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January 18, 2005
Culture must change with growth of Valley
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Britany Bigler
Features Editor
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Throughout history, artistic culture has been associated
with civilization, intelligence, class, and human elevation above animals.
The development and display of the arts has had a profound influence on
the overall character of every city, state or country, for centuries.
From the hidden messages embedded in the masterpieces of ancient painters
and performers, to the contemporary designs of artists today, both ancient
and modern artists have all held on to the hope of using their talent
to express their inner passions.
Now what exactly is artistic culture, and how can one really define it?
Everyone has a different impression of what “real culture”
is or isn’t. To me, it is the feeling that encompasses you when
you walk from the busy city streets into a gallery, rich in new and replicas
of ancient art; or attending the symphony, ballet or theater. It is the
overall feeling you get when one walks the streets of a city or town full
of ancient and modern sites, foods and people. It is feeling encompassed
in someone else’s world, as if time had never passed.
Yet the culture of any given area is not always defined by these physical
things and places, but more by the simple convenience of having any given
art form at your fingertips without having to hunt or travel too far.
Yet we Arizonans seem to be lacking artistic culture. The convenience
side of it isn’t any better either. Since Arizona is located in
the Southwest, about all the culture we get without searching or paying
ghastly amounts of money for, is paintings of cowboys and Indians, country
meadows and other scenes with drab colors and pasty looking pottery. Now,
I don’t mean to pay offense to the rustic heritage of the West,
but ...
Performances were events, not something that only a senior citizen would
know about or appreciate. I don’t think that Arizona has had the
benefit of becoming culturally and artistically enriched because it has
never been a priority. Frankly, it’s just simply inconvenient and
pricey, and there just simply is a large shortage of public awareness.
Tempe and Phoenix have their share of art galleries but how many people
really know where to find them, or even know that they exist.
Arizona is in dire need of some in-your-face, authentic, artistic culture.
We need more opera and theater houses, more art galleries, along with
other venues of food. Maybe then the public’s interest and awareness
of the captivating passion of the much needed culture and art would become
more appealing.
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