PSU Magazine Spring 1990

Portrait of the Artists Portland State Fine and Performing Arts faculty, students and programs have helped L ast summer in Beiji ng's Tiananmen Square , it was no revelation that among the "counter revolutionaries" silenced by order of the Chine e government were university students - the soc iety's intellectuals and artists. Nor is it a surpri se, during this era of upheaval in the Soviet Union, that Vaclov Havel, the first elected pres ident and non-commun ist leader of Czechoslovakia in over 40 years , is a pl aywright - an artist. Throughout history, arti sts and intellectu– als have been forces for change. And throughout hi story, uni versities have been involved in their fostering and education. Portland State Uni vers ity, as an urban center of education , is particularly suited to this role - a nurturing center for fi ne and performing arts. The Uni vers ity's programs , fac ulty and students have infl uenced both the Oregon performance/art scene as well as the nation's. Education and the Arts The ro le of education and the arts in society has always been controversial. "Plato sa id that art was used as an opiate," ex pl ains PSU phil osophy professor Larry Bowlden. "That people li ke art because it amuses them , it's pretty, it distracts them from reality." Even today many people agree with Plato and see the arts as secondary, inconsequen– tial, even eli tist. For others art is considered a basic building block in education and soc iety. shape the Portland art scene. Human learning is gai ned largely through growing acquaintance with, and understand– ing and manipulating of symbo ls, according to educational theorists. Through symbols - verbal, mathematical and artistic - humans learn to think abstractly, to link diverse ideas and find shortcuts to new knowledge. Even wary Plato included dance and mu sic in hi s educational ideal. Author Henry Miller maintained that rather than being ethereal and disconnected from real life, "art teaches the signi ficance of life ." Certai nl y art is a powerful force. ''Artists and intellectuals tend to be spokespersons for society," says Wilma Sheridan, Dean of PSU's School of Fine and Performing Arts. "They tend not only to reflect hi story but even to create it ." The Arts and the City In an urban setting art acti vity and education are inextricably interwoven. Practicing professional arti sts require ongoing instruction, a continual upgrading of their skills and techniques, and a venue for interaction with other artists. And fo r the layperson, education in the arts is an outlet for self ex press ion and an intuiti ve exercise for the brain . Today, cities are judged by their cultural resources. Businesses list the vitality of a city's cultural assets as among their top three considerations in selecting a new location site . The proximity of cultural and artistic resources is an important selling point in recruiting personnel as well . In 1988, Portland won the U.S. Confer– ence ofMayors City Li vability Award on the basis of its arts community. And when Newsweek named Portland one of America's ten best cities, access to first-class art events was a significant factor in its detenninations. The arts appear to be vital to Oregon. In fi scal year 1987, the state's non-profi t arts industry reported income exceeding $42 million. In the Portland area alone, arts-related revenues approached $29 million, 60 percent of the state's total. Portland State University and the Arts The Universi ty is at the creative center of the city. With ready access to the profess ional arts, PSU is able to supplement classroom ex perience and encourage commun ity internships for its students. The school of Fine and Perfom1ing Arts offers degree programs in art , dance, music and theater arts and serves approximately 12,000 students annually with a full spectrum of training courses for the professional and a full range of courses for laypeople . PSU instructors, often drawn from the ranks of established arti sts and arti sans, keep alive the traditional and class ical arts as well as recognize, nurture and present emerging art and art forms . "We have a responsibili ty to nurture creati vity," says Dean Wilma Sheridan. "While I thi nk it 's terribly important that people learn to play Beethoven and learn to paint like everybody else, we need to go beyond that. We need to give our students a traditional training, then encourage them to take ri sks." Portland State University is at the seat of cultural di versity and at the cross roads of ideas and influences . PSU 7