Stimulus 1. Something causing or regarded as causing a response.
2. An agent, action, or condition that elicits or accelerates a physiological or psychological activity or response.
3. Something that incites or rouses to action; an incentive: “Works which were in themselves poor have often proved a stimulus to the imagination” (W.H. Auden).
In February 2009, Congress passed and President Obama signed a $787 BILLION (and change) Stimulus Package, meant to kick-start the American economy. It includes money for education, job training and unemployment insurance; health care, housing, highways and high-speed rail; tax cuts and tax credits; research in basic and applied science, including the National Science Foundation, NASA, water, wind, solar and geothermal power. (Look here for a quick overview). The announced goal is to create 3-4 million jobs in the US in the next year. The larger task, however, is to restore confidence and hope for a better future.
Can there be a Cultural Stimulus that would amplify and enhance the economic one? Could cultural work act as an economic “multiplier”? What actions could we take to repair and restore civic confidence? How could we act—visibly, intelligently, deliberately—to contribute to the success of the stimulus package? What sort of interventions might give Central Ohio a lift?
The Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities and the Arts Initiative at Ohio State University invite your ideas and proposals for a Cultural Stimulus at an open forum on Tuesday, March 10 4 – 6 pm at the George Wells Knight House, 104 East 15th Avenue.
Can't make it, or can't wait? Contribute your ideas and suggestions here.
Posts
This morning's NYT has a piece about how the economic downturn looks to affect the humanities, at least in their institutional self-conception:
ReplyDeleteBut in this new era of lengthening unemployment lines and shrinking university endowments, questions about the importance of the humanities in a complex and technologically demanding world have taken on new urgency. Previous economic downturns have often led to decreased enrollment in the disciplines loosely grouped under the term “humanities” — which generally include languages, literature, the arts, history, cultural studies, philosophy and religion. Many in the field worry that in this current crisis those areas will be hit hardest.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/books/25human.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper
The current economic downturn--worldwide, and deepening--has already drawn worrisome comparisons to the 1930's. Behind the headline-grabbing financial news lie social dislocation and, in places like Eastern Europe, political instability.
ReplyDeleteFrom this perspective, the economic stimulus bill is the starting-gun in a race to redirect the momentum of the financial collapse in constructive directions. The Great Depression gave us the WPA and the Popular Front alongside National Socialism. What sort of cultural changes can we imagine in the wake of our own crisis?
"Setting aside, for a moment, acute financial worries, furloughs might also help answer larger questions underlying the economic crisis: What will America look like when it is over? Will we resume being a nation of spenders instead of savers? Will we be content with smaller houses and fewer things? Weren’t we working too much, anyway?
“Hopefully something about this recession might help us to begin to think about what the important things in life are,” Mr. de Graaf said. "
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/weekinreview/01dewan.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper
Cultural Stimulus is all about creative responses to the economic downturn: efforts to connect, lift spirits, ask questions, generate meaning. An inspirational example: The EconoWhiner, written by financial journalist Jill Fraser (http://www.econowhiner.com/).
ReplyDeleteTheir creed:
* We didn’t create this mess.
* But we’ll find our way through it.
* Along the way, we’ll complain if we want to.
"The Great Depression of the 1930s was documented with black-and-white photographs of migrant workers and film reels of bread lines. In this economic crisis, the iconic media coverage could be the furious postings occurring in the blogosphere."
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/05/opinion/05thu3.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Recession%20blogs&st=cse