I had such fun last Sunday visiting the newly reopened and expanded Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA). Being in that magnificent space, experiencing excitingly new art and sacred ancient works, I understood the Museum’s ad campaign “It’s Your Art” and I was moved. It is indeed a people’s museum.
It was such a different crowd and vibe – down-to-earth while also elegant – from what I’ve felt in some of our country’s more well-heeled museums. There were young people, old people, and families. There were children everywhere looking closely at art, talking about art, and laughing innocently about the pieces that made them uncomfortable. Best of all – there was no shushing going on!
Peeking into the third-floor restaurant, I was welcomed in by the maître d’, who informed me, “It’s your art” despite my shorts and t-shirt. Some people were in their Sunday finest; most were casually dressed like me, as if coming to the Museum were as common as going for a walk. And such a nice walk it is! The redesigned grounds are gorgeous and welcoming. Granted, I live just 3 blocks away, so I’m particularly fond of this beautiful new building in my neighborhood. Or rather, I am in her neighborhood, as she is definitely the Grand Dame sitting effortlessly and elegantly among row houses and magnolia trees.
Admission to the VMFA is free – always. I believe this is the very reason it feels like a museum for all of us. I was so proud of the Commonwealth of Virginia for investing in a museum for her citizens.
Years ago, I worked for the National Endowment for the Arts when we, the United States, were supporting visual artists, choreographers, theaters, dance companies, museums, arts education, and grassroots art in communities all across the country (at a mere 35 cents per taxpayer, per year.) It was an exciting, thriving agency at that time, with passionate, dedicated employees and volunteers. I worked in the dance program where I witnessed ballet and modern dance legends consider grants for new commissions, and I sat in on vibrant discussions on folk art, painting, American musical theater, and more.
Then the simmering culture wars heated to a fury. Controversy over works by Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano led to the forced resignation of then-NEA Chairman John Frohnmayer. I’ll never forget his gathering the agency staff for an emergency meeting, at which he sang “Simple Gifts” as his farewell. In the years following, our nation’s support for the arts was severely reduced. I’m grateful that the NEA’s budget allocation is on its way up again. I believe in private citizens supporting our national culture, but I also believe it is critical for our country’s heart and psyche that our government does so as well.
I’d like to say thank you to the corporate and citizen donors who made the VMFA’s fabulous new building and campus renovation possible. Thank you to those who have contributed collections and dollars for the Museum to acquire treasures for all of us to appreciate. You’ve inspired me to do the same. And thank you most of all to the Commonwealth of Virginia for believing culture is valuable and essential for her people.
Archive for May, 2010
Art for the People
May 27, 2010Being Human
May 17, 2010During an email discussion about the latest in a string of horrific attacks on children in China, my family asked me, as they do after nearly every tragedy, “So Nerd, where is God?” (I’m disclosing my family nickname here because it requires an appropriate dose of humility when I am asked to give my opinion on such matters.) Luckily for me, one of my sisters took the lead on trying to answer this most difficult question, she said:
“God wants you to take responsibility for your own actions. He may have created the universe, but he is not going to save you (over some other poor soul) if you are in danger. He (?) created the force of Nature, and the ways of Nature cause these awful things to happen… On the flip side, many, many wonderful things are happening at the exact same time as the awful ones. Good WILL prevail as Good is stronger than evil and therefore will survive.”
Thomas Keating expressed a similar sentiment in The Human Condition:
“God invites us to take responsibility for being human and to open ourselves to the unconscious damage that is influencing our decisions and relationships.”
It seems to me that we are given a mind, body, heart, and spirit to do with as we wish – to tend with care and effort so that we may use ourselves for good. Or not.
Like my sister, I believe there exists more good than evil in the world and in the majority of humans. I often forget to acknowledge the good, though. Especially when facing a challenging situation, I don’t give good its due credit for my cozy apartment, my health, a felt sense of God, cute pillows on my couch, plenty of food, iced green tea, an amazing church which asks so little for all it gives, the sound of birds, a strong and kind boyfriend, a loving family that has experienced relatively few tragedies, enough money to pay my bills… the list goes on.
I believe taking responsibility for being human includes opening to and respecting the range of what it means to be human. The whole range – good, bad and in between. A favorite priest once suggested that I, ”feel it all, welcome it all and let it all go.”
Within each person and each spiritual tradition, good and bad are subjective. So how do we all figure out how to be with one another? Whose code (and which interpretation of that code) are we following? And how do we know whether our well-intentioned contributions will be received as we hope? I’m not sure, but perhaps we need to expand our “good” portfolio to allow for different perspectives while being true to ourselves and our values.
It’s an individual journey – this moment-to-moment decision-making. Serve my understanding of good or add fuel to the fire of evil? Which will I choose? Which will you? As the poet Mary Oliver asks in “The Summer Day”:
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
I look forward to finding out.
In the Name of God
May 2, 2010Hardly.
In this morning’s New York Times, I read an article about the “Lord’s Resistance Army” (LRA) and their recent activity in northern Uganda. Now, I ask you, what do you think an army named after the Lord does? Feed its country’s poorest people? Provide health care? Educate children so they may create a better life for themselves and their communities?
Well, apparently not. Instead, this self-proclaimed “Christian” militant group came upon a 23-year-old woman working in her field, told her she “talked too much,” and cut off her lips and right ear. This “army of the Lord” – raised by kidnapping children and, under threat of their own death, forcing them to kill – originally claimed to be guided by the Ten Commandments. No wonder we’re fighting an uphill battle to trust in religion, any religion, as a good and just thing.
A few paragraphs into the article, I realized why some people I know have stopped reading the newspaper. The front page can indeed be horrifying, but I feel it’s my duty to be aware of what is happening to my fellow man – whether it be on the Gulf Coast or halfway around the globe.
To counteract my news-induced state of depression, I went to yoga. In class, I thought, “What can I do in the name of God?” If I can’t stop this “Lord’s Army” from continuing its butchery, is there anything I can do to provide counter-balance to their evil?
I decided that starting small was better than nothing. So, I invoked God’s name in every upward-facing dog pose (of which there were many). In every forward bend, I silently said, “In the name of God.” And you know what? My heart opened, my body relaxed, and my exhalation lengthened – as if being connected to more than myself was my natural state.
While the Ugandan government, with U.S. support, pursues its own strategy for ending the LRA’s 20-year maraud, can extra devotion in my yoga practice make any difference for the young woman with gauze and tape where her lips used to be? I’m not sure.
Today’s passage in a meditation book of my late father’s reads: “You must be, before you can do… We must choose the good and keep choosing it, before we are ready to be used by God to accomplish anything worthwhile.”
I use yoga as a spiritual practice to work on the “be” part, so that ultimately I may do. Does a more open heart make a difference in the world? I think so. For me, being in a worthwhile state takes practice and intention. Likewise, doing good is a choice I must make again and again. Love just a little bit more than I would have. Exhale one second longer.
What can you do today in the name of God? Actually, what can you be?
All of us becoming ready to be used by God. What could the world look like then? I hope to find out.
