ARTS & POP CULTURE

tuftsdaily.com THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2022

The importance of art education in the Greater boston area: artisans asylum

by Jack Clohisy

Executive Arts Editor

Art education: a topic of contention in the American education system. Why is it that art education fell by the wayside when it came to institutional priorities in school programs nationwide? An emphasis on STEM? An emphasis on ‘conventional’ careers? The cuts to funding for art programs across the country is why some organizations and companies are pioneering new paths to provide an education to students that encompasses a broader scope of disciplines outside of the conventional academic setting. In relation to Tufts, there are many local groups who are committed to fostering a meaningful art education to anyone of any age interested.

Enter Artisans Asylum, a not-forprofit endeavor aimed at making artistic spaces more accessible to the general public. Located in the Allston/ Brighton neighborhood of Boston, Artisans Asylum is a local facility that can be utilized by all nearby community members. With affordable class offerings in the month of December including charcuterie board making, figure drawing, 3D modeling and digital design and even a class on constructing a “fire-breathing steel dinosaur that roasts marshmallows” — Artisans Asylum has it all.

With memberships, community members are allowed to use any of the spaces that they have trained and tested on. Student members earn a discount and have access to spaces at Artisans Asylum that may not be as easily accessible on the Tufts campus — a real benefit for those who are looking to practice their craft or pick up a new one.

Similar to the innovative aspects of Tufts’ curriculum, such as the Experimental College, Artisans Asylum has opportunities for individuals to also teach a class at the facility. For those who are interested in giving back to their communities as well as providing opportunities for people to get in touch with or discover their artistic sides, Artisans Asylum is a beacon of hope for art education.

The significance of art education is more important now than ever. In 2020, the public school district in Randolph, Mass. — a city just south of Boston — announced that it would be cutting art, music and physical education from its 2020–21 academic year curriculum. The announcement was met with expected frustration and criticism, but it is a scenario all too familiar in schools across the country.

Programs like Artisans Asylum provide a solution for the continuous cutting of the arts within educational institutions. Although students from districts such as Randolph should have the opportunity to have some form of art education in their schools, with local spaces such as Artisans Asylum in the vicinity, this has to come with some sense of relief.

Artisans Asylum provides courses in art that diverge from the prototypical visual art courses available. With digital design and robotics courses available, younger individuals can be exposed to a multitude of artistic media much earlier than what some art educators can cover in a conventional classroom setting.

With concern over the future of art education in America as each new academic year begins, Artisans Asylum continues to provide a space for community members to learn and educate others on the importance of different media of art. And if students are to be truly prepared to enter this world educated and exposed to all facets of education, as Tufts continues to do with its interdisciplinary curriculum, Artisans Asylum should not be one of the only art education resources and outlets for students. Despite this, there is still much gratitude to be had for Artisans Asylum’s ability to provide the educational resources and spaces necessary to foster artistic learning that schools are less and less capable of prioritizing.

VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

An art classroom is pictured.

artistic vandalism in the modern age: why soup does not mix well with Van Gogh’s paints

by Siavash Raissi

Assistant Arts Editor

On March 10, 1914, 32-year-old Mary Richardson visited the National Gallery of Art in London in hopes of finally being able to view Diego Velázquez’s “The Rokeby Venus” in person. Depicting a naked woman as she reclines across a luxuriously draped bed alongside a representation of Cupid, the work has a prominent place in the National Gallery’s collection as one of the only portrayals of nudity from 17th century Spanish art. Yet Richardson, a prominent suffragette of her time, did not intend to solely admire the painting at a distance. Enraged by the recent arrest of another suffragette, Emmeline Pankhurst, she began to wield a meat cleaver smuggled into the museum and attacked the canvas, leaving several gashes on the painting’s surface. Though the painting was successfully restored, contemporary writings and criticisms of the action featured heavily charged language, accusing Richardson of having committed an act as reprehensible as murder.

Although immediately resulting in controversy, most audiences today would retrospectively agree that Richardson’s protest against the glorification of the male gaze in defense of women’s fundamental rights resulted in positive change and awareness towards a growing issue. And so, despite having occurred a century prior, Richardson’s actions continue to inspire modern activists fighting for similar instances of progress. Most prominently, the same criticisms once used for the suffragette are being echoed today in the controversies surrounding Just Stop Oil, a climate change group drawing media attention for its attempts to vandalize and damage famous artworks by Monet, Van Gogh and Munch with substances as varied as soup, mashed potatoes and glue. Videos of these events have gone viral beyond the art world, garnering hundreds of thousands of views on social media, and subsequently, hundreds of outraged comments. Despite these parallels, how does Richardson’s method of activism actually compare to the actions of Just Stop Oil, and are they justified in their pursuit of global change?

In an age dominated by social media and the narratives it perpetuates across all aspects of society, it has become more and more difficult to draw the public’s attention toward pressing challenges. As a result, extravagant stunts and displays of action like those of Just Stop Oil have proliferated. As popular art history YouTuber The Canvas states in his video covering the subject, it is undeniable that the group’s intentions target a common societal interest in slowing down the rapid progression of climate change. Climate change affects the lives of everyone on the planet,

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Matthew Winkler Winkler’s Weekly Symphony Guide

BSO fall season in review

The Boston Symphony Orchestra closed their fall season with Modest Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition,” Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini,” and Elena Langer’s suite from “Figaro Gets a Divorce” on Nov. 25–26. As their last concert will take place over the holidays, here is a retrospective look over the end of their 2022 season.

Works written in the 20th century constituted 12 of the 25 pieces performed across eight programs, making it the most represented musical era. At six works performed, contemporary classical music came in second, and the classical era (1750–1830) trailed closely behind with four. Twenty composers were represented, with only works by Mozart, Bernstein and Shostakovich being played more than once. Of the 20 composers, 15 were men and five were women, with the women being all living contemporary classical composers. Of the men, only John Williams is living.

A holistic look at the BSO’s season produces the same message of their opening concert: They are progressive in their efforts to push the classical canon forward, but still refuse to go beyond that canon. Deceased composers overwhelmingly populate BSO concerts, but they are deceased people from the notso-distant 20th century. The likes of Bach, Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven no longer hold a monopolistic grasp. The argument the BSO makes is for the current expanded canon to be 20th century works, with only the most vetted masterworks of previous eras being sparsely included. The inclusion of contemporary works, then, is a trial for their entry into the canon, with the successes hopefully enjoying continued performances by other orchestras, and the failures discarded. The model that emerges is to center performances on works of the previous century while starting to build the canon for the next century. While still a fundamentally conservative and historicist presentation, this approach ideally prevents the stagnation of classical music by having a forward-looking, linear attitude.

In this author’s opinion, the BSO’s Oct. 27–30 performances of Beethoven’s “Piano Concerto No. 5” and Shostakovich’s “Symphony No. 5” were by far their greatest, no doubt aided by the peerless Mitsuko Uchida on piano. In addition to flawless execution, the BSO delivered a rousing emotional interpretation that could compete among the best recordings. Conversely, their singularly uninspired rendition of Mozart’s “Symphony No. 40” proved their worst performance of the season.

Among the contemporary works, Jessie Montgomery’s “Rounds” and Elizabeth Ogonek’s “Starling Variations” stood out from a composition perspective. While Ogonek’s “Starling Variations” had great success in its attempted musical imagery and was among this author’s favorite pieces — in all fairness, Montgomery’s “Rounds” is likely the greater work. While both works hopefully have continued performances, “Starling Variations” was more of a successful musical experiment, and “Rounds,” as a more complete work, is more suited for the canon.

The BSO is now on a brief hiatus during December for the Pops’ season, but will return in January with Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and an American premiere written by Ella Milch-Sheriff, another contemporary female composer.

VANDALISM

continued from page 9 regardless of national origin or political affiliation. Yet, despite receiving significantly greater political attention than 50 years ago, new international policies and diplomatic agreements still fail to match the drastic changes necessary to combat the amounts of pollution spread by large oil companies. As time passes and CO2 levels increase, future approaches to solving this issue will become even more difficult to achieve. From this perspective, it can be argued that the group’s radical approach to prompting an immediate dialogue around climate change — even if it angers many — is entirely justified considering the current lack of progress. Such a dialoge is essential if we want to save the planet. Even to the most outraged critics of Just Stop Oil, their words, asking “What is worth more, art or life? … Are you more concerned about the protection of a painting or the protection of our planet and people?” are admittedly quite thought-provoking.

Though their intentions and the conversations produced may be productive, the same cannot be said for the targets of their vandalism. Featuring a female subject, “The Rokeby Venus” and its use of the nude was ultimately designed to solely stimulate the male gaze, maintaining a centuries-old artistic tradition of objectifying women’s bodies for the sake of aesthetic pleasure. Thus, Richardson’s destruction of the painting can be interpreted as a direct reaction to its subject matter and its widespread, positive reception — an active act of protest against a painting that perpetuated problematic values. However, works like Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers,” Monet’s “Haystacks” or Constable’s “The Hay Wain” do not glorify climate change but rather the natural beauty found in the very landscapes the group is trying to protect. As a result, these acts of vandalism do not share the same provocative nature as the destruction of “The Rokeby Venus.” Instead, they appear as unorganized demonstrations of frustration unfairly directed toward artistic institutions.

As stated earlier, while any media attention on climate change is productive, most would agree that this impact can be greatly amplified with a different target. Why destroy unrelated artworks being enjoyed by museumgoers and their families instead of objects directly concerning oil mining CEOs, politicians and the institutions that support these environmentally harmful industries? Even if one dissects Just Stop Oil’s choice to throw soup on “Sunflowers” as a comment on how collective society treats and harms its own environment, this meaning will be lost by a majority of the public, leading to confusion regarding the group’s intentions.

However, this still does not account for how it affects average museumgoers who lose the opportunity to view the painting in real life, or the staff responsible for cleaning up the space and then restoring the work. In these cases, the anger directed towards Just Stop Oil is warranted, as individuals other than the group’s target become responsible for the fallout of their actions. As a result, the group’s radical approach to activism will certainly isolate many who may begin to associate climate change advocacy with chaos and the unlawful destruction of property.

The news coverage of Just Stop Oil is unprecedented. Within a short amount of time, their extreme displays have garnered mass attention outside of the art world and have initiated new conversations about the extent to which we genuinely care about climate change in comparison to less important, yet culturally significant, objects in museum collections. As irreversible global warming threatens the environmental stability of future generations, the group’s ultimate intentions are certainly valid. However, their flawed methods of protest fail to address or intimidate the true perpetrators behind these forces, instead isolating the public unity they critically need to create significant change. Although history has since softened on Mary Richardson’s vandalism, apart from the criticism of her contemporaries, is it certain that the same treatment will be applied to Just Stop Oil decades from now?

VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” (top left), Constable’s “The Hay Wain” (top right), Monet’s “Haystacks” (bottom left) and Velázquez’s “The Rokeby Venus” (bottom right), which were all vandalized, are pictured.