Highlights from ‘Year of the Arts’ kickoff
http://http://vimeo.com/15047646
Biddy Martin and Rocco Landesman speeches
The Year of the Arts began with a bang at the University of Wisconsin Thursday with a parade down Lake Street, followed by a speech inaugurating the year.
The parade started at East Campus Mall shortly before noon and wound its way northward to the Memorial Union.
Alec Schweder, a UW senior who turned out for the parade, said, “I think arts provides us with a different perspective on things … it’s not the same-old, same-old things we get every day.”
Students from the art department dressed in masquerade gowns and other colorful outfits for the parade, accompanied by the UW Brazilian Percussion Ensemble.
Matthew Schlomer, a UW graduate student, directed the ensemble, which is comprised of music majors from UW.
Schlomer said the parade incorporated art from various departments on campus to give the audience a show.
“What we’ve done is gather up the different areas on campus – visual arts, dance, drama – and we’re trying to make a spectacular experience for the students and the city of Madison in general.” Schlomer said.
As they danced their way down the streets of Madison accompanied by bongo drums and shakers, the group drew more than a few curious glances from passersby, many of whom snapped pictures with their camera phones while others danced to the music.
At the ceremony following the parade, the chaos gradually calmed as UW Chancellor Biddy Martin and Rocco Landesman, chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, took the stage. A sizeable crowd gathered around the stage by the time the ceremony began.
Martin cited UW’s dance program, which was the first major of its kind at a university in 1926, as evidence for UW being a leader in the United States for artistic endeavors and support for artists and creative minds.
Martin then handed the microphone to Landesman, who said people see art as lacking or “in need,” whether it be money, space or an audience.
He said the NEA wants to focus on what art can do for a place because of its prevalence around the nation.
“Art is made pretty much everywhere in this country, but where exactly it is made fundamentally shapes that work of art,” Landesman said.
He added art not only cultivates ingenuity but economic growth as well.
Landesman, who graduated from UW before securing his doctorate in Dramatic Literature at the Yale School of Drama, said Madison was the best city in the world, “from April to November.”
In addition to his duties as the chairman of the NEA, Landesman is also a noted Broadway producer who produced The Producers and Angels in America, among other things, Martin said.
Martin said the arts are important to recognize, and just because Madison is a place noted for its art does not mean UW should be satisfied.
“We tend to take beauty for granted because we live in an environment that is aesthetically beautiful, both naturally and by virtue of art,” she said, “We need to raise the visibility and the degree of appreciation of what we already have.”
