Aesthetic Darwinism

themusedialogue — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:54:29 +0000

Leonardo, gone but not forgotten

We love the arts, and want to preserve them all…or so we think until we realize that we also need to make space for the new. In the process, forms come and go, and some ultimately die out. The process is natural and not necessarily a bad thing unto itself. However, it comes with some difficult questions. Andrew Swensen takes up some of those challenges — the need to cultivate the new, to preserve the old, and to make sure that everyone has a place in the rich world of the arts.

Read on in our latest article, “Aesthetic Darwinism” (click here to read full article).

Intrinsic Impact Research: A New Frontier in Making the Case for the Arts

themusedialogue — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 18:50:47 +0000

Arts managers, administrators and educators often justify the importance of the arts through “extrinsic” consequences. Study of music helps to improve math performance, for example, or galleries and arts communities help in economic and community development initiatives. Yet we should always remember that the first consequence of art is intrinsic. In other words, before art affects our math scores or our communities, it affects us in some inner space.

A group of graduate researchers conducted a case study in intrinsic impact at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Art. One of those involved in the research, Jessica Ryan, composes our next installment of The Muse Dialogue: “Intrinsic Impact Research: A New Frontier in Making the Case for the Arts.” In it she summarizes their research and their findings.

Click here to read this exploration of museum visitors and the consequence of the visual arts.