Are you afraid of the arts? You’re not alone.
Everyone feels some apprehension about going into a gallery for the first time, or attending a classical music concert or perhaps attending a live play. If you weren’t raised participating in the arts, you probably think it’s for others. Maybe you don’t think you’ll understand what you’re seeing or hearing, or maybe you don’t have the right clothes to attend an opening night.
A lot depends on how you were raised. Did your parents ever take you to a play or a dance performance? Were art supplies handy for drawing or painting?
If you were like me, your first experiences in the arts were likely happening at school. Growing up in the ’60s, I alternated between public and Catholic schools due to moving to a new town and being on a wait list for the local Catholic school and, later on, convincing my parents to let me try public school.
In third grade we were given harmonicas, followed by chromatics as an early introduction to playing an instrument. I loved it and my parents could easily tell I liked making music. They enrolled me in piano lessons and I practiced at the teacher’s house since we didn’t own a piano.
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Once the teacher moved away and my access to a piano vanished I transitioned to playing the accordion. You could rent them and the lessons were affordable. I was regaling my parents with “Strangers in the Night” on an accordion after dinner. Imagine a 12-year-old girl playing the accordion. It didn’t add to my cool factor as a pre-teen. I didn’t care, I was still making music.
As I entered my teens, I did what many teens do and learned to play the guitar. I could buy sheet music to songs I heard on the radio and learn to play them. Now I was cool, at least to my circle of friends.
In eighth grade, my parents gave in to my constant begging to attend public school, a place that seemed appealing because of school dances, a cafeteria and the chance to participate in sports. Once there, I discovered my first real art class. I looked forward to this hour of drawing and painting a couple of times each week. The other classes in chorus and the dance classes in gym also opened up new worlds to me. Our school would have talent shows and I could see there were lots of kids who loved the arts as I did.
In high school we had field trips to art and natural history museums; we saw plays on Broadway, and I got to act in a school play and eventually learn stage makeup. I was hooked.
I helped with every play I could throughout high school, took every art class offered and it gave focus to my adult pursuits, both for pleasure and for work.
I know there’s a whole world out there of creative people just hoping you’ll see what they’re up to and perhaps join in.
Most people feel comfortable around one form of art or another. But if you really want to wake up and experience something new, buy tickets to a classical concert, visit a community art gallery or a world-class art museum (we have both in Delaware), take a pottery class, act in a play or join a vocal group.
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If you’re lucky, you’ll get to experience more than one art form at a time. Attend an art reception and there may be someone playing acoustic guitar in the gallery. You came for the art but you got to hear someone play their guitar as a bonus. Theater venues often have art displayed in their lobbies. Suddenly, you’re studying someone’s landscape when you came for the play. Festivals often feature local dance groups giving quick performances out in the open, while nearby a craft show and music stage typically can be found.
Having the arts readily available removes the stigma associated with unfamiliar art forms. You don’t know what you may like until you get a taste of it.
At the Newark Arts Alliance, we’ve tried to embrace all the arts throughout our 29-year history — from offering community festivals showcasing fine art, crafts, live music and poetry, to our stint of hosting the Newark Dance Festival. Anytime we could bring two or more art forms to together we felt like we were doing good.
Our unique summer camp, Camp Imagine, offers kids classes in art, theater, singing and dance all in one program. It’s a whole package: you enroll, you get it all. Most kids who attend are comfortable with one or maybe two of these art forms, but not all four. We’re exposing them to things they may not get in school or may not have been exposed to at home. It’s giving them an appetizer, a taste a new world they may like.
There’s nothing better than seeing a kid who thought they wouldn’t like dancing end up being the featured dancer by week’s end, doing some hip-hop moves or a moon walk across the stage.
Most kids have been asked to sing somewhere in their childhood but not many get to act. Seeing kids turn their class clown skills into a real performance is something to watch. Even the shy kid can open up during an improv exercise and get everyone laughing at their interpretation of spaghetti boiling in a pot.
But jumping into the deep end with the arts isn’t just for kids. It’s never too late to be an arts goer or art maker.
“I wasn’t born with any art talent” usually gets an eye roll from those of us engaged in the arts. Many of us weren’t “born with it,” but just wanted to try it.
You may not be good at first (who is?), but with practice, you’ll get better. You’ll make some bad art or sing off-key. Who cares? You’re doing it, you’re making art. We know that doing things often gets us the experience to be able to do it better. This is true for just about everything, why not for the arts?
Go act in community theater, learn some dance moves off of YouTube, play a game of charades. If you do it often enough, you’ll get better. If you study how others do it, you may even get to a point where you’ll feel comfortable sharing it with others.
It’s common that newly retired folks take an art class for the first time. Once engaged, they think “why have I waited so long to try this?” They finally give themselves permission to make art and find it gave them so much pleasure that they enroll in more classes.
Soon, they may exhibit or sell their art. This seems crazy for a retired accountant, but it’s possible.
We’re all on a journey with our creative urges, they just require some attention and nurturing.
The arts aren’t just for a select few, but for everyone. You don’t even have to dress up, just find your venue and go!
If you’re looking for creative adventure, visit delawarescene.com. All of the state-funded art venues are featured there with their menu of events.
Terry Foreman is executive director of Newark Arts Alliance.
Open Call is a weekly column that offers Delaware’s arts and culture organizations an opportunity to share their vision, challenges and upcoming programming with our readers. Groups interested in participating can email Features Editor Tammy Paolino at tpaolino@gannett.com
