Why
Experiential Arts?
From the oldest known bone flute dating back over 50,000 years, to 65,000-year-old cave paintings and decorative jewelry crafted 115,000 years ago, artmaking has served to connect, reflect, and relate human experiences for tens of thousands of years.
This isn’t the story we’ve been told (and sold) in the West however. 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 participatory, with audiences spectating rather than interacting with art, artists, and/or one another.
Experiential Arts works to renew the communal and participatory nature of artmaking by inviting artists to make art with audiences rather than to, for, or at audiences. This not only stands to generate more interest and attendance in the arts, it empowers artists to imagine new possibilities for artmaking and the purposes it can serve.
The Neanderthal “Divje Babe” bone flute, discovered in Slovenia in 1995, dated 50,000-60,000 years old.
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, soul-stirring music. Black Masking Indians with their stunning suits and beadwork. Mardi Gras with its festive costumes, floats, and crafts. 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 muse, NO FEAR believes Experiential Arts and Learning can act as an antidote to technologies like AI and serve to renew artmaking to its communal and participatory nature.