believe that we are engaged
in a fundamental reformation, -
4:14 - 4:17a reformation like the religious
Reformation of the 16th century. -
4:17 - 4:20The arts reformation,
like the religious Reformation, -
4:20 - 4:22is spurred in part by technology,
-
4:22 - 4:25with indeed, the printing press
really leading the charge -
4:25 - 4:27on the religious Reformation.
-
4:27 - 4:30Both reformations were predicated
on fractious discussion, -
4:30 - 4:31internal self-doubt
-
4:31 - 4:34and massive realignment
of antiquated business models. -
4:34 - 4:38And at heart, both reformations, I think,
were asking the questions: -
4:38 - 4:39who's entitled to practice?
-
4:39 - 4:41How are they entitled to practice?
-
4:41 - 4:45And indeed, do we need anyone
to intermediate for us -
4:45 - 4:48in order to have an experience
with a spiritual divine? -
4:48 - 4:51Chris Anderson,
someone I trust you all know, -
4:51 - 4:54editor in chief of Wired magazine
and author of The Long Tail, -
4:54 - 4:57really was the first, for me,
to nail a lot of this. -
4:57 - 4:59He wrote a long time ago, you know,
-
4:59 - 5:03thanks to the invention of the Internet,
web technology, minicams and more, -
5:03 - 5:06the means of artistic production
have been democratized -
5:06 - 5:09for the first time
in all of human history. -
5:09 - 5:11In the 1930s, if any of you wanted
to make a movie, -
5:11 - 5:13you had to work for
Warner Brothers or RKO, -
5:13 - 5:15because who could afford a movie set
-
5:15 - 5:17and lighting equipment
and editing equipment -
5:17 - 5:19and scoring, and more?
-
5:19 - 5:22And now who in this room
doesn't know a 14 year-old -
5:22 - 5:25hard at work on her second,
third, or fourth movie? -
5:25 - 5:27(Laughter)
-
5:27 - 5:30Similarly, the means
of artistic distribution -
5:30 - 5:33have been democratized
for the first time in human history. -
5:33 - 5:36Again, in the '30s, Warner Brothers,
RKO did that for you. -
5:36 - 5:38Now, go to YouTube, Facebook;
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5:38 - 5:40you have worldwide distribution
-
5:40 - 5:42without leaving the privacy
of your own bedroom. -
5:42 - 5:45This double impact is occasioning
-
5:45 - 5:48a massive redefinition
of the cultural market, -
5:48 - 5:50a time when anyone is a potential author.
-
5:50 - 5:53Frankly, what we're seeing now
in this environment -
5:53 - 5:56is a massive time,
when the entire world is changing -
5:56 - 5:59as we move from a time
when audience numbers are plummeting. -
5:59 - 6:02But the number of arts participants,
-
6:02 - 6:05people who write poetry, who sing songs,
who perform in church choirs, -
6:05 - 6:09is exploding beyond
our wildest imaginations. -
6:09 - 6:12This group, others have
called the pro-ams, -
6:12 - 6:15amateur artists doing work
at a professional level. -
6:15 - 6:17You see them on YouTube,
in dance competitions, -
6:17 - 6:19film festivals and more.
-
6:19 - 6:20They are radically expanding
-
6:21 - 6:24our notions of the potential
of an aesthetic vocabulary, -
6:24 - 6:26while they are challenging and undermining
-
6:26 - 6:29the cultural autonomy
of our traditional institutions. -
6:29 - 6:33Ultimately, we now live in a world
defined not by consumption, -
6:33 - 6:34but by participation.
-
6:35 - 6:37But I want to be clear,
-
6:37 - 6:39just as the religious Reformation
did not spell the end -
6:39 - 6:42to the formal Church or to the priesthood;
-
6:42 - 6:46I believe that our artistic institutions
will continue to have importance. -
6:46 - 6:48They currently are the best opportunities
-
6:48 - 6:50for artists to have lives
of economic dignity... -
6:50 - 6:52Not opulence, of dignity.
-
6:52 - 6:54And they are the places where artists
-
6:54 - 6:57who deserve and want to work
at a certain scale of resources -
6:57 - 6:58will find a home.
-
6:58 - 7:02But to view them as synonymous
with the entirety of the arts community -
7:02 - 7:04is, by far, too shortsighted.
-
7:05 - 7:08And indeed, while we've tended to polarize
the amateur from the professional, -
7:08 - 7:13the single most exciting development
in the last five to 10 years -
7:13 - 7:16has been the rise
of the professional hybrid artist, -
7:16 - 7:18the professional artist who works,
-
7:18 - 7:21not primarily in the concert hall
or on the stage; -
7:21 - 7:24but most frequently around
women's rights, or human rights, -
7:24 - 7:27or on global warming issues
or AIDS relief for more... -
7:27 - 7:29Not out of economic necessity,
-
7:29 - 7:32but out of a deep, organic conviction
-
7:32 - 7:34that the work that she or he
is called to do -
7:34 - 7:38cannot be accomplished in the traditional
hermetic arts environment. -
7:38 - 7:41Today's dance world is not defined solely
-
7:41 - 7:44by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet
or the National Ballet of Canada, -
7:44 - 7:46but by Liz Lerman's Dance Exchange...
-
7:46 - 7:49A multi-generational,
professional dance company, -
7:50 - 7:53whose dancers range in age from 18 to 82,
-
7:53 - 7:57and who work with genomic scientists
to embody the DNA strand -
7:57 - 7:59and with nuclear physicists at CERN.
-
7:59 - 8:01Today's professional theater community
-
8:01 - 8:04is defined, not only the Shaw
and Stratford Festivals, -
8:04 - 8:07but by the Cornerstone Theater
of Los Angeles... -
8:07 - 8:10A collective of artists that after 9/11,
-
8:10 - 8:13brought together 10 different
religious communities... -
8:13 - 8:15The Baha'i, the Catholic,
-
8:15 - 8:17the Muslim, the Jewish,
-
8:17 - 8:18even the Native American
-
8:18 - 8:21and the gay and lesbian
communities of faith, -
8:21 - 8:24helping them create
their own individual plays -
8:24 - 8:26and one massive play,
-
8:26 - 8:28where they explored
the differences in their faith -
8:28 - 8:30and found commonality
-
8:30 - 8:33as an important first step
toward cross-community healing. -
8:33 - 8:37Today's performers, like Rhodessa Jones,
work in women's prisons, -
8:37 - 8:40helping women prisoners
articulate the pain of incarceration, -
8:40 - 8:43while today's playwrights
and directors work with youth gangs -
8:43 - 8:47to find alternate channels to violence
and more and more and more. -
8:47 - 8:50And indeed, I think,
rather than being annihilated, -
8:50 - 8:52the performing arts
are poised on the brink of a time -
8:53 - 8:55when we will be more important
than we have ever been. -
8:56 - 8:57You know, we've said for a long time,
-
8:57 - 9:01we are critical to the health
of the economic communities in your town. -
9:01 - 9:02And absolutely...
-
9:02 - 9:06I hope you know that every dollar spent
on a performing arts ticket in a community -
9:06 - 9:09generates five to seven
additional dollars for the local economy, -
9:09 - 9:11dollars spent in restaurants
or on parking, -
9:11 - 9:14at the fabric stores
where we buy fabric for costumes, -
9:14 - 9:16the piano tuner who tunes
the instruments, and more. -
9:16 - 9:20But the arts are going to be more
important to economies as we go forward, -
9:20 - 9:22especially in industries
we can't even imagine yet, -
9:22 - 9:26just as they have been central to the iPod
and the computer game industries, -
9:26 - 9:30which few, if any of us,
could have foreseen 10 to 15 years ago. -
9:31 - 9:33Moreover, even if you're not
in the arts industry per se, -
9:33 - 9:38Business leadership will depend
more and more on emotional intelligence, -
9:38 - 9:40the ability to listen deeply,
-
9:40 - 9:41to have empathy,
-
9:41 - 9:44to articulate change,
to motivate others... -
9:44 - 9:48The very capacities that the arts
cultivate with every encounter. -
9:48 - 9:50And last week, both Yale and Harvard
-
9:50 - 9:54announced massive curriculum restructuring
in their MBA programs -
9:54 - 9:59to, in the future, emphasize critical
and creative thinking. -
10:00 - 10:03As we move forward, the arts
are going to be even more important -
10:03 - 10:04to education.
-
10:04 - 10:07Now again, arts activists - we can recite
these statistics out the wazoo - -
10:07 - 10:11It's surely Bryce Heave,
a great demographer at Stanford University -
10:11 - 10:15found that in working with innercity kids
in east Palo Alto, California, -
10:15 - 10:17and comparing the arts kids
to the athletes, -
10:17 - 10:20and the after school religious groups
and all others, -
10:20 - 10:23it was the arts kids who blew
everybody else out of the water. -
10:23 - 10:25It was the arts kids who became
four times more likely -
10:25 - 10:29to run for calss office,
to participate in math and science fairs -
10:29 - 10:33the arts kids who showed major reductions
in disciplinary infractions -
10:33 - 10:38the arts kids who were exponentially
more likely to graduate from high school, -
10:38 - 10:40than their non-arts coleagues.
-
10:40 - 10:41And what we've heard today already
-
10:41 - 10:44about science and engineering
and technology, -
10:44 - 10:46as we move into educational reform,
-
10:46 - 10:48emphasis on those things alone
-
10:48 - 10:52cannot promote the integrated
left brain-right brain thinking -
10:52 - 10:53that a creative age -
-
10:54 - 10:58a creative age that demands
our ability to think and behave creatively -
10:58 - 10:59will demand.
-
11:00 - 11:01Especially now,
-
11:01 - 11:04as we move forward into an increasingly
diverse world -
11:04 - 11:06driven by plurality
rather than by majority. -
11:06 - 11:09The arts will be
increasingly critical to us. -
11:10 - 11:12As Francois Massaro has pointed out,
-
11:13 - 11:17the arts allow people with non-majority
values, lives and beliefs -
11:17 - 11:22to present themselves as the subjects
of their own characterizations, -
11:22 - 11:26rather than to be reduced as the objects
of the characterizations of others. -
11:26 - 11:30How ofthen has our understanding
of the incarserated -
11:30 - 11:32and criminal injustice
-
11:32 - 11:34been expanded by the exhonorated?
-
11:34 - 11:37A play that's derived from transcripts
from prisoners on death row. -
11:37 - 11:40How has our understanding
of the emerging power of women -
11:40 - 11:43been amplified by the Vagina Monologues?
-
11:43 - 11:46Or by the HIV positive
in the gay and lesbian communities -
11:46 - 11:49by plays like "The Normal Hearth"
with the Laramie Project -
11:49 - 11:51or films like "Philadelphia"?
-
11:51 - 11:53Even before Charles Dickens' writing
-
11:53 - 11:56spurred massive change
in child labor laws, -
11:56 - 11:58and Harriet Beecher Stowe's
"Uncle Tom's Cabin" -
11:59 - 12:00galvanized the abolitionist movement,
-
12:00 - 12:04we know first-hand the power of the arts
-
12:04 - 12:08to promote understanding of the other
and to be spursed to social action. -
12:09 - 12:10Those of us old enough to remember,
-
12:10 - 12:13know that we started every anti-war rally
in the Vietnam war -
12:13 - 12:15by singing "Blowing in the Wind."
-
12:15 - 12:18And every civil rights demonstration
in the 60s by singing -
12:18 - 12:19"We shall overcome."
-
12:19 - 12:22And we cannot be surprised
by the power of singing and music -
12:22 - 12:26and of singing together,
making art together, -
12:27 - 12:31to bind the community of disparate
citizens apt for social change. -
12:32 - 12:36Times are historically hard right now
in the performing arts. -
12:37 - 12:40But I'm deeply optimistic
about the future. -
12:40 - 12:44In part because of gatherings
like the one we are at today. -
12:44 - 12:47As someone who grew up,
and whose first computer -
12:47 - 12:50occupied the entire floor
of a basement room with punch cards, -
12:50 - 12:51(Laughter)
-
12:51 - 12:55and who for many years still thought
my PC was a typewriter with a screen, -
12:56 - 12:59I several years ago decided to plunge
into the belly of a beast -
12:59 - 13:01and attended my first
high-tech conference, -
13:01 - 13:03a conference callen Poptech
in Camden, Maine. -
13:03 - 13:05Contrary to my expectations,
-
13:05 - 13:07this was not a conference about
start-ups and financing -
13:08 - 13:09and computer behavior.
-
13:09 - 13:10This was, and is - like this one -
-
13:10 - 13:14a conference about
how we will change the world. -
13:14 - 13:16How we will conquer AIDS.
-
13:17 - 13:19How we will conquer global warming.
-
13:20 - 13:23How we will leave the world
a more ecologically balanced, -
13:23 - 13:26less poverty ridden place
than the one we inherited. -
13:27 - 13:29Indeed, I think
the unspoken assumption is, -
13:29 - 13:31there is nothing we cannot achieve.
-
13:31 - 13:34And in a world of high tech,
truly anything is possible. -
13:35 - 13:37Now, you might call this arrogance,
-
13:38 - 13:39you might call it the folley of youth -
-
13:39 - 13:42and a lot of these people
were really young - -
13:43 - 13:45but I think what became clear to me
-
13:45 - 13:47was in the world
of infinite possibilities, -
13:47 - 13:49there's infinite new value in the arts.
-
13:50 - 13:52I was cheered at this conference
on several levels. -
13:52 - 13:54I was cheered the artists were embraced -
-
13:54 - 13:57artists appeared in many clusters
like the one we hhad today, -
13:57 - 13:59a live performing artist
concluded or followed -
13:59 - 14:01every one of the clusters
throughout the day. -
14:01 - 14:03I remember Vanessa German -
-
14:03 - 14:05an African-American
young spoken word poet -
14:05 - 14:10who blew the roof off with her raw
evocation of power and feeling. -
14:10 - 14:13I remember a hip-hop dancer
who dances on crutches, -
14:13 - 14:14shattering our preconceptions
-
14:14 - 14:17about what phisical limitation
and expressivity can mean. -
14:17 - 14:21And I especially remember a choir
of HIV positive Africans -
14:21 - 14:22from the African continent,
-
14:22 - 14:25whose very singing embodied
in ways words cannot -
14:25 - 14:29the [unclear] between
social ostracization and disease. -
14:29 - 14:31You know, I was encouraged even more
-
14:31 - 14:34that this group fought to get there.
-
14:34 - 14:37Camden, Maine, if you've never been
is not an easy place to get to. -
14:37 - 14:39You fly to one airport,
then you fly to Boston, -
14:39 - 14:42then to Portland,
and then you drive 90 more miles -
14:42 - 14:45but still, people fought
for those 500 seats. -
14:45 - 14:47Even though this community
can convene virtually, -
14:47 - 14:48if any community can,
-
14:48 - 14:52they fought to get there because they know
first-hand in the bodies -
14:52 - 14:55the power of live
face-to-face interaction. -
14:55 - 14:58Of conspiring - in its Latin sense,
which I love - -
14:58 - 15:02to conspire literally means
to breathe together. -
15:02 - 15:04Which I love.
-
15:05 - 15:07And throughout the conference,
I heard this hunger. -
15:08 - 15:09Hunger in the background.
-
15:10 - 15:13This group was desperate to slow down,
-
15:13 - 15:15to connect to passions
-
15:15 - 15:20to connect to experiences that would
provide contemplation, captivation, -
15:20 - 15:22that would provoke intelectually,
-
15:23 - 15:26delight emotionally,
resonate spiritually - -
15:26 - 15:29the very things that the arts
always are called to do. -
15:30 - 15:32Especially now,
-
15:33 - 15:37as we all must confront
the fallacy of a market-only orientation, -
15:37 - 15:39uninformed by social conscience;
-
15:39 - 15:42we must seize and celebrate
the power of the arts -
15:42 - 15:45to shape our individual
and national characters, -
15:45 - 15:48and especially characters
of the young people, -
15:48 - 15:51who all too often are subjected
to bombardment of sensation, -
15:51 - 15:53rather than digested experience.
-
15:53 - 15:56Ultimately, especially now in this world,
-
15:56 - 16:01where we live in a context of regressive
and onerous immigration laws, -
16:01 - 16:04in reality TV that thrives on humiliation,
-
16:04 - 16:06and in a context of analysis,
-
16:06 - 16:10where the thing we hear most repeatedly,
day in, day out in the United States, -
16:11 - 16:14in every train station, every bus station,
every plane station is, -
16:14 - 16:15"Ladies and gentlemen,
-
16:15 - 16:19please report any suspicious behavior
or suspicious individuals -
16:19 - 16:21to the authorities nearest to you,"
-
16:21 - 16:23when all of these ways we are encouraged
-
16:23 - 16:26to view our fellow human being
with hostility and fear -
16:26 - 16:27and contempt and suspicion.
-
16:27 - 16:30The arts, whatever they do,
whenever they call us together, -
16:30 - 16:35invite us to look at our fellow
human being with generosity and curiosity. -
16:35 - 16:39God knows, if we ever needed
that capacity in human history, -
16:39 - 16:41we need it now.
-
16:42 - 16:44You know, we're bound together,
-
16:44 - 16:47not, I think by technology,
entertainment and design, -
16:47 - 16:48but by common cause.
-
16:49 - 16:53We work to promote
healthy vibrant societies, -
16:53 - 16:55to ameliorate human suffering,
-
16:55 - 17:00to promote a more thoughtful,
substantive, empathic world order. -
17:00 - 17:03I salute all of you
as activists in that quest -
17:03 - 17:06and urge you to embrace
and hold dear the arts in your work, -
17:06 - 17:08whatever your purpose may be.
-
17:08 - 17:11I promise you the hand
of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation -
17:11 - 17:14is stretched out in friendship
for now and years to come. -
17:14 - 17:16And I thank you for your kindness
and your patience -
17:16 - 17:18in listening to me this afternoon.
-
17:18 - 17:19Thank you, and Godspeed.
- Title:
- Why the live arts matter | Ben Cameron | TEDxYYC
- Description:
-
Arts administrator and live-theater fan Ben Cameron looks at the state of the live arts -- asking: How can the magic of live theater, live music, live dance compete with the always-on Internet? In this talk, he offers a bold look forward.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDxTalks
- Duration:
- 17:21
TED Translators admin edited English subtitles for Why the live arts matter | Ben Cameron | TEDxYYC | ||
Ivana Korom edited English subtitles for Why the live arts matter | Ben Cameron | TEDxYYC | ||
Ivana Korom edited English subtitles for Why the live arts matter | Ben Cameron | TEDxYYC |