Aesthetics and Athletics: Not So Unlikely a Pair

Throughout most of my time in academia, arts and athletic departments always seemed bitter rivals. This is especially true when speaking about funding curricula. The well-rehearsed and received argument says dollars funding an arts-based curriculum will always be cut before athletes and coaches feel the crunch. I don't follow the money so don't know the strength of the argument. But pitting these two (what are they?) academic or extra-curricular programs (?), disciplines (?), interests (?) against each other may be an apples and oranges debate: both are different, but belong together.

For the past few months, I've been thinking more about how and when aesthetics and athletics pair up. For me, the natural starting point is ancient Greek sculpture of Olympic athletes. Of course this easily tapped reference is the result of an art history curriculum. What I am finding recently is a more natural pairing of the two taking place in recent conversations on Twitter and blog postings and general comments about art.

Art writer and sports fan Tyler Green pulls these two topics together effortlessly. With his more current America's Favorite Art Museum brackets and last year's Super Bowl bet between the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the New Orleans Museum of Art his readers can satisfy interests spanning what's been accepted as a wide spectrum. And finally, our human tendencies towards both competition and the arts has been more recently harnessed and presented in Bravo's Work of Art.

Still, there are many who feel it necessary to patrol the pairing of aesthetics and athletics. The Cincinnati Art Museum has enjoyed a successful summer of arts and programming around the theme of Americana, called SEE America. In these final weeks, they've installed a large screen t.v. on which visitors can watch a Cincinnati Reds baseball game or historical highlights of the first major league baseball team. Not surprising, there was some grumbling in the stands. A few think the museum is not a place to watch baseball and suggested this was simply a gimmick to get new patrons into the museum. With a whole summer devoted to American culture, the museum should be safe from such an accusation.

The only way to agree with this argument is to simply dismiss the historical compatibility of aesthetics and athletics. What do these critics have to say about Andy Warhol's Pete Rose on permanent display in this museum?

Are there other examples of the pairings of arts and sports? Can recognizing these cultural interests as siblings rather than enemies help strengthen school curricula?

Fine Arts Sampler Challenge

It's that time of year again when the city of Cincinnati stops supporting the arts to support the Fine Arts Fund.

Today, the Fine Arts Fund kicks off it's 10-week capital campaign with a goal of $11 million. There will be many events throughout the Greater Cincinnati region, particularly this weekend with the Fine Arts Sampler Weekend. This is certainly one of the most exciting arts weekend in the city. A time when art is almost unavoidable to see and experience (my kind of weekend). Art venues from both sides of the river as well as in many of our northern suburbs open their spaces in the hopes for bigger audiences to participate in classes, see and hear performances, and meet artists. With such a grand showcase, the Fine Arts Fund hopes even in this economy to encourage people to see the importance of the arts and support them....them, being the Fine Arts Fund.

You see, during the FAF 10-week capital campaign the "big eight" agrees to suspend all fundraising efforts. Of course this is to insure FAF campaign success. But this also supports the old trickle down theory of arts support the FAF pushes. According to their notion, if you support the FAF and the big institutions, our smaller arts organizations will survive. As I've maintained from the beginning of this blog, trickle down doesn't work in economics and it certainly doesn't work in the arts.

Enjoy the Fine Arts Sampler this weekend. There really is so much happening in the arts here in Greater Cincinnati. And as you recognize this wealth of art again this year, I challenge you to truly support the arts. You can do this by personally becoming a member of any of our arts organizations. There are many art organizations that have wonderful membership packages filled with events and activities in which you will want to participate throughout the year. Your access to the arts is more direct if you are member of an arts organization.

Challenge: For any event, art class, and venue you visit this weekend, consider giving directly to that arts organization. Or even better, become a member of an organization you have visited this weekend.

Your access to the arts is more direct if you support the art organizations than if you support the Fine Arts Fund. So don't stop supporting the arts these next few weeks.