Gioia To Graduates: Art Is Political

Thorough exegesis of this great commencement speech by Dana Gioia, who heads up the NEA, can be found on Artblog Comments this morning.

I have nothing to add but vigorous fist pumps and shouts of "Amen!"

We lose our capacity to dream, engage and resist when school-aged children don't get the opportunity to explore in art class; become band nerds; dream at least briefly of becoming dancers; or find the only balm I can think of for being a teenager--becoming involved in a production of Sarte's No Exit.

I don't think it's a coincidence that we live increasingly in a world chockablock with passive entertainment even as we live in an empire over which we have no control.