Arts & International Affairs: Volume 2, Number 2 | Page 37

to brighten urban spaces. These artists were talented and offered urban
residents opportunities to interact with creative works on a daily basis. And
as opposed to kitsch, there was no pretense to contrive residents’ response
to the art—no artist called his creation “Best Sculpture Ever”.
While taste suggests that Shakespeare in the Park is an object of high
culture because its audiences presumably comprise individuals who already
know Shakespeare, examples of free public art suggest the performances
are examples of popular culture. Yes, Shakespeare is associated with high
art and intellect, but these productions exist to provide access to his work in
a similar way that public art encourages popular engagement. Emphasis on
the popular must make Shakespeare in the Park more low than high, even
though some may strongly argue it embodies a hybrid of both—as the case
of opera already demonstrates a blurring between the two terms.
To say that Shakespeare in the Park is in the domain of low culture does not
necessarily devalue it or any other object of low culture. Just as everyone
should have the right to enjoy public art murals, anyone who wants
to watch Shakespeare for free should do so. It is better for more people
than fewer to be culturally literate. But that sentiment does not mean that
all cultural programming, including the festivals at Edinburgh, should
organize themselves exclusively according to the principles of pluralism and
inclusion. While there are compelling arguments for festivals and programs
to be sites of social integration between cultural authorities, elites, and
populations often excluded from arts participation, those arguments seek
only to accommodate the preferences of the larger polity. When these kinds
of events become about people more than artistic excellence, the politics
of filling seats makes attendance the endpoint of exhibiting art. We need
spaces isolated from fleeting popular trends and preferences where high art
and high culture can thrive.
Preference for high art should not be taken as elitist in the term’s pejorative
sense. Rather, highbrow taste results from the optimistic awareness of what
art is capable of providing to the individual. And this capacity is not just
applicable to the plush comfort of an arts festival. In the most extreme
example of suffering and despair, thousands of Jews packed serious
books into their suitcases during the Holocaust as they were relocated to
Theresienstadt, a near hybrid between a ghetto and concentration camp
the Nazis created as a town of celebrated artists and intellectuals, which was
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