Why
Experiential Arts?
Artmaking has served to connect communities, reflect cultures, and relate human experiences for tens if not hundreds of thousands of years.
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Art has always been experiential.
This isn’t the story we’ve been told (and sold) however in the West. Ushered in by “high art” ideals of the European Renaissance only 500 years ago, our idea of art and “the arts” today is often presentational rather than representational, with audiences observing arts experiences rather than participating in them. In other words: art for art’s sake.
Experiential Arts works to renew the representational and participatory nature of artmaking by inviting artists to make art with audiences rather than for audiences. This not only generates more interest and attendance in the arts, it also empowers artists to be creative and imaginative, to be vulnerable and take risks, and to practice empathy and put others before themselves.
Figurative cave art of Altamira in Cantabria, Spain, dating back 20,000 years.
Why
New Orleans?
Artmaking in New Orleans has served to connect disparate communities, reflect diverse cultures, and relate shared experiences for over 300 years, with evidence of local indigenous artmaking dating back over 1,500 years.
Second line parades with their hip-shaking music. Mardi Gras with its costumes, floats, and crafts. Black Masking Indians with their stunning suits and beadwork. The stories of human experiences are literally sewn into the city’s cultural fabric: its’ songs, food, festivals, architecture, neighborhoods, street names, and so much more.
No other city in the U.S. epitomizes Experiential Arts like New Orleans.
Why
NO FEAR?
Now facing the dawn of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which stands to automate and individualize artmaking exponentially, the future of the arts and arts education has never been so uncertain, nor the fears of artists, arts educators, and arts organizations so real.
With New Orleans as our model and muse, NO FEAR believes Experiential Arts and Learning can act as an antidote to advancing technologies like AI and serve to renew the representational and participatory nature of artmaking.