Arts & International Affairs: Volume 3, Issue 1, Spring 2018 | Page 40

THE ARTS, PARTICIPATION, AND GLOBAL INTERESTS
The Global Cultural Fellows held their first meeting this morning in Edinburgh. On the
heels of seeing Don Giovanni the night before, five fellows commenced group-wide discussions
on the cultural terms “highs” and “lows.”
Ellen Heyward, Lolisanam Ulugova, and Velani Dibba used their presentation times
to examine the connections between highs and lows and social class. Ellen and Velani
both acknowledged how high culture is associated with socio-economic privilege, but
advocated against understanding high and low as a competition between groups. Velani
equated participation in the arts with omnivore consumption, referencing that many
people listen to both opera and pop music with equal pleasure. Citing examples of digital
technologies to advance literacy, Ellen argued that highs and lows�even with their
associations to social class�can be inverted in cultural practices and spaces.
Luis Felipe Ferra complemented Ellen’s argument on inversion in his talk on the history
of jazz music in North America. Luis argued that jazz has occupied both cultural highs
and lows, often simultaneously, since its start as a musical form in African American culture
in the United States over 100 years ago.
Chankethya “Kethya” Chey, a dancer, used the body as an allegory to reject the validity
of high and low as cultural terms. She observed that that the body had no such divisions
and that each limb was a part of the whole.
Small-group breakout sessions among all fellows expanded on the themes introduced by
the first five presenters. One group discussed the racial demographic of music performers,
which is an issue particularly relevant to the classical and jazz genres. Collectively,
the Global Cultural Fellows interrogated the extent to which the high and low divide is
only applicable in Western culture; some participants raised questions over how authority
operates in the arts and culture.
Doubting whether high and low can be used as universal terms provoked, multiple
groups emphasised context as a method to understand art forms’ classifications.
Context reigned supreme in the discussions and disagreements between the Fellows.
Luis kicked off the day’s final session by interrogating the divide Western and non-Western
cultures. High art is a product of achievement in Western culture, but also highly tied
to the colonial experience for many of the fellows from non-Western cultures and a form
of power.
The Fellows devoted considerable time to assessing whether the terms were relevant
anymore and if a new vocabulary was needed to describe art forms without the vertical
hierarchy that highs and lows connote. Generally agreeing that vertical hierarchies are
sets of barriers, the Fellows interrogated the gaps between art forms and participants as
bridges and connections for all arts.
The fellows found access and opportunity as important as context for understanding and
appreciating the arts.
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