Author: Jensen, Joli

Publication Year:

Media Type: Periodical (article)

Summary:

Jensen speaks up in opposition to overdependence on economic impact arguments and others like them. Instead, in perhaps a more modern rendition of the old 'art for art's sake' discussion, she suggests that we refocus our attention back to the value of the art works themselves, to an examination of the arts as meaningful experiences.

Abstract:

"Jensen speaks up in opposition to overdependence on economic impact arguments and others like them. Instead, in perhaps a more modern rendition of the old 'art for art's sake' discussion, she suggests that we refocus our attention back to the value of the art works themselves, to an examination of the arts as meaningful experiences." (from the Introduction by Valerie B. Morris)

Jensen, who is professor of communication at the University of Tulsa and author of the book Is Art Good for Us? Beliefs about High Culture in American Life, argues that "arts advocacy should focus on what art is rather than on what art does. Artists and advocates need to develop an expressive perspective on the arts, one that is oriented toward understanding and enhancing aesthetic experiences. This requires letting go of the instrumental perspective that, up until now, has dominated American social thought and cultural criticism. As art advocates, we need to stop making grandiose and unsubstantiated claims about the instrumental good that art can do and focus instead on what art already means for individuals and for society."

The author's posits that there is a lack of empirical evidence for "direct arts effects" and that this has an ultimate outcome of what she calls "cultural spinach." This refers to art used as a "social medicine" that one takes to restore their psychic and social health; it is "something we know we should like but that we do not really enjoy." Jensen proposes that advocates must learn to "recognize and resist our long, problematic reliance on the arts as an intervening variable in democratic life."

Her concluding thoughts support "an ever-enlarging arena of cultural forms, including high, low, commercial, uncommercial, mainstream, alternative, national and international....for the value of aesthetic cosmopolitanism...and an expressive perspective that will let us find better ways to celebrate, circulate, and support the [art] forms we love, which is what arts advocates have been searching for all along."

CONTENTS
Our Instrumental Heritage.
The Consequences of Instrumental Logic.
The Vernacular Paradox.
Us and Them.
Tocqueville's Recognition.
Where Dewey Leads.
Toward A Cosmopolitan Aesthetics.
Notes.

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Advocacy