To my friends of the Friday Afternoon Challenge. Read this...

[CTyankee]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/opinion/sunday/keep-the-gates-of-paradise-open.html?ref=opinion&_r=0

This moving piece in today's NYT by Susan Jacoby brought tears to my eyes...

"I RECENTLY made what can best be described as a personal pilgrimage to Florence, Italy, where I wanted to gaze once again on Lorenzo Ghiberti’s recently restored golden Baptistery doors, known as the Gates of Paradise, and remember how they changed my life.

"When I returned home, I was greeted by the news that parts of the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts might be sold to pay the bankrupt city’s creditors. Government-ordered estimates of the potential value of a collection containing works by, among others, Fra Angelico and Rembrandt, are due from Christie’s auction house in a few weeks.

"The ugly subtext here is that certain people — say, poor African-Americans in an impoverished city or someone like me, whose parents never took her to an art museum — are too unworthy to derive any benefit from “elite” culture. I suppose I should be grateful that Italy, so often reported to be on the verge of economic collapse, apparently never considered selling the Gates of Paradise to a Disney theme park before I got to see them...."



I am sharing this on my Facebook page and encourage you to do so on yours. It reminds us all that, after all, art always saves us...

[CTyankee]

1. My husband particularly liked the part about the DIA situation versus Italy...

"They have standards there."

[MerryBlooms]

2. kick. I shared this article on my FB because I don't think the average

news-watching American, really knows what's happening to Detroit.
Anyway, thanks for bringing this article to DU.

[CTyankee]

6. Thanks. I put it on my Facebook page, too!

I'm glad you liked it.

[malaise]

3. To the greatest page

A very important OP

[etherealtruth]

4. I thoroughly enjoy your Friday afternoon challenges

I try to not miss them. Sadly, my knowledge of art is far too limited to participate;, however, that does not stop my enjoyment.

One of the many horrors of the Emergency Manager and Bankruptcy in Detroit is the desire to sell the significant art works owned by the DIA (again, i can make no 'intelligent" comment regarding the collection, i simply have visited the DIA since I was a small child ... and have taken all of my children). The following sums up the attitude in the area:


"The ugly subtext here is that certain people — say, poor African-Americans in an impoverished city or someone like me, whose parents never took her to an art museum — are too unworthy to derive any benefit from “elite” culture. I suppose I should be grateful that Italy, so often reported to be on the verge of economic collapse, apparently never considered selling the Gates of Paradise to a Disney theme park before I got to see them...."

[CTyankee]

8. That quote is the central point of the entire piece!

From what I have learned the DIA's art works effectively belong to the city as assets. I don't know if other city art museums are similarly imperiled by the dangers of bankruptcy, but certainly the DIA was. I wish with all my heart there were another way to work this, perhaps through a private, non-profit group of very rich but enlightened people who could put them into a foundation that could sponsor the art for permanent exhibit in the city. I think about this often and I am far away from Detroit. My city is art rich from having Yale here...there, but for the grace of god and Yale, goes New Haven if we don't get our fiscal act together...

[panader0]

5. K and R

And I love the Friday Challenge. It's my art history class. Thanks for doing it.

[CTyankee]

9. Well,you'd better be on time for class this Friday at 5 pm EST!

[functioning_cog]

7. art is some of the highest achievement of mankind

[CTyankee]

10. It's downright embarrassing when you think about Florence and its riches...

I spent some quality time in Florence and I'll bet they would just shake their heads in disbelief of us...

[JNelson6563]

11. Earth without art is eh.

Beautiful post my dear!

Julie

[CTyankee]

12. Thank you, Julie. Nice to see you!

[joeybee12]

13. Exactly! KNR

Reminds me of why I loathe Guiliani and love Bette Midler...several years ago, Mayor 911 cut off funding for small neighbrohood gardens in some of the poorer neighborhoods because he deemed them unnnecessary, Bette came in and funded them...it's a simliar mentality that people like Mayor 911 don't see the value in some things that give back so much more to people. It means a lot to some people to see some green instead of asphlat, just like it means so much to see what man is able to create and strive for.

[CTyankee]

14. good for Bette. Giuiani ought to be ashamed of himself. But he's too self-centered...of course...

I'm sure hoping for a miracle for Detroit. It is just WRONG what is happening...