by Robert Maniscalco

In my recent "Pointe of Art" column I mentioned art mentorships as an integral part of becoming a professional artist. It is also integral to becoming a fully functional human being. The arts have a way of opening up and developing the whole person.

In school, we are taught how to survive. We learn that red means stop, and green means give it the gas. We are taught our right hand from our left, that grass is green, that the sky is blue, night time is dark, etc. While this kind of education may serve to help children make sense of the awesome world around them it does not provide the whole picture. And yet as we develop we are asked to continue this neat segregation into categories. We are taught, for instance, that the color black is evil and that white is holy, which eventually translates to read, "black people are to be feared and white people are the good guys." Then, when we are all grown up, we are taught that Osama Bin Laden is evil and Enron is good - no wait a minute, that was last year! In other words, we are taught to add meaning to things around us in order to create agreement. Without consensus, the reasoning goes, we will cease to function as a society. We seem to be saying, "if you agree with me, no one will get hurt!"

The point is that we have been taught to stereo-type and make ever broadening generalizations about the world. It is part of the very fabric of our educational system. Not that schools teach racism or xenophobia. It is the manner of our education that leads us to become racist. In this context it is not hard to understand why our society suffers from the scourge of racism and our world is racked by nationalism and religious extremism. Have you ever wondered why the Israelis and the Palestinians refuse to get along? They've been carefully taught not to. It is not because the children of Afghanistan lack education in the three "r's" that allows religious zealots to rise to power, it is the disconnect with their own culture and the restrictions of their creative freedoms that drive down their society.

What does all this have to do with the arts, you ask? By exercising the right brain, which gives us the ability to see in the abstract perception of line, form, color, we begin to view the world objectively, rather than subjectively. We begin to see in shades of grey rather than black and white. To express a line of music or dance we begin to experience our senses in a profound, universal ecstasy. When fully self-expressed the soul experiences a one-ness with the universe -- an inner peace that makes us more sensitive, present - in short, more human. There is no right and wrong in art; there is no moral imperative. Developing artistic skills requires discipline, focus and inner freedom. Artistic accomplishment creates self esteem and provides an access to our higher power - a connection, one to another.

It is important that we consider the possibility that public education caters almost exclusively to the left brain. As the arts have been dropped from the curriculum and schools have concentrated more and more on achieving higher test scores to satisfy federal mandates our society is losing its ability to function in a humane way. I thank God I had art and music when I was growing up. As I present workshops in the inner city I see the children who have never been exposed to the arts. There is a deadness in their eyes that makes me sad in my heart.

The arts have a way of bringing in the right side of the brain into the process of solving problems. The arts have a way of breaking the cycle of mendacity and desperation that poisons our communities. Am I saying the arts are the key to world peace? Indeed I am!

One of the programs being developed by the Wayne County Council for Arts, History and Humanities, in a collaboration with the Warren Connor Development Corporation's after school program called JUMP, is arts mentorship. The program is being tested at Remus Robinson Middle School, on Detroit's east side, where "at-risk" youth will be paired with professional artists, musicians and poets. WCCAHH is very concerned about the lack of connection to the cultural roots on the part of students in schools like Remus Robinson. These forgotten neighborhoods are in many ways cut off from the rich cultural abundance most of us take for granted. In fact, it is through culture, our own and those of others throughout the world, that we become fully functional members of our own society. Sadly, arts education is non-existent in most Detroit Public Schools.

Most professional artists have developed the ability to create opportunities where there didn't seem to be any. This is the true meaning of creativity and it is probably the single most important survival skill an individual can learn. The goal of this ARTnership is not necessarily to develop professional artists from the population at Remus Robinson. The goal is to provide an opportunity for students to discover alternative methods of survival and expand their ability to cope with the challenges facing them every day with creativity and trust. That is the powerful potential at the core of this program.

There will be a fundraiser for this pilot program at the Maniscalco Gallery on Friday, April 5th, part of a black tie preview of the grand opening of the new gallery, which will take place on Saturday, April 6th from 6-9 pm. A portion of the proceeds from the April 5th event will go toward the development of the Arts Mentorship program at Remus Robinson School. Contact the gallery for more information on these events or how you might get involved with this worthwhile program. Help stamp out cultural illiteracy.

List of Essays