Why Experiential Arts
and Learning?
From the oldest known bone flute dating back over 50,000 years, to 65,000-year-old cave paintings, to decorative jewelry crafted 115,000 years ago, artmaking has served to connect communities, reflect cultures, and relate human experiences for hundreds of thousands of years.
Artmaking has always been experiential.
This isn’t the story we’ve been told (and sold) in westernized societies however.
The Neanderthal “Divje Babe” bone flute, discovered in Slovenia in 1995, dated 50,000-60,000 years old.
Ushered in by factors such as “high art” ideals of the European Renaissance, scientific and industrial revolutions, colonization, naturalization, and more, “The Arts” as we conceive of them in the U.S. today, have been heavily cast(e) in scientific terms and conditions of systems, categories, theories, methods, instruments, and more — in other words — the WHAT and the HOW of human artmaking.
NO FEAR proposes that this insatiable appetite for “Science,” and the intellectual feats and heralded individualism that go with it, has in turn pulled artmaking away from its’ instinctual and collective “Soul,” and in that process, overshadowed the universal “Spirit” of artmaking which serves to bring people together rather than fragment.
We believe Experiential Arts and Learning can help restore balance between the “Science” and “Soul” of human artmaking by inviting artists to make art with audiences rather than for audiences, which reciprocally welcomes audiences to become active participants within arts experiences rather than spectators to them.
Why
New Orleans?
Artmaking in New Orleans has served to connect disparate communities, reflect diverse cultures, and relate both individual and 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 soul of 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 (or soul) quite like New Orleans.
Why
NO FEAR?
NO FEAR’s mission to make “art for heart’s sake” is more than a motto. It is intended to be a compass that helps guide our efforts and intentions back to the center — back towards restoring balance between the science and soul of human artmaking — being a process that can empower participants in meaningful and purposeful ways.
We welcome you to join us and participate in this experiential and humanizing process, as we continue to discover the empowering nature of Experiential Arts and Learning, and the powerful purposes it can serve.