WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.000 I am a cultural omnivore, 00:00:02.000 --> 00:00:04.000 one whose daily commute 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:07.000 is made possible by attachment to an iPod -- 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:09.000 an iPod that contains Wagner and Mozart, 00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:11.000 pop diva Christina Aguilera, 00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:13.000 country singer Josh Turner, 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:15.000 gangsta rap artist Kirk Franklin, 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:17.000 concerti, symphonies and more and more. 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:19.000 I'm a voracious reader, 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:22.000 a reader who deals with Ian McEwan down to Stephanie Meyer. 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:25.000 I have read the "Twilight" tetralogy. 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:28.000 And one who lives for my home theater, 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:30.000 a home theater where I devour DVDs, video-on-demand 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:32.000 and a lot of television. 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:34.000 For me, "Law and Order: SVU," 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:36.000 Tine Fey and "30 Rock" 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:39.000 and "Judge Judy" -- "The people are real, the cases are real, 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:41.000 the rulings are final." 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:43.000 Now, I'm convinced a lot of you 00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:45.000 probably share my passions, 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:47.000 especially my passion for Judge Judy, 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:49.000 and you'd fight anybody 00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:51.000 who attempted to take her away from us, 00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:54.000 but I'm a little less convinced that you share the central passion of my life, 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:57.000 a passion for the live professional performing arts, 00:00:57.000 --> 00:01:00.000 performing arts that represent the orchestral repertoire, yes, 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:03.000 but jazz as well, modern dance, opera, 00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:05.000 theater and more and more and more. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:07.000 You know, frankly 00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:09.000 it's a sector that many of us who work in the field worry 00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:11.000 is being endangered and possibly dismantled 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:13.000 by technology. 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:15.000 While we initially heralded the Internet 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:17.000 as the fantastic new marketing device 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:19.000 that was going to solve all our problems, 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:21.000 we now realize that the Internet is, if anything, 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:23.000 too effective in that regard. 00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:26.000 Depending on who you read, an arts organization 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:28.000 or an artist, who tries to attract the attention 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:30.000 of a potential single ticket buyer, 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:32.000 now competes with between 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:34.000 three and 5,000 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:36.000 different marketing messages 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:39.000 a typical citizen sees every single day. 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:41.000 We now know in fact 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:43.000 that technology is our biggest competitor for leisure time. 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:45.000 Five years ago, 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:48.000 Gen-X'ers spent 20.7 hours online and TV, 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:50.000 the majority on TV. 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:52.000 Gen-Y'ers spent even more -- 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:54.000 23.8 hours, the majority online. 00:01:54.000 --> 00:01:56.000 And now, a typical 00:01:56.000 --> 00:01:58.000 university entering student 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:00.000 arrives at college 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:02.000 already having spent 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:04.000 20,000 hours online 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:06.000 and an additional 10,000 hours 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:08.000 playing video games -- 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:10.000 a stark reminder that we operate 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:12.000 in a cultural context 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:14.000 where video games now outsell 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:17.000 music and movie recordings combined. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:20.000 Moreover, we're afraid that technology 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:23.000 has altered our very assumptions of cultural consumption. 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:25.000 Thanks to the Internet, 00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:28.000 we believe we can get anything we want whenever we want it, 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:30.000 delivered to our own doorstep. 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:32.000 We can shop at three in the morning or eight at night, 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:35.000 ordering jeans tailor-made for our unique body-types. 00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:37.000 Expectations of personalization 00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:39.000 and customization 00:02:39.000 --> 00:02:41.000 that the live performing arts -- 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:44.000 which have set curtain times, set venues, 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:47.000 attendant inconveniences of travel, parking and the like -- 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:49.000 simply cannot meet. 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:51.000 And we're all acutely aware: 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:53.000 what's it going to mean in the future 00:02:53.000 --> 00:02:55.000 when we ask someone to pay a hundred dollars 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:58.000 for a symphony, opera or ballet ticket, 00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:01.000 when that cultural consumer is used to downloading on the internet 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:03.000 24 hours a day 00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:05.000 for 99 cents a song or for free? 00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:09.000 These are enormous questions 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:11.000 for those of us who work in this terrain. 00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:13.000 But as particular as they feel to us, 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:15.000 we know we're not alone. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:17.000 All of us are engaged 00:03:17.000 --> 00:03:19.000 in a seismic, fundamental 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:21.000 realignment of culture and communications, 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:23.000 a realignment that is shaking and decimating 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:26.000 the newspaper industry, the magazine industry, 00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:29.000 the book and publishing industry and more. 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:33.000 Saddled in the performing arts as we are, by antiquated union agreements 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:36.000 that inhibit and often prohibit 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:38.000 mechanical reproduction and streaming, 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:40.000 locked into large facilities 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:42.000 that were designed to ossify 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:44.000 the ideal relationship 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:46.000 between artist and audience 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:48.000 most appropriate to the 19th century 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:51.000 and locked into a business model dependent on high ticket revenues, 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:54.000 where we charge exorbitant prices. 00:03:54.000 --> 00:03:57.000 Many of us shudder in the wake of the collapse of Tower Records 00:03:57.000 --> 00:04:00.000 and ask ourselves, "Are we next?" 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:03.000 Everyone I talk to in performing arts 00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:06.000 resonates to the words of Adrienne Rich, 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:08.000 who, in "Dreams of a Common Language," wrote, 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:10.000 "We are out in a country that has 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:12.000 no language, no laws. 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:14.000 Whatever we do together is pure invention. 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:16.000 The maps they gave us 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:19.000 are out of date by years." 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:22.000 And for those of you who love the arts, 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:25.000 aren't you glad you invited me here to brighten your day? NOTE Paragraph 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:27.000 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:29.000 (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:32.000 Now, rather than saying that we're on the brink of our own annihilation, 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:35.000 I prefer to believe that we are engaged in a fundamental reformation, 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:38.000 a reformation like the religious Reformation 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:40.000 of the 16th century. 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:43.000 The arts reformation, like the religious Reformation, 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:45.000 is spurred in part by technology, 00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:47.000 with indeed, the printing press really leading the charge 00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:49.000 on the religious Reformation. 00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:52.000 Both reformations were predicated on fractious discussion, 00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:54.000 internal self-doubt 00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:57.000 and massive realignment of antiquated business models. 00:04:57.000 --> 00:04:59.000 And at heart, both reformations, I think 00:04:59.000 --> 00:05:01.000 were asking the questions: 00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:03.000 who's entitled to practice? 00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:05.000 How are they entitled to practice? 00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:07.000 And indeed, do we need anyone 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:09.000 to intermediate for us 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:12.000 in order to have an experience with a spiritual divine? NOTE Paragraph 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:17.000 Chris Anderson, someone I trust you all know, 00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:19.000 editor-in-chief of Wired magazine and author of "The Long Tail," 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:22.000 really was the first -- for me -- to nail a lot of this. 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:24.000 He wrote a long time ago, you know, 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:26.000 thanks to the invention of the Internet, 00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:28.000 web technology, 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:30.000 mini-cams and more, 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:32.000 the means of artistic production 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:34.000 have been democratized 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:37.000 for the first time in all of human history. 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:39.000 In the 1930s, if any of you wanted to make a movie, 00:05:39.000 --> 00:05:42.000 you had to work for Warner Brothers or RKO 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:44.000 because who could afford a movie set 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:46.000 and lighting equipment and editing equipment 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:48.000 and scoring and more? 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:51.000 And now who in this room doesn't know a 14 year-old 00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:53.000 hard at work on her second, third, or fourth movie? 00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:55.000 (Laughter) 00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:58.000 Similarly, the means of artistic distribution 00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:01.000 have been democratized for the first time in human history. 00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:04.000 Again, in the '30s, Warner Brothers, RKO did that for you. 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:06.000 Now, go to YouTube, Facebook; 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:08.000 you have worldwide distribution 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:11.000 without leaving the privacy of your own bedroom. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:14.000 This double impact is occasioning 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:17.000 a massive redefinition of the cultural market, 00:06:17.000 --> 00:06:20.000 a time when anyone is a potential author. 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:23.000 Frankly, what we're seeing now in this environment 00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:25.000 is a massive time, 00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:27.000 when the entire world is changing 00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:30.000 as we move from a time when audience numbers are plummeting. 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:32.000 But the number of arts participants, 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:35.000 people who write poetry, who sing songs, 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:37.000 who perform in church choirs, 00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:40.000 is exploding beyond our wildest imaginations. 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:43.000 This group, others have called the "pro ams," 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:45.000 amateur artists doing work at a professional level. 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:47.000 You see them on YouTube, in dance competitions, 00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:49.000 film festivals and more. 00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:51.000 They are radically expanding 00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:54.000 our notions of the potential of an aesthetic vocabulary, 00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:57.000 while they are challenging and undermining 00:06:57.000 --> 00:07:00.000 the cultural autonomy of our traditional institutions. 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:02.000 Ultimately, we now live in a world 00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:04.000 defined not by consumption, 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:06.000 but by participation. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:07.000 --> 00:07:09.000 But I want to be clear, 00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:11.000 just as the religious Reformation did not spell the end 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:14.000 to the formal Church or to the priesthood; 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:16.000 I believe that our artistic institutions 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:18.000 will continue to have importance. 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:20.000 They currently are the best opportunities 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:22.000 for artists to have lives of economic dignity -- 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:25.000 not opulence -- of dignity. 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:27.000 And they are the places where artists 00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:29.000 who deserve and want to work at a certain scale of resources 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:31.000 will find a home. 00:07:31.000 --> 00:07:33.000 But to view them as synonymous 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:35.000 with the entirety of the arts community 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:38.000 is, by far, too short-sighted. 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:40.000 And indeed, while we've tended to polarize 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:42.000 the amateur from the professional, 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:44.000 the single most exciting development 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:46.000 in the last five to 10 years 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:48.000 has been the rise 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:50.000 of the professional hybrid artist, 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:52.000 the professional artist 00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:54.000 who works, not primarily in the concert hall or on the stage; 00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:56.000 but most frequently around 00:07:56.000 --> 00:07:58.000 women's rights, or human rights, 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:01.000 or on global warming issues or AIDS relief for more -- 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:03.000 not out of economic necessity, 00:08:03.000 --> 00:08:05.000 but out of a deep, organic conviction 00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:08.000 that the work that she or he, is called to do 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:10.000 cannot be accomplished in the traditional 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:12.000 hermetic arts environment. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:15.000 Today's dance world is not defined solely 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:18.000 by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet or the National Ballet of Canada, 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:21.000 but by Liz Lerman's Dance Exchange -- 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:24.000 a multi-generational, professional dance company, 00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:27.000 whose dancers range in age from 18 to 82, 00:08:27.000 --> 00:08:29.000 and who work with genomic scientists 00:08:29.000 --> 00:08:31.000 to embody the DNA strand 00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:34.000 and with nuclear physicists at CERN. 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:36.000 Today's professional theater community 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:39.000 is defined, not only the Shaw and Stratford Festivals, 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:42.000 but by the Cornerstone Theater of Los Angeles -- 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:45.000 a collective of artists that after 9/11, 00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:48.000 brought together 10 different religious communities -- 00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:50.000 the Bahia, the Catholic, 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:52.000 the Muslim, the Jewish, 00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:54.000 even the Native American 00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:56.000 and the gay and lesbian communities of faith, 00:08:56.000 --> 00:08:59.000 helping them create their own individual plays 00:08:59.000 --> 00:09:01.000 and one massive play, 00:09:01.000 --> 00:09:03.000 where they explored the differences in their faith 00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:05.000 and found commonality 00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:07.000 as an important first step 00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:09.000 toward cross-community healing. 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:12.000 Today's performers, like Rhodessa Jones, 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:14.000 work in women's prisons, 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:17.000 helping women prisoners articulate the pain of incarceration, 00:09:17.000 --> 00:09:19.000 while today's playwrights and directors work with youth gangs 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:22.000 to find alternate channels to violence 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:25.000 and more and more and more. 00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:28.000 And indeed, I think, rather than being annihilated, 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:30.000 the performing arts are posed on the brink of a time 00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:32.000 when we will be more important 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:34.000 than we have ever been. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:36.000 You know, we've said for a long time, 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:39.000 we are critical to the health of the economic communities in your town. 00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:41.000 And absolutely -- 00:09:41.000 --> 00:09:44.000 I hope you know that every dollar spent on a performing arts ticket in a community 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:47.000 generates five to seven additional dollars for the local economy, 00:09:47.000 --> 00:09:49.000 dollars spent in restaurants or on parking, 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:52.000 at the fabric stores where we buy fabric for costumes, 00:09:52.000 --> 00:09:55.000 the piano tuner who tunes the instruments and more. 00:09:55.000 --> 00:09:57.000 But the arts are going to be more important to economies 00:09:57.000 --> 00:09:59.000 as we go forward, 00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:02.000 especially in industries we can't even imagine yet, 00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:04.000 just as they have been central to the iPod 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:06.000 and the computer game industries, 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:08.000 which few, if any of us 00:10:08.000 --> 00:10:10.000 come have foreseen 10 to 15 years ago. 00:10:11.000 --> 00:10:13.000 Business leadership will depend more and more 00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:15.000 on emotional intelligence, 00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:17.000 the ability to listen deeply, 00:10:17.000 --> 00:10:19.000 to have empathy, 00:10:19.000 --> 00:10:21.000 to articulate change, to motivate others -- 00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:23.000 the very capacities 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:26.000 that the arts cultivate with every encounter. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:28.000 Especially now, 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:30.000 as we all must confront 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:33.000 the fallacy of a market-only orientation, 00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:35.000 uninformed by social conscience; 00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:38.000 we must seize and celebrate the power of the arts 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:41.000 to shape our individual and national characters, 00:10:41.000 --> 00:10:44.000 and especially characters of the young people, 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:47.000 who all too often, are subjected to bombardment of sensation, 00:10:47.000 --> 00:10:49.000 rather than digested experience. 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:53.000 Ultimately, especially now in this world, 00:10:53.000 --> 00:10:55.000 where we live in a context 00:10:55.000 --> 00:10:58.000 of regressive and onerous immigration laws, 00:10:58.000 --> 00:11:01.000 in reality TV that thrives on humiliation, 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:03.000 and in a context of analysis, 00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:05.000 where the thing we hear most repeatedly, 00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:08.000 day-in, day-out in the United States, 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:10.000 in every train station, every bus station, every plane station is, 00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:12.000 "Ladies and gentlemen, 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:14.000 please report any suspicious behavior 00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:16.000 or suspicious individuals 00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:18.000 to the authorities nearest you," 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:20.000 when all of these ways we are encouraged 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:22.000 to view our fellow human being with hostility 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:25.000 and fear and contempt and suspicion. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:29.000 The arts, whatever they do, whenever they call us together, 00:11:29.000 --> 00:11:31.000 invite us to look at our fellow human being 00:11:31.000 --> 00:11:34.000 with generosity and curiosity. 00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:37.000 God knows, if we ever needed 00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:39.000 that capacity in human history, 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:42.000 we need it now. 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:47.000 You know, we're bound together, 00:11:47.000 --> 00:11:50.000 not, I think by technology, entertainment and design, 00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:52.000 but by common cause. 00:11:52.000 --> 00:11:55.000 We work to promote healthy vibrant societies, 00:11:55.000 --> 00:11:58.000 to ameliorate human suffering, 00:11:58.000 --> 00:12:00.000 to promote a more thoughtful, 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:03.000 substantive, empathic world order. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:07.000 I salute all of you as activists in that quest 00:12:07.000 --> 00:12:10.000 and urge you to embrace and hold dear the arts in your work, 00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:13.000 whatever your purpose may be. 00:12:13.000 --> 00:12:16.000 I promise you the hand of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:19.000 is stretched out in friendship for now and years to come. 00:12:19.000 --> 00:12:21.000 And I thank you for your kindness and your patience in listening to me this afternoon. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:23.000 Thank you, and godspeed.