MacEwen Patterson
ARTSBLOG
For Arts Professionals in the Know
I recently volunteered to be one of the administrators for a cause on Facebook called Keep The Arts In Public Schools. Its incredibly rewarding.
In doing that, I believe I've been mistaken for someone I'm not.
I'll clarify. I am a father.
I am an entrepreneur. I am a co-founder of this site: Breakthrough Parenting Online
I am a writer. My Blog
And, I am a volunteer. This post was written voluntarily.
I have been recently mistaken for an activist and I am choosing this space to speak to that.
While activism is a perfectly admirable pursuit for some, I've found for me that I cannot pursue the approaches I associate with activism and remain a healthy contributor.
When I considered myself an activist (first Iraq war) I immediately realized the toll I was taking on my body and my relationships. They were suboptimal, and I was not achieving the results I sought in the world.
Read MoreAs I approach my second anniversary at Americans for the Arts later this summer, I can’t help but think about the way things have changed for the arts and cultural community since my arrival in Washington, DC, in August 2007.
In addition to my new role as editor of Arts Watch, I also produce a weekly newsletter for the members of the State Arts Action Network and state arts agencies which focuses on arts issues at the state and local level. However, since the economic downturn began last fall, I suddenly found myself getting to know more than I cared to about state, city, and county budgets.
While many experts feel that we may be close to bottoming out for this recession, arts groups must be cautious and realize that it could take another three to five years before all of our funding sources become stable again. As I recently read, we can’t think of the future based on the past and hope that the funding will return to the “normal” levels of 2007, because the new “normal” is going to have a much lower bar.
Read More"Well, how did I get here?" David Byrne, Talking Heads, from the song, Once In A Lifetime
Looking back, I'm actually not sure. I know that I could draw some obvious conclusions, and that would make for a short introduction, but I'm tired of off-the-cuff. That's not what got me here.
What got me here, on this page, was throwing away any resistance to taking a stand for the things that are important to me.
Let's start, for the sake of getting to know one another, in that moment between youth and adulthood. Often known as college. Because that's where education kicks in. Where individuation happens and the proving ground of every grade that came before shows up as internships on the resume, or the ability to connect with teachers and students and chance relationships with room mates who launch Napster, and... it's where I got clear on the connection for me between Humanities and Science.
I graduated from High School with a reasonable GPA and a demonstrated interest in chemical and physical sciences. I don't know if it's because I liked the way atoms looked in my imagination, miniscule and unpredictable galaxies colliding at millions of nanometers apart. I could literally see them in my mind's eye and calculate spins. Balancing chemical equations became second nature so maybe it was a deep appreciation for the zen-like balance that a well-done chemistry experiment shows up as on paper when it's all said and done.
That stuff is pretty cool. Especially when you have a good teacher. And, in 1989, when Silicon Valley was not quite established, I attended San Jose State University where Next Computers (a company run by Steve Jobs now of Apple & Pixar) was plying their wares on the quad next to Amex and Spring Break in Cabo Bus Tours.
My SJSU professors (I don't know if I ever actually saw them) weren't anywhere near as committed to my success as I'd grown used to in High School. Labs were fun, but there no room for error, and my best learning method was trial and error.
So, alongside losing two grandfathers and being thrown out of the dorms for excessive and noisy creativity, I packed up my 0.08 GPA (not a typo) and moved 'home'. (Never do this if you can help it. It's against nature.)
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