All of this changed with the commercial revolution and the growth of a consumption society. Now arts and publics coexist, mutually dependent, mutually suspicious. Meanwhile the state uses art to manipulate the public, and the market uses the public to manipulate the arts. A variety of verbs connect arts and publics. Both arts and publics are plural, and either can be the subject of the verbs, either the object.
Arts offend, educate, elevate, dupe, sensitize, and manipulate publics.
Publics ignore, pay for, resist, flock to, revile, and worship the arts. In 1999-2000 the Center for the Humanities will investigate this sometimes nurturing and sometimes poisonous relationship with visits from major scholars and artists who will address the theme in public lectures, workshops, and in the humanities seminar. May. As a special event, the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude are scheduled to speak at NU on October 25, 1999. Click here for details. Click here for lecture schedule .