Wednesday, March 22, 2017 // The Statement
4B
Wednesday, March 22, 2017 // The Statement 
 
5B

Art Matters

proposed NEA elimination threatens performing arts community

b y Yo s h i k o I w a i, Deputy Statement Editor
I

t’s a Saturday night and the audi-

ence at the Power Center for 

the Performing Arts is stunned. 

Silence floods the walls of the the-

ater. I can almost hear the person 

next to me holding their breath. The stage I’ve 

performed on eight times since I started my 

dance training at the University of Michigan 

is tense and torn, like I’ve never experienced 

before. “Betroffenheit” by Kidd Pivot and 

Electric Company Theatre has the full house 

of 1,200 people in a standing ovation. Tears, 

shock and wonder fill the audience.

“Betroffenheit,” a theater-dance perfor-

mance, is a visual and physical representation 

of grief, addiction and trauma. Based on writer 

and performer Jonathan Young’s experience 

of losing his daughter and cousins to a fire, the 

combination of movement, sound and space 

is both arresting and thought-provoking. It’s 

the kind of physical, psychological and emo-

tional effect we as performing artists strive to 

achieve in our years of training — something 

that crosses the proscenium stage and perme-

ates the lives of the viewers — something that 

makes them question the world they inhabit.

Award-winning performances like “Betrof-

fenheit” are hard to come by. During middle 

school and high school, I saw some artists of 

this caliber during trips to New York City, but 

these world-class performances came with 

expensive tickets that made seeing everything 

I wanted unrealistic. My orchestra ticket to 

see “Betroffenheit” in Ann Arbor though, was 

$20.

***

This year alone, the University Musical 

Society — an Ann Arbor-based performing 

arts presenter affiliated with the University — 

brought multiple internationally recognized 

artists to campus. The night before “Betrof-

fenheit,” three-time Grammy award-winning 

jazz quasi-collective Snarky Puppy took Hill 

Auditorium. In early February, Ping Chong + 

Company, recipient of National Medal of Arts, 

did a theatrical performance on Muslim iden-

tity. Just a month before, Bessie Award-win-

ning Ohad Naharin’s Israeli dance company, 

Batsheva, performed at the Power Center. 

In January, UMS announced that current 

New York Philharmonic president, Matthew 

VanBesien, will be the next UMS president 

beginning this summer. Last November, the 

Grammy award-winning Berlin Philharmonic 

did an orchestral residency with University 

students.

Since its establishment in 1880, UMS pres-

ents approximately 75 performances a year 

and hosts more than 100 educational events 

per season. In 2015, UMS was the first uni-

versity-related arts presenter to receive the 

National Medal of Arts from then-President 

Barack Obama.

Looking back on these 138 years, the UMS 

line-up of performances is even more impres-

sive. Before his retirement, Leonard Bernstein 

conducted four performances in the country 

with the Vienna Philharmonic; Hill Audito-

rium was one of them. In 2001, UMS president 

Ken Fischer started a multi-year partnership 

with the Royal Shakespeare Company. And let 

us not forget that Yo-Yo Ma will be perform-

ing on campus this April. What’s most surpris-

ing is that students can see his performance 

for less than the cost of a dinner at any Main 

Street restaurant.

As a senior in high school applying to col-

leges, I researched the cities and local per-

formance venues of each of the schools I 

considered attending. Ann Arbor stood out to 

me. Not only was I drawn to the quality of the 

School of Music, Theatre & Dance’s curricu-

lum, but also the Ann Arbor arts environment 

itself. I considered conservatories in New 

York City and Los Angeles until I realized 

Ann Arbor offered the same opportunities — 

except here, I can go to a football game at noon 

and then an opera at night. Since I started my 

dance training at the University three years 

ago, I have seen and taken classes from artists 

I could maybe meet in New York City or Chi-

cago or Montreal or Israel. Maybe. Needless 

to say, the School of Music, Theatre & Dance 

School is nationally ranked along with the 

performing arts conservatories on the coasts.

This performing arts bubble — Ann Arbor 

— from education to exposure, is a Midwest-

ern gem for aspiring performers and the pub-

lic, according to Aaron Dworkin, dean of the 

Music, Theatre & Dance School.

“We’re a very unique place, as it relates to 

the arts,” Dworkin said. “We are solidly in the 

Midwest, yet we have arts experiences, train-

ing and institutions that rival anything on the 

coasts,” Dworkin said. “We are in many ways 

in that center — whether it’s a presenter like 

UMS, whether it’s our school and the fact that 

we lead the nation in so many of our depart-

ments.”

*****

Last Thursday, the Trump administration 

released a proposed federal budget calling 

for the complete defunding of the National 

Endowment for the Arts and the National 

Endowment for the Humanities. Public fund-

ing for the arts had long been a low-hanging 

fruit for fiscal hawks — even though the annu-

al cost of $741 million composes less than one-

tenth of a percent of federal spending. But this 

announcement marks the first time in history 

that a sitting administration proposed to dis-

continue either the NEA or NEH.

The NEA is an independent federal agency 

founded by Congress in 1965. The organiza-

tion provides financial support to arts organi-

zations and projects across the country. Over 

the years, the organization has expanded its 

aid from performances and educational expe-

riences to even health-care projects, like the 

NEA Healing Arts Partnership. Founded in 

2011, the partnership works to promote arts 

therapy, placing art therapists in veteran hos-

pitals across the nation.

Every year, the NEA funds various Music, 

Theatre & Dance School research projects and 

performances. The George and Ira Gershwin 

Critical Edition — an ongoing scholarly analy-

sis of Gershwin’s music — and Youth & Adult 

Community Programs — an educational pro-

gram that exposes local Ann Arbor residents 

to different performances — to name a few 

who receive funds.

In 2016, the NEA awarded UMS with 

$30,000 to bring performances, residencies 

and other educational programs to Ann Arbor. 

“Betroffenheit” was one of them — in addition 

to the American Ballet Theatre, Camille A. 

Brown, Taylor Mac and others.

The proposed cuts were announced mere 

minutes before I was to interview the dean 

and assistant dean of the Music, Theatre & 

Dance School. When we sat down, it was clear 

they were still digesting the potential loss of 

the NEA.

Dean Aaron Dworkin, a member of the 

National Council for the Arts, which makes 

recommendations for individuals and organi-

zations to be awarded the National Medal of 

Arts — the presidential award for outstanding 

artists — said he is unsure of the effects of the 

proposed budget, as it awaits a lengthy con-

gressional revision process. He emphasized, 

however, the proposed budget suggests a lack 

of value placed on the arts in American soci-

ety.

“Budgets are moral documents,” Dworkin 

said. “Budgets reflect the values of an institu-

tion or the values of a nation.”

That same day, I interviewed UMS Presi-

dent Ken Fischer, who was visibly disturbed 

when we met. He argued the proposed budget 

is motivated by ideology and not a genuine 

desire to balance the budget.

“There seems to be no understanding of the 

role the NEA has been playing,” he said. “It 

gives grants that could maybe total the wing 

of a defense jet, but look at what it does to 

bring a quality of life to this country. UMS has 

received funding each year from the NEA. It 

is an important part of our budget, but what 

it is more than anything, is a statement that 

our country cares that the arts are important.”

However, he stresses to look at the opportu-

nity the crisis brings, that “artists will rise to 

fill the vacuum that is created by the potential 

loss of the NEA.”

Dworkin and Melody Racine, SMTD senior 

associate dean for academic affairs, also 

struck a defiant tone, emphasizing that with 

lost federal funding, it would be their respon-

sibility to further provide platforms for artists 

to continue their craft.

“We must be artist citizens now,” Racine 

said. “We need to be very good at what we do 

in the arts, but we need to also be very aware 

of what’s happening in the political world. 

We need to be very aware of what’s happen-

ing with our planet. We need to be very aware 

with issues of diversity, equity and inclusion. 

The more we know about outside our own 

field, the better ours becomes.”

The 
educational, 
administrative 
and 

entrepreneurial drive of the administration 

reassures me as an Music, Theatre & Dance 

student. Even if the discontinuation of pub-

lic arts funding doesn’t survive the budget 

review process, it’s hard not to interpret the 

proposal as saying “the arts don’t matter.”

My attitude is not alone among Music, 

Theatre & Dance students. Spencer Schaefer, 

a Music, Theatre & Dance junior studying 

French horn performance and ethnomusicol-

ogy, emphasized that he pursues his craft not 

for future potential wealth but for the sake of 

art.

“I think a lot of people are unaware of what 

it means to be an artist because they see dance, 

they see installations, they see artwork, they 

hear music, but don’t understand the time it 

takes, and what it means to someone,” he said. 

“These people aren’t cashing out and making 

tons of money off of this, no. This is putting 

a roof over their heads so they can continue 

to create their project — and maybe, they can 

come back and eat something.”

*****

In a country where the performing arts 

are implicitly underappreciated, the role of 

the performing artist becomes more complex. 

There is no option to stop — if this is the lan-

guage I’ve used for 18 years, there’s no forget-

ting it or learning a new one now.

When I look back on “Betroffenheit” and 

wonder why it affected me the way it did, 

I can’t come up with words to accurately 

describe the movement, or search for some-

thing in a thesaurus to find one that’ll fit. I 

tried.

When a performance does its job, it gives 

you the unutterable. It describes the space 

between your mind and your hands that des-

perately try to explain the sensation of an 

experience whether it is good or bad.

Schaefer agreed when we spoke about the 

role of the emerging performing artist.

“Even if I’m not going to make a dime off my 

art, that doesn’t mean it can’t impact someone 

and it still means something to me,” Schaefer 

said. “I’ll find a way to put a roof over my head, 

it’s never about that. I think that’s why the art 

is going to keep going. It’s so crushing to see 

that it could get more and more distant with 

the lack of funding from it, within the pop cul-

ture and main culture of society.”

This argument is reinforced by faculty. The 

word “quit” simply does not exist in the art-

ist’s vocabulary.

“The best thing that we can do is to learn, 

prepare, train, become great artists,” Dworkin 

said. “The best thing you can do when the arts, 

or whatever field you’re working in is poten-

tially diminished or under threat, is to become 

more excellent — to make a better argument 

for it. I’ve learned to not to predict the future, 

but project and prepare. Because luck is when 

preparation meets opportunity.”

But I don’t know how I could have prepared 

for this. The proposed budget’s complete dis-

missal of the arts has made me question my 

craft and therefore identity. How do I tell my 

graduating friends that everything will be 

OK when the already minimal support for the 

starving artists is completely gone?

It’s less of a question of whether the arts 

matter — of course, they do. The question is 

how the aspiring, still unknown artist enters 

a world where their existence is undervalued. 

The dialogue starts sounding a lot like other 

conversations that have surfaced in the recent 

political climate.

*****

As a violinist, multi-media artist and now 

an educator, Dworkin’s resilience is some-

thing I admire.

“From my perspective, there is no doubt,” 

Dworkin said, his voice unwavering. “It’s just 

that we have to make the case and make the 

argument, because the arts pervade so much of 

what we do — it’s just not recognized amongst 

many people how pervasive the arts are, and 

that the arts require training and facility. It’s 

not like you can magically play an instrument 

or sing or dance, it requires years of training, 

development, craft, ingenuity and creativity.”

Over the course of the last few days, this 

pervasiveness of the arts has been a recurring 

theme. Even as a performing artist in school 

with other performing artists, I sometimes 

lose sight of the breadth of this field. Fischer 

doesn’t.

“This will be one where I hope anyone who 

has been to a theater, dance or music perfor-

mance, who owns an iPad, or an iPhone, and 

looks at the design, who drives a car, thinks: 

Who are the people designing these things 

that have made America great?” Fischer said. 

“They are people who have been artists and 

designers. For anyone to think it’s just a bunch 

of rich people going to see the Metropolitan 

Opera benefitting from this, they need to get 

their facts straight.”

The potential demise of the NEA and with 

it, the national support system for the arts, not 

only affects current artists, but future genera-

tions of artists as well. Whether they are in 

training like me, or haven’t yet picked up the 

violin or paintbrush, the lack of access to the 

arts has foreseeable consequences.

I know for a fact that I would not have pur-

sued a college degree in this craft if I weren’t 

exposed to choreographers and dancers who 

made my jaw drop and entire body tingle when 

I was younger — I simply wouldn’t have pur-

sued it if I didn’t experience the full-blown, 

unadulterated power of the artist myself. I 

wanted to communicate the unutterable.

The experience of the arts is irreplaceable. 

If I’ve learned anything from 18 years of train-

ing, it’s that live art is fleeting, but maybe for 

the same reason, most resonating. It seems 

most lively in the sense that it requires your 

fullest attention in the moment, to be stored 

in your memory, as more of a sensation than 

artifact. After all, it is an experience.

 
 
 
 
 
 COURTESY OF WENDY D PHOTOGRAPHY

 COURTESY OF THE SCHOOL OF MUSIC, THEATRE AND DANCE

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ARNOLD ZHOU/DAILY

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
FILE PHOTO/MICHIGAN DAILY

