Living Into The Questions
Arlene Goldbard starts an ARTSblog salon on the topic of the aesthetics of social justice art:
The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions which have been hidden by the answers. James Baldwin
Baldwin’s epigram reminds us that to thrive, we must be able to see through imposed realities and prefab solutions. We may be tempted to seek definitive answers, but what we really need now is to live into the questions.
To inhabit questions means to first unpack their assumptions and implications.
What’s the context for an inquiry into aesthetics and social justice? When I speak on this topic, someone from the “establishment” arts world always asks me this: “What about standards? What about excellence? A lot of this work isn’t very good.” It’s an assertion, not a question, and I also hear it from readers. An academic responded to my recent essay on San Francisco’s cultural equity controversy by suggesting that community-based social change work isn’t funded because it isn’t very good.