After accessing
http://www.whatsyourartgr.com/, some individuals may be inclined to brush the website off as just another arts guide. But appearances can be deceiving.
As I navigated the site, I was delighted to see that it works to promote and advance the arts scene in West Michigan. Perhaps so much that it may ultimately be tied to the salvation of our local arts scene.
I have never been guilty of being anything less than dramatic, but I am being serious here.
At a time when we have record numbers of arts events being produced in this region, we have also developed a sort of Attention Deficient Disorder resulting in some of the worst event attendance records.
The old saying goes, if you are given too many choices, you may end up not making any choice.
Apathy can be the death knell for not only some arts organizations, but for our growing city and arts community as well.
It is no secret that the economy has played a huge factor in this decline, but there is something else at work here. A lack of being able to settle in advance on an event means many seats go unfilled, gallery openings appear sparse…empty.
Most people who read this column are probably some of the biggest and best champions for the arts, so I apologize if I am preaching to the choir. I'm just not sure how to handle the fact that the choir loft may be full, and we don't know how to reach further in the church.
While I do not offer any solutions here this week, I hope in the coming weeks to begin a dialogue that focuses on how we together can reverse this trend. So I will begin to offer some observations on the subject, but I really encourage anyone with ideas to let me know about them.
West Michigan is home to so many wonderfully out-of-the-box thinkers that I hope we can generate some constructive solutions to this problem. So I call upon you this week to share this editorial challenge via your Facebook, your Twitter postings and, most of all, with real time conversations hopefully conducted at area businesses.
What's Your Art site begins the dialogue within our community by making it easier for us to connect to our arts community. Now it is up to us to bring more people into the chorus.
The Future Needs All of Us
Tommy Allen, Lifestyle Editor
Email:
[email protected]Twitter Feed:
@TommyGSyncTwitter Topic: #ArtsGR
Click here to continue to this week's G-Sync events.Photo provided by Terry Johnston
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