{"id":794,"date":"2008-02-20T23:55:09","date_gmt":"2008-02-21T07:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/02\/20\/arts-artists-and-power\/"},"modified":"2008-02-21T08:42:54","modified_gmt":"2008-02-21T16:42:54","slug":"arts-artists-and-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/02\/20\/arts-artists-and-power\/","title":{"rendered":"arts, artists, and power"},"content":{"rendered":"

John F. Kennedy has been on my mind a lot in the past week or so. Perhaps it is the magnetism, youthful appeal, and lofty rhetoric of Barack Obama that evokes JFK so much for me – even though Kennedy was assassinated before I was born (four years before, to be exact). I was looking through the online archives of The Atlantic Monthly and found this excerpt of a speech that Kennedy gave in honor of the then recently departed poet laureate of the United States, Robert Frost. It’s just the think that I needed today. You can hear audio of the president giving the speech excerpted here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

A<\/span> nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces but also by the men it honors, the men it \t\tremembers \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

The men who create power make an indispensable contribution to the nation’s greatness, but the men who question power make a contribution just as indispensable, especially when that questioning is disinterested, for they determine whether we use power or power uses us \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses, for art establishes the basic human truths which must serve as the touchstones of our judgment. The artist, however faithful to his personal vision of reality, becomes the last champion of the individual mind and sensibility against an intrusive society and an officious state. The great artist is thus a solitary figure. He has, as Frost said, “a lover’s quarrel with the world.” In pursuing his perceptions of reality he must often sail against the currents of his time \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

If sometimes our great artists have been the most critical of our society, it is because their sensitivity and their concern for justice, which must motivate any true artist, make them aware that our nation falls short of its highest potential.<\/p>\n

I see little of more importance to the future of our country and our civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist. If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

In free society art is not a weapon, and it does not belong to the sphere of polemics and ideology. Artists are not engineers of the soul. It may be different elsewhere. But in a democratic society the highest duty of the writer, the composer, the artist, is to remain true to himself and to let the chips fall where they may. In serving his vision of the truth, the artist best serves his nation \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

I look forward to a great future for America\u00e2\u20ac\u201da future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral strength, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose.<\/p>\n

I look forward to an America which will not be afraid of grace and beauty, which will protect the beauty of our natural environment, which will preserve the great old American houses and squares and parks of our national past, and which will build handsome and balanced cities for our future.<\/p>\n

I look forward to an America which will reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or statecraft.<\/p>\n

I look forward to an America which will steadily raise the standards of artistic accomplishment and which will steadily enlarge cultural opportunities for all of our citizens.<\/p>\n

And I look forward to an America which commands respect throughout the world, not only for its strength but for its civilization as well.<\/p>\n

And I look forward to a world which will be safe, not only for democracy and diversity but also for personal distinction.<\/p>\n

October 26, 1963 – Amherst College <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John F. Kennedy has been on my mind a lot in the past week or so. Perhaps it is the magnetism, youthful appeal, and lofty rhetoric of Barack Obama that evokes JFK so much for me – even though Kennedy was assassinated before I was born (four years before, to be exact).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-orchestra-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-cO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4196,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/03\/14\/yo-yo-musical-ambassador\/","url_meta":{"origin":794,"position":0},"title":"yo-yo: musical ambassador","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 14, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"A great article from today's Washington Post, about the phenomenon that is Yo-Yo Ma - here's the teaser: In 1961, Pablo Casals played for John F. Kennedy at the White House. The concert could be seen as a symbol of the importance of the arts to the Kennedy administration, or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "cello"","block_context":{"text":"cello","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/instruments\/cello\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":758,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/02\/10\/conscientious-objector-for-better-or-worse\/","url_meta":{"origin":794,"position":1},"title":"conscientious objector – for better or worse?","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"In his introduction of Eartha Kitt last night, Thomas Lauderdale mentioned that she was long blackballed for having spoken out against the Vietnam War during a command performance at the White House. This made me think about the relationship between artists and those in positions of power.\u00c2\u00a0 You hear a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2233,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/03\/24\/more-247-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":794,"position":2},"title":"more 24\/7 photos","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Cellist Gregory Dubay plays the Brahms e-minor Sonata with pianist Bill Crane just after dawn. Pianist and organist Tamara Still plays selections from Bach's Goldberg Variations at 8 a.m. Soprano Lisa Mooyman, pianist Bill Crane and cellist Justin Kagan. Cellist Justin Kagan.","rel":"","context":"In "chamber music"","block_context":{"text":"chamber music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/chamber-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Brahms at Dawn","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/3376508194_1a056c2301.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14671,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2018\/03\/12\/travel-oregon-spot-features-oregon-symphony-soundtrack\/","url_meta":{"origin":794,"position":3},"title":"UPDATE: travel oregon spot features oregon symphony soundtrack","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 12, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a bit more background on the project from animation blog Cartoon Brew. \u201cWe thought Oregon deserved better than just another travel ad,\u201d said Wieden+Kennedy agency art director Nick Stokes. \u201cSo we turned to animation to try and capture its magic. We\u2019re very proud of the work, and I\u2019m honored\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "arranging"","block_context":{"text":"arranging","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/arranging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/doVV1a7XgyQ\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12998,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/10\/11\/food-for-thought\/","url_meta":{"origin":794,"position":4},"title":"food for thought","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 11, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"From a recent Huffington Post article by the Kennedy Center president, Michael Kaiser: There are organizations with structural deficits, to be sure. But they are few and far between. Many more simply need to rethink the strategies they have developed, the art they are producing, the strength of their marketing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "administration"","block_context":{"text":"administration","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/administration-the-orchestra-world-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2207,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/03\/23\/247-finale\/","url_meta":{"origin":794,"position":5},"title":"24\/7 finale","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 23, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Many exhausted musicians presented the finale to the 24\/7 event at Weiden+Kennedy last evening at 6:00 p.m.\u00c2\u00a0 To say that it was a successful event would be the understatement of the century, so here are some images and a video of the moments leading up to the performance from a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}