Beyond Our Gates Forum

Today I had the great opportunity serve as a panelist at a forum talking about arts and culture in the San Joaquin Valley. Stockton's University of the Pacific has hosted a series of Beyond Our Gates fora each of which presented a panel of speakers on a given topic. UoP is interested in hosting these conversations as a method of investigating new ways that the University can develop productive partnerships in the region and, thus far, has gathered a wealth of information.

I shared the stage today with folks from the Stockton Symphony, the Stockton Arts Commission, the Cultural Heritage Council of San Joaquin County, the local public television station, The San Joaquin Film Society, the Haggin Museum, and the Director of Parks and Recreation for the City of Lodi. What a wealth of information was shared with the audience concerning our perspectives on the strengths of the region's art and culture assets as well as our thoughts on how we could partner with UoP to further develop the arts in our region.

Here are my comments from today's session:

"Nurturing the arts and culture begins with providing avenues for the enjoyment of the arts. One has to experience artistic pieces, regardless of media, in order to develop an appreciation for how such works can add value to our lives. With that in mind, residents of the San Joaquin County region have available to them a wealth of quality institutions toward that end. Symphony and museums, ballet and film, even opera, not to mention the venues right here at Pacific, the Conservatory of Music, Reynolds Gallery, and Long Theatre all combine to afford a wealth of opportunities to develop and deepen a love of fine and applied arts for the residents of our community.

Of course, it should be no surprise, among the list of culture-building organizations in San Joaquin County that I would mention, there is the region’s own public library system: the Stockton-San Joaquin County Public Library. Not only do libraries provide the most accessible venue for enjoying the art form that is the written word, libraries also provide an extraordinarily low cost method for parents to introduce their children to the world of art through books that depict the world’s greatest visual arts, CD’s of the worlds greatest music, and video of the world’s finest theater, cinema, musical, and dance pieces.

Through events that take place at the Library every day, children beginning in their infancy are introduced to skills and concepts that provide a meaningful foundation for both educational success and lifelong cultural appreciation. Learning about the concepts of books and reading, developing an ear for rhythm and a sense of physical movement coordinated to the sounds they hear, and an introduction to the art of handcrafting “art” of their own all provide children the mental toolbox to appreciate art as they grow.

Studies have indicated that the importance of an art-filled life is, without doubt, not only important to a sophisticated elite. People from all walks of life have been shown to rate highly having accessible an array of opportunities to both enjoy the work of artists and to create works of art on their own. This might mean viewing an organized exhibit of art or attending a concert. This also might mean having the resources available to instruct citizens in how to create their own art. Again, the public library fills both roles mentioned here very well.

Because this panel is comprised of a wealth of representatives from the region’s cultural institutions, I’ll limit my comments concerning how Pacific can partner with the region to build on our collective cultural strengths to possibilities for Pacific’s partnerships with the public library. One such example of which I’m sure the level of interest in the community would be high is that of a lecture series in local library branches presented by UoP faculty from a variety of disciplines concerning a topic of timely interest. For example, the issue of environmental disaster as approached through the lenses of experts in the fields of biology, economics and literature or film might be addressed. Certainly this kind of event already takes place on the campus at universities in many cities, but reaching out into arenas in which many of our community feel more comfortable may enable us to include an entirely new audience for our discussions.

Certainly, our library spaces can provide similar venues for the talented students of music and of the visual arts to introduce to those in our community who don’t frequent the Pacific campus to both the vast talent represented by these students and to the students themselves, thereby allowing the youngest in our community to meet “real artists” and to understand that anyone is capable of becoming an artist themselves."