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This article was downloaded by: [University of Waterloo] On: 20 November 2014, At: 15:40 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjam20 On Valuing The Arts Joni Maya Cherbo a a Rutgers University Press publication Published online: 07 Aug 2010. To cite this article: Joni Maya Cherbo (2007) On Valuing The Arts, The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society, 37:2, 170-172, DOI: 10.3200/JAML.37.2.170-172 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/JAML.37.2.170-172 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/ terms-and-conditions

On Valuing The Arts

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Page 1: On Valuing The Arts

This article was downloaded by: [University of Waterloo]On: 20 November 2014, At: 15:40Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

The Journal of Arts Management,Law, and SocietyPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjam20

On Valuing The ArtsJoni Maya Cherbo aa Rutgers University Press publicationPublished online: 07 Aug 2010.

To cite this article: Joni Maya Cherbo (2007) On Valuing The Arts, The Journal of ArtsManagement, Law, and Society, 37:2, 170-172, DOI: 10.3200/JAML.37.2.170-172

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/JAML.37.2.170-172

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the“Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis,our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoeveras to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Anyopinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of theauthors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy ofthe Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified withprimary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses,actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilitieswhatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, inrelation to or arising out of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Anysubstantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms& Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

Page 2: On Valuing The Arts

On Valuing The Arts

JONI MAYA CHERBO

he presence and value of arts in human life continues to be a source of inquiry. Writers and researchers have focused on aesthetic sensibilities,

the physiology of the brain, and socioeconomic and political explanations. The RAND Corporation report, Gifts of the Muse: Reframing the Debate about the Benefits of the Arts (McCarthy et al. 2004), criticizes recent studies for overemphasizing the distinction between the instrumental and the intrinsic value of the arts. The distinction, however, is a false dichotomy—an incor-rect, culture-bound concept of art that muddies the discussion of its value to society. It is precisely the intrinsic nature of art that makes it so valuable instrumentally.

Art is as universal to our species as food gathering, procreation, communi-ty, and warfare. Recorded history has shown us that art—in various forms—is found in every tribe, society, and civilization known to mankind. So omnipres-ent is art to human life, that anthropologist Ellen Dissanayake claims mankind could rightly be called homo aestheticus. She notes that paleontologists have found evidence of art—drawings and carvings—in societies dating back a quarter of a million years ago and far longer than the well-known drawings of bulls or horses in the caves of Lascaux (Dissanayake 2006).

According to Dissanayake, art comes into being when something ordinary is turned into something special—our innate capacity for movement is made into dance, sound into songs, poetry from ordinary language, the transformation of simple materials such as wood, clay, fiber, and stone into special objects.

Joni Maya Cherbo is a consulting editor for JAMLS and a series editor for The Pubic Life of the Arts in America, a Rutgers University Press publication. She is an indepen-dent writer/researcher currently working as cultural policy coordinator for Americans for the Arts. Copyright © 2007 Heldref Publications.

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Dissanayake notes that although the English language does not have a verb for art, humans continually “artify” their lives.

• We do not merely clothe ourselves, we adorn our bodies with garments, trinkets, and markings.

• We use art to identify our social positions in society—rings noting marital status, jewelry showing religious preferences, clothing with group insig-nias, body markings, uniforms denoting specific occupations.

• We mark important personal events such as birthdays and weddings with ritual songs, dances, and decorations.

• We individualize our homes with décor.• Our free time is frequently spent involved with art—going to movies, tak-

ing photographs, attending arts events, and social dancing.• Societies use art to symbolize their distinctiveness and solidarity—our tri-

colored flag, the White House, the presidential monuments on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and our national anthem.

• Nations use art to highlight important historical moments—war memorials, parades on national holidays, and presidential libraries.

• Our theologies, concepts of higher order, are infused with artistic expres-sions that lend credibility, awe, and beautification to belief—elaborately adorned places of worship, reverential songs, and icons.

We are indeed an “arty species.” Art is part of our biological heritage, our DNA, our species’ nature. It has contributed to the manifest needs of human social life from the beginning of time and continues to do so today—to heal-ing, play, entertainment, wonder, celebration, security, catharsis, transcen-dence, belonging, and social placement.

The universal existence of art should not be confused with the elevation of select artistic forms and expressions into something rarified. Each society places different values on its assorted artistic products. Yet, the high school student’s original poem and that of a poet laureate are both art. Watching a community theater or going to a Broadway play are both an art experience. The Sunday potter and Dale Chihuily are both making art.

Artistic expressions and policies that are determined to be of public importance—heritage monuments, cultural diplomacy, select literature/paint-ings/theater, arts education in the schools—must have their spokespersons. Nothing good can be taken for granted. Even clean air needs its advocates, and art is no exception.

Because empiricism is the holy grail of our times, we measure the arts to show various stakeholders the manifest ways art is important to individuals and society. It is our contemporary way of showing the contours of something, its validity, its impact, its utility, and its worth.

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• We count the number of persons attending a ballet, concert, or museum to document interest.

• We advocate for the inclusion of arts in the K–12 education program believ-ing in its centrality to an integrative education and knowing its importance as a learning tool.

• We document the extraordinary curative and palliative value the arts provide for the sick and infirm—how a depressed community can be rejuvenated by a cultural center; how youth in trouble are often refocused due to an after school arts program; how the arts aid a stricken nation in finding solace, and the importance of creative workers and arts-based firms to national and local economies.

One can always find holes in empirical studies. Yet these efforts, however in need of retooling or effective their results, attempt to show how art sustains our connectedness to place, to others, to nature, to spirit—to life. They remind various persons entrusted with our well-being that art is not frosting on the cake; it is the batter. That art is not separate from everyday life nor does it live in a rarified sphere open only to the aesthete or the highly educated. Rather, art is inextricably and necessarily entwined in our lives and must be continu-ally protected and nourished.

REFERENCES

Dissanayake Ellen. 2008 (forthcoming). The universality of the arts. In Understanding the arts and creative sector in the United States, ed. Joni Maya Cherbo, Joni Maya, Ruth Ann Stewart, and Margaret Jane Wyszomirski. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.

McCarthy, Kevin F., Elizabeth H. Ondaatje, Laura Zakaras, and Arthur Brooks. 2004. Gifts of the muse: Reframing the debate about the benefits of the arts. Santa Monica, CA: RAND.

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