This redbud photo is not very well framed but it is better than my usual attempts at photographing redbug redbug redbug redbud (three strikes, you’re out!) in that it is fuzzy in all the right places.

I was saddened to hear (via twitter, of course) that a long-time local theatrical organization is folding. I don’t know exactly what the issues were but I am familiar with the issues a non-profit arts organization faces. I can only guess about the specific financial challenges. I suspect that there were also interpersonal difficulties at play. I am guessing all of this because my “middle” “career” happened to be in non-profit theatre management. “Middle” means that it was sandwiched between my “childhood” career (computer programmer / systems analyst) and my “adult” career (business systems analyst). “Career” means that I was paid doodly-squat. That was sometimes kind of okay but not when I had to do things that I felt someone else in the org should be doing (would be MUCH better at doing than I was. Like soothing panicky helicopter parents whose kid didn’t get the role they wanted. Etc.). It’s a long story that I won’t go into but it plays into why arts orgs fail. Although I believe my old YAGgie org is still going strong!.

Oooh, this was maybe too close to KW’s heart, given how much of a nonsensical screed that last paragraph was. There were good times too. You know that. Many many many of them.

What I want to say (and probably can’t coherently articulate) is that I think the arts are highly undervalued in the first world country that we live in. Yes it is a first world country although by the condition of the roads in the Great Lake State, someone might not perceive that. I *absolutely* think that the so-called science curriculum (STEM?) is important. We *need* rigorously trained scientists and engineers, etc.

We need artists too. I think I was a great artist as a child in many media but music is what I pursued as a young adult, although I don’t really practice the flute or piano any more. From my experience in the theatre world, those are the folks who are capable of making the world a better place. I am not talking about the divas or the “cute wanna-be” actresses. I am talking about the folks who work their butt off to get a successful play production off the ground, whether or not they are acting in the play, which they may be. There are many skills involved in producing a play and, believe it or not, some of them have something to do with science. In my experience, in a well-run play production, what makes the world go ’round is that everyone works together and uses whatever skills they have to create a quality product.

Texting on the terlet? Oh, don’t do it.

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