The Political Conventions

It is an exciting time right now, the Olympics will be followed by the spectacle of the Democratic and Republican conventions.  As an artist I often look at these events and wonder what they have to do with me?  What can I do to make a difference to be heard?  Does our society value the artist or care about art?  It feels like art is invisible, on the fringe…not really making a difference or mattering to the greater good of society and the world.  With this in mind I was interested in the community of Minneapolis/St. Paul and their take on the upcoming political machine about to roll into town.  I consider the Twin Cities a place where art is intrinsically part of the fabric of the cityscape and is valued by its people.  The article in the New York Times discusses the reaction and actions that both Minneapolis/St. Paul and Denver intend to take to celebrate the conventions from an arts point of view.  The Unconvention is a clever way to look at the process of politics and not really try to make people be for or against Obama or McCain. It is artists taking action to call attention to the political process.  The Denver version called Dialog:City will feature many things including a political karaoke  created by Daniel Peltz.  This will allow citizens to re-perform the speeches of John McCain and Barack Obama.  Both arts related events make me wish I could visit the cities and participate.  You can take part in some of the events.  There is a YouTube component to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Unconvention where you can record a brief video and have it be part of the I approve this message project.  I watched a few of these and they are fabulous examples of the freedom of speech.  I especially like the one woman’s sarcasm as she discusses the minions whose lives will be interrupted for four days because of the traffic jams that the conventions will cause.

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