Florens 2012, 3: The Recommendations of Florens 2010 – a Personal Commentary by Micaehl Miller

Jacques Callot, La Fiera di Impruneta, etching and engraving. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

To read installment 1, "Petition Madness in the Art World…and a Search for Solutions: Florens 2012," click here.

To read installment 2, "Florens 2012, 2: the target areas established by Florens 2010 and proposals for solutions," Click here.

It seems right to begin by grounding whatever else I have to say in the recommendations of Florens 2010. Since much of this will be discussed at Florens 2012. I’ve entered my thoughts simply as comments on the thirteen proposals of 2010. Some of these mention examples from my experiences in the U.S. While the U.S. scored quite well in the Florens 2010 surveys, there is no reason why it should be considered exemplary. The arts struggle there as much as anywhere, although there are a variety of resources to support it. The Tanglewood Music Festival is without a doubt the most important summer music festival and school in the country. They have just published their attendance figures for this past summer, the summer of their 75th anniversary celebrations, and it is makes for depressing reading. The most popular classical concert by the Boston Symphony Orchestra — and these were the cornerstone of the founder, Serge Koussevitzky’s vision for the festival — ranked ninth below eight pop concerts and semi-popular ceremonial events. Even with an array of private and corporate donors at hand and painstakingly cultivated, the arts have to work hard in the New World to survive and risk compromising their mission.

The text of the Florens 2010 proposals is in red. My comments are in black.

Read the full article on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!