I was disheartened when I read the recent letter (Value in theatre arts, July 31.) Once more, the “bottom-line mentality” has been applied to fine arts programs. This time at the College of Piping.
In our globalized world, we have sadly been manipulated over the decades to accept and even glorify this profit mentality. Yet deep inside our humanity, we know the bottom-line mentality is merely one dimensional. It cannot comprehend the complexity and creativity of being human, and all that this entails.
After all, our imagination is our private playground where all things are made possible. It is there that we dream the impossible, and in doing so, we find creative outlets and even solutions to problems once deemed insolvable.
Ask yourself, what would my world look like if all creations by fine artists were removed from it? (Think architecture, textiles, decorative, furniture, dance, infrastructure, landscape, paintings, music, sculptures, ceramics and so much more)
Wake up, folks! Our public education curriculum needs to enlarge its fine arts programs, at all levels of schools. Correspondingly, community fine arts programs, such as those taught at the College of Piping, need to be heralded as invaluable components of our society. Collectively, they celebrate and cherish our creative humanity.
Fine arts remains priceless.
Betty L. E. Wilcox,
Retired fine arts instructor,
Stanhope
