Depending on your lens, art is many things: transformative, evocative, beautiful, provocative. Behind these great artistic performances and exhibitions you experience, however, a great deal of hard work is going on. Dance steps must be learned and perfected, canvas must be purchased and stretched before being painted, symphonies must be written and then scored into parts for each instrumentalist. On a more practical level, babysitters must be arranged to free up time to work in the studio, grants must be submitted or a full-time job attended in order to pay for supplies, sets must be built, hotels and rehearsal space must be secured for visiting artists. When we take in the ballet, the photograph, the poem, we are seeing only the finished product. This issue of NEA Arts will look at all the steps leading up to that final product, the work behind the artwork.

 

A couple of months ago, the NEA began the Art Works blog on our website where we keep track of Chairman Rocco Landesman’s travels around the country as part of the Art Works Tour, but also look at interesting examples of how art transforms communities. If you have an example you would like to share, or just want to comment on something you read there or in this issue, please join in the conversation on the blog.