VOA英语2010年-Artists are America's Newest Ambassadors
时间:2019-01-11 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2010年(十二)月
The U.S. government has been sending dancers and musicians on international goodwill 1 missions for decades. Now, for the first time, it is sending artists abroad as cultural ambassadors.
The Obama Administration's new cultural diplomacy 2 program is called smART Power. The Bronx Museum of the Arts in New York oversees 3 the initiative.
smART Power
"I think it's fantastic," says Holly 4 Block, the museum's director. "The Bronx Museum itself has done quite a few projects related to community engagement and [having artists] work closely with the community, as well as international artists all over the world. So this fits perfectly 5. This is the first opportunity I think we've ever had where we're actually able to send U.S.-based artists outside [the U.S.]. Normally we receive artists."
Block says visual artists - including painters, sculptors 6, architects, designers - may apply for the program starting January 3.
"They will submit their materials with a concept," she explains. "We'll expect them to write a small narrative 7 on what they would like to do. But the idea of this project is really special in the sense that you need to think about community and think about visiting this place and creating a project that's in relationship with maybe some topic that's already going on there, or some of the ideas that you bring to them. We will be working very closely with the artists in selecting partner sites to receive the artists and help them realize their work."
Cultural diplomacy
After 15 artists are selected to participate, they will be sent to work on public art projects with students, teachers, athletes and artists in 15 countries, including Pakistan, Venezuela, China, Nigeria and Lebanon.
"I think it's important for many artists to get out of the bubble of their studio," says Tim Rollins, an artist who is on the Bronx Museum's Board of Directors. Since the 1980s, he has been helping 8 young artists get involved in their communities and visit other cities as well. He believes traveling expands an artist's horizon.
"In every single experience I've ever had, traveling and working abroad, a new concept is created, a new approach becomes possible," Rollins says. "That's often unpredictable. You don't know exactly who you're going to work with, who is going to have an idea that you maybe had never thought of before. When you're together with other communities, it's like a big Thanksgiving Day dinner. The food is really important, but it's often a wonderful experience to get together for an exchange would never have happened."
Rollins expects it will be easy for the smART Power ambassadors to initiate 9 a dialogue with local artists wherever they're sent.
"In my previous experiences - working in all these different places - local artists tend to want to meet you. They want to be involved. They want to know what's going on in the U.S. It's not competitive, it's not spiteful. It's a genuine curiosity. That's one of the most exciting and rewarding aspects of this sort of collaboration 10 is the fact that you meet with many wonderful new people and they are like-minded and creative. And it's all good."
As artist in residence for New York City's Sanitation 12 Department, Mierle Ukeles creates major public artworks that explore the social aspects of waste management - such as putting mirrors on trash trucks to reflect the people who create the trash and choreographing 13 a ballet for trucks at a landfill. She can imagine similar projects in other cities around the world. To succeed though, she says artists need to know more about those foreign communities and have the freedom to express themselves.
"Art is about freedom," she says. "You do whatever you want to. It's always about freedom. Nobody can tell the artist you what to do this or you can do that. Then it's not art. It's something else. I hope that people go with open heart."
Rollins expects they will. While smART Power is funded by the U.S. government, he says artists are the ones who will shape the program.
"Part of the excitement of coming up with projects is to figure out what's going to work," Rollins says. "So it isn't just that the government is sponsoring your vision as an artist in a selfish way. Really it is about what can we do, what can we come up with, which will engage the community that we're going to be visiting? And that's what we are - we are visitors. And, yeah, play the role of being a visitor as opposed to being a tourist, as opposed to being a propaganda instrument for the U.S. That won't work. What will work is a genuine dialogue between the communities to produce something that is of lasting, excellent and cultural value."
And, all those involved hope the smART Power dialogue will also produce something that gives people a better understanding of America and American visual arts.
- His heart is full of goodwill to all men.他心里对所有人都充满着爱心。
- We paid £10,000 for the shop,and £2000 for its goodwill.我们用一万英镑买下了这家商店,两千英镑买下了它的信誉。
- The talks have now gone into a stage of quiet diplomacy.会谈现在已经进入了“温和外交”阶段。
- This was done through the skill in diplomacy. 这是通过外交手腕才做到的。
- She oversees both the research and the manufacturing departments. 她既监督研究部门又监督生产部门。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- The Department of Education oversees the federal programs dealing with education. 教育部监管处理教育的联邦程序。 来自互联网
- I recently acquired some wood from a holly tree.最近我从一棵冬青树上弄了些木料。
- People often decorate their houses with holly at Christmas.人们总是在圣诞节时用冬青来装饰房屋。
- The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
- Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。
- He is one of Britain's best-known sculptors. 他是英国最有名的雕塑家之一。
- Painters and sculptors are indexed separately. 画家和雕刻家被分开,分别做了索引。
- He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
- Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。
- The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
- By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。
- A language teacher should initiate pupils into the elements of grammar.语言老师应该把基本语法教给学生。
- They wanted to initiate a discussion on economics.他们想启动一次经济学讨论。
- The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
- He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。
- The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
- We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。
- The location is exceptionally poor,viewed from the sanitation point.从卫生角度来看,这个地段非常糟糕。
- Many illnesses are the result,f inadequate sanitation.许多疾病都来源于不健全的卫生设施。