deadly art diplomacy. The death of the Local locally

I gave up being an Artist, of the painterly kind, a long long time ago. For reasons that were personally political.  I was reacting  against the elitism of it all.  I am still glad I did. Actually more so , now.

Looking at celebratory International festivals of Art, these days, makes me squirm -silently . The talk of bridging cultures rings so shallow.  The overpowering pervasiveness of  the more powerful is drowning out  and killing off the local cultures. The Local - the  miming Modern and the copying Contemporary -  reach out to be part of  a very particular Global .. The more powerful Global continue to exploit the local . What suffers is the connection of the Local to the local. Its very rootedness . The deep rootedeness that is about  Life . About Growth. About regeneration locally - across the deeper local cultural landscape.

I could go on and on.  But this post is about  reading  between the lines of a good news story about  sucess of softpower art diplomacy. Diplomacy of a deathly, deadly kind. Diplomacy that is killing of  local cultures as effectively, in cultural terms, as  all the Hardpower that it is a cover for.

The biggest Embassies in the world are more than about diplomatic soft power. The American Embassy in Iraq should make people , especially the Locals across the  cultural world , think very carefully. Think very hard.

Or is the chance to crash in and cash out from the commerce of  International Contemporary Art World  enough for them ? Is that what the respect for Cultures is all about ? Do Cultural Wars  have to end in the usual surrender to the more powerful ?

"I’ve spoken frequently about what different kinds of diplomacy we can use to advance our nation’s values and interests,” she told the more than 200 guests. “Sometimes that obviously means old-fashioned diplomacy. Fly to a capital; meet with presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers, other officials.”

Other times, she said, it might mean using the Internet or town halls.

“But art is also a tool of diplomacy,” said Clinton. “It is one that reaches beyond governments, past all of the official conference rooms and the presidential palaces to connect with people all over the world.”

That less-recognized role is getting a boost from a program that touts its “soft diplomacy” of bringing people together through art that has been loaned by individuals, galleries and museums. Sometimes works are also specifically commissioned for a particular diplomatic site.

Jane Harman, a former congresswoman from California and now president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a foreign policy think tank, said that people needed to appreciate “how important culture is as a foreign policy tool.”

“More than ever, at a time when U.S. embassies look like fortresses, we need beauty inside,” she said at an event Thursday at the Wilson Center.

Indeed, the artwork often starts conversations during the many receptions and social gatherings that are central to diplomatic life.

“It’s showing off American art to a country where it’s located and that is very, very good for international relations,” said Joseph V. Reed, an undersecretary-general of the United Nations, who was U.S. ambassador to Morocco in the 1980s, as well as White House chief of protocol under President George H.W. Bush. “Everybody that comes in has to take a look at the walls.”

Stuart Bernstein, a former U.S. ambassador to Denmark, said, “People love American art. It’s an icebreaker.”

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/11/30/176056/hillary-clinton-celebrates-marriage.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/11/30/176056/hillary-clinton-celebrates-marriage.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/11/30/176056/hillary-clinton-celebrates-marriage.html#storylink=cpy

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/11/30/176056/hillary-clinton-celebrates-marriage.html

“More than ever, at a time when U.S. embassies look like fortresses, we need beauty inside,”