I believe the purpose of art is to move people emotionally. Otherwise why do it? There is the easy path, for instance incorporating obviously charged material as ingredient. Sampling Holocaust material would be an example, you would be guaranteed a response. I think that is too easy.
Doug Bland is the real deal. Working in community arts with intellectually disabled people he discovered the mix of special, ordinary and extraordinary individuals, together in community art- making environments, works.
Bland creates university research on community art making and societal communication, the raw material of individual identity and cultural evolution.
His talk is part of the PSU Monday Night Lecture Series. Look for the sandwich board sign to find the room. Talk in Shattuck Hall, Room 212 or the Annex out front, 1914 SW Park Avenue, at the corner of SW Broadway and Hall on the PSU campus. 7:30PM Free
