Building Tradition

Had an interesting talk with my friend Kate Conroy yesterday in the East Village.  She’s a community arts consultant.  She works to bring efficacy into arts organizations.  She had a great idea that non-profit arts organizations need to adopt the NGO mind frame and own that they are doing humanitarian work.

Kate sees the current economic down turn for the positive impact it is having on people’s values.  She also noted how the people seem less likely to jump on the next bandwagon to pull into town.  She was referencing the hucksters, the American archetype of the snake oil salesman who claims to have the elixir.  Together we recognized that people are more interested in reconnecting to the ideas and practices that are connected to tradition.  She noted we seem more interested in reading passages from dead authors.

In a philosophy class I took, the professor cautioned us in our work.  Don’t just make a brick and wave it around.  Instead place that brick on the long wall of cultural tradition that each generation contributes too.  What’s important is not a blind return to tradition and the cultural conservatism that implies, but to build upon it regardless of what field or niche you find yourself in.

Do you rocognize the wall you are contributing too?