Art is the currency of the border. And the creation of new art in a border setting means acknowledging and accommodating many voices, many cultures and traditions. I spent many years as the Director of the Country Music Foundation in Nashville, Tennessee, and I observed art making in the South up close for more than a quarter century. In a border society, art represents the safe channel of cultural exchange. A number of scholars have mapped these characteristics of border life, but I would assert that the most distinctive legacy of our diverse democratic heritage is a border society.
Art is at the center.
Culture to culture. Musical theater is opera colliding with vaudeville. Film is drama on stage colliding with technology. So, our argument must first advance a model, a metaphor, for art in democracy, and must also assert the place of art in addressing societal needs. It's the arts that equip our children with the skills necessary to speak, interpret, and create in this new language of the 21st century.