Holiday  music everywhere we go.  Viral YouTube videos of flash mobs singing and dancing. Television shows and ads filled with song.

We take it all for granted, but so much of this season is about singing, dancing, admiring, performing.  Holiday plays at school. Crafts fairs and art shows. Performances of A Christmas Carol.  Displays of Christmas lights that take your breath away.

It’s hard to imagine the holidays without all that.

But maybe we should try to do just that.  Imagine not just this time of year, but the rest of the year as well.

What would life be like without song, without beauty, without television shows, without stories to read to our kids?  What would it be like if there were no dance. No music.  No art…

I’ve been thinking lately about the fact that “art” is simply the word we use to describe all forms of human expression.  How can art be considered “fluff” or “extra,” when the ability to express and create keeps us well? Without healthy means of expressing ourselves, we wither and die – or worse, express ourselves through violence and abuse.

Margaret Martin made that point in the amazing interview she did here (you can download it from iTunes here).  Kids in the American education system, who lose interest in learning from the time they are 8 years old – UNLESS they are involved in the arts.  Gang members who stop in a mall to hear a young violinist play, gently placing money in his case.

Listening to Margaret’s interview confirms what many of us sense instinctively.  Art is not something only some of us can “do.” It is how each of us expresses our very being.  How we arrange the flowerpots on our front stoop.  The songs we sing to our children at night.  The heart that dots the i in a teenager’s name.

We are expressive beings.  Our ability to express ourselves makes us healthy, whole.  Without that means of self-expression AND appreciation for the expression of others, we die.

Art saves lives.

So this holiday season, if you are thinking about a last minute gift, get tickets to a local performance. Buy a piece of artwork from a local gallery. Do something that speaks to the soul – of the person who receives the gift, the person who created it, and the person giving it.

And please, as you consider your last minute donations this year, write a check to a local arts group – or your local arts coalition.  Tell the world with your dollars: Art is not separate. It is not extra.  Art is humanity is life.

Have a great Monday, a great week – and regardless of whether or not it is a religious holiday for you, a great Christmas – one and all!

My recommendation: Head to iTunes and download all the Making Change interviews to listen over the break.  You will head back to work inspired from head to toe!

]]> http://hildygottlieb.com/2010/12/19/monday-morning-rock-out-62/feed/ 3 http://hildygottlieb.com/2010/04/18/monday-morning-rock-out-51/ http://hildygottlieb.com/2010/04/18/monday-morning-rock-out-51/#comments Mon, 19 Apr 2010 04:34:58 +0000 Hildy http://hildygottlieb.com/?p=2010 It’s Monday! So what’s your story?

If you’re going to create the future of your community, it had better be a good one – a dynamite story, a great way to share it. So, whatcha got?

Yesterday I watched a story unfold, the very narrative of which talked to the power of sharing other stories. A group of volcano-stranded people in London, many of whom had been at the Skoll World Forum, gathered to create a live-streamed impromptu TED event – TEDxVolcano.  Is that not a story in itself?

At that event, though, a theme to which people kept returning was the stuff at the heart of the “power of stories.”  The power to galvanize people, to engage them, to change the way we think… to change the course of history.

There are a million ways to tell a story.  So – watcha got?

These days, we have ways to share video and slides, text stories and podcasts. We have blogs and we have Facebook and we have Twitter and we have…

But none of it means anything if we don’t figure out what the story is, and then tell that story in a way that will inspire and encourage and engage people to take action.

MoMA’s story is art. A ton of art, the accessibility of the art, the breadth of the art. The ability to see and be wrapped up in the art. I am disappointed (but not surprised) that this video wasn’t made by MoMA but by an art student, because it is such a simple, unpretentious way to quietly shout, “MoMA is somewhere to get lost in a sea of amazing art.”  It makes me want to fly to New York – to take action.

So what’s your story? And more to the point, how will you share it in a way that makes people want to take action?  Because we are creating the future, you and me and the rest of us. That story is a powerful one indeed.  So let’s get out there and tell it!

Have a great Monday and a great week, all!

Photo from the collection of the Museum of Modern Art: Richard Avedon – The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Waldorf Astoria, Suite 28A, New York. If ever a photo was telling a story…

Last night I had the privilege of facilitating a community conversation on behalf of the Tucson Pima Arts Council.

Not surprisingly, the conversation was prompted by the economy. Such discussions typically revolve around issues such as collaboration – sharing resources for HR or fundraising or co-locating. Talk often then turns to advocacy – making the group’s case to local funding authorities, to ensure their piece of that ever-shrinking pie is secure.

Tucson’s arts groups received none of that.

“How many of you don’t already either collaborate, share resources, or know you should?” Nods of recognition. “You don’t need a Community Conversation for that. But here’s what you do need. You need to know that while the economy is truly wretched, you can choose right now what you want to do about it.”

Then I told the group this:

You can continue to bemoan and hope and react. You can continue to be whipsawed by circumstances. You can continue to be the victim.

Or you can claim Tucson’s Arts Community’s rightful place as the source of our city’s creativity and innovation.

You can become our community’s leaders.

As victims, groups gather together from fear. They hunker down, closing ranks, trying to figure out how each of their individual organizations can survive.

As leaders, groups gather together in strength. They spread their arms wide around each others’ shoulders, working to build upon their collective capacity to make their community a vibrant, healthy place to live.

As victims, we are always longing for – perhaps even demanding – a place at someone else’s table.

As leaders, we define the table, we build the table, we populate the table, and we engage others to join us at that table. The best leaders build huge tables, inviting and engaging everyone to partake of an abundant bounty.

As victims, we define our value by what others value – the oft-quoted “economic value of the arts” as just one example.

As leaders, we are honest about the real value of our work (for the arts that might be the spiritual, intellectual and mental/emotional well-being that are the life-affirming and health-making value of the arts). Such an affirming statement was made loud and clear last night by Bob Booker, ED of Arizona’s Commission on the Arts, as he announced that Social Services would be one area the state would continue to fund. “When people are in crisis, they need the arts even more.”

As leaders, we can be the change we want to see in our communities. We can imagine the future we want to create, and create it together.

And that is precisely how the group spent the rest of the brief evening – envisioning what Tucson could be like in the next 12 months if the whole arts community worked together.

That is when magic happened. As we asked our community’s creative force to imagine what was possible, 60 artists came alive. 60 artists found their strength and their voice. 60 artists found that their potential and their strength are their collective capacity to indeed be our community’s source of creativity.

And if ever there were a time our community needed creativity and innovation, it is now.

After that hour together, the group took the best action we could hope for in such a brief time: they set a date to keep the conversation going, to move forward, to be the change they want to see.

They may have entered that room as victims of our economy (and our social biases). But last night, 60 artists left that room as leaders in our community’s future.

As you head out to do your own work in the community you serve, that is what I wish for you. Start a different conversation. Ask the question: Will we be victims or leaders? And then let’s begin creating the future we all want for our world.

What happened at this meeting is not rare. You can create the same conversation in your community. Learn more in The Pollyanna Principles (complete with case studies!).

Happy Monday, everyone! This week holds so much creative promise as we head out to create the future of our communities and our world. And if we humans are anything, we are creative!

Even those who may not think of themselves as creative have creativity oozing from every pore. A homeless person who figures out how to survive on the streets – that takes a degree of creativity I’m not sure I will ever possess. The person in an accounting office who figures out a tough-to-crack accounting problem.

As the economic news hits closer and closer to home, we will need all the creativity we can muster, to provide the results our communities need from us. And what might that creativity look like? If you’re lucky, it will look like this.

For every creative idea, there is always the naysayer – the folks who are focused on the million and one reasons the future could not possibly look any different from the past.

And sadly, we may see proof of that statement if the video that is supposed to be above these words has disappeared between the time I posted this RockOut and the time you are seeing it. That is because Warner Brothers has decreed that this parody infringes on their Copyrighted song. (The story of that ridiculous venture is here.)

The opposite of creativity and invention is fear and scarcity. Creativity will make the world a richer, more vibrant, healthy place to live. It will bring the kind of joy we feel when listening to this inventive young man rif on the Star Wars theme, and the same joy we feel when we come upon a sidewalk chalk artist knocking off a DaVinci.

Fear and scarcity, however, will create dissent, forcing good people to resort to trickery simply to express their true creative force.

If you are a creator – a writer, photographer, film-maker etc. – we urge you to consider the wisdom-sharing that accompanies a Creative Commons License rather than a strict copyright. A Creative Commons license states (in essence), “I wrote this, I own it. And as long as you don’t claim it’s yours or use it to make a fortune, I hope you will share it and build upon it.”

The ability to build upon the creativity of others is what builds new wisdom. That creativity is one of the greatest strengths we humans have. It is the key to our creating an amazing world.

Please, therefore, browse this blog today. Find something intriguing and try it. Put it to use. Build upon what you find here and let us all know how it works.

Have a great Monday and a great week, all!

If you are new to the Monday Morning Rock Out, you can find previous Rock Outs here – enjoy!

Photo credit: Dimitri Petropolis