Art & Politics: Changing Hearts and Minds - led by Anne Hawley

Introduction

Why do we care about art anyway?  When ideas are expressed freely through art, they go directly to our emotions, then to our minds. Art gives voice to our time, our issues and deepest concerns. In today’s globalized world, where war is no longer about conquering territory but about winning hearts and minds, art becomes not only a powerful expression, but also a weapon. This is both for good and ill.

Because America is often perceived abroad as a cultural colonizer through its popular culture of Hollywood films, rock music, Coca-Cola products, and sexy fashions –it is seen as degenerate and threatening of the values of traditional cultures. There is a push back in many countries: a rejection of these exports resulting in a form of cultural war. As a recent example, the Islamic ISIS group in the Middle East uses violence to oppose Western culture and win the hearts and minds of their youthful recruits. Most recently, they have destroyed ancient buildings in Syria and attacked a concert hall in Paris where an American rock group was performing.

At the same time, cities in the Middle East and Asia, from Abu Dhabi, to Shanghai, are boldly building themselves into world-class centers using the best architects to reshape them during an unprecedented building boom.

Closer to us in the U.S., employers say that creativity is the trait they most seek in hiring. Art is central in all of this. 

My career in the arts has focused connecting art to the public. Early on, I formed an arts NGO, next I ran a state arts council, and most recently directed an art museum. 

When I was appointed Director of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, an internationally renowned personal museum created by its eponymous founder, my charge was to transform the sleepy institution into a world class cultural center as it had been in her day. Just six months into this quite grueling task, thieves disguised as policemen broke into the museum around 1:00am and stole thirteen priceless works of art including a Vermeer and three Rembrandts. Thousands of leads later, the art is not yet recovered.

Despite this devastating event and using it as leverage, I’ve led a transformation of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, preserving its historic building and doubling its size with a new addition by architect Renzo Piano. Any transformation of this scale requires the participation of government officials. Deft political support of Boston’s then Mayor, Tom Menino was key. In this most personal and sensuous of museums, I’ve initiated an Artists-in-Residence program; conceived exhibitions (contemporary and historic); established a concert program; installed new gardens and created new education programs. Attendance on site has soared and online programs attract millions.

Earlier in my career, I led a public arts agency, the Massachusetts State Arts Council, where I attained the second highest arts council budget in the U.S, worked with the Governor and state legislature to pass laws requiring public art in state building projects, to fund education programs of cultural organizations, and to facilitate the financing of capital projects. I further devised experimental programs commissioning young world class artists such as theater artist Robert Wilson, choreographer Mark Morris, and light artist James Turrell.

The persuasion process with legislators was filled with impassioned dialogue and theater. I had to stand up to a Senate President wanting to curtail free speech by threatening to cancel a play critical of the Catholic church and have defended artists’ projects whose practices offended public taste. At the international level, I negotiated with officials of many countries to conduct artistic exchanges including the former Soviet Union under Gorbachev’s Presidency where his policy of Glasnost and Perestroika unleashed an immense artistic flowering in music, visual arts and theater. In the spring of 1987, I experienced an experimental theater production (“The Education of Dr. Spock”) on a Moscow night where over 100 new theaters were performing experimental plays challenging the communist party…all the while being followed by the KGB.

I am proposing a seminar that illuminates many of the intersections art has with politics and the public.  Culture is intrinsic to life. Art can   engage our senses and by doing so transport us to new places of mind,   feeling, and creativity. Through architecture and design, art shapes our public and private spaces. Through its visual, film, and literary works, art informs and shapes the way we think about our lives. Art will document our time for future civilizations and can be our window into the human struggles and triumphs of past time. Let me invite you to journey with me into a world of politics and art.

Room: Faculty Dining Room, HKS

***All study groups are off-the-record and not for media coverage***