[Dixielandjazz] $101 MILLION to PRINCETON UNIVERSITY FOR "CREATIVE & PERFORMING ARTS".

[tcashwigg at aol.com]

In my obviously slanted not necessarily humble opinion:

Almost all Musicians could be considered as Philanthropist since they 
collectively Give away more Free music a year than this small amount of 
money by comparison.  One would hope that one day someone would 
actually leave that much money in an account to hire and pay musicians, 
not pay professors to teach another generation of starving artists how 
to not work and get paid livable wages for doing so except for becoming 
the next generation of music teachers teaching the same old routine.

Perhaps if we started calling ourselves Philanthropist who do a little 
music on the side we would get more respect.  :))
We can say we gave millions of Dollars in in-kind services.

I have a Dream!  I have a Dream!,  but alas it is a NIGHTMARE ME THINKS

Musical content:   Will it Go round in circles?  (Billy Preston)   and 
"Will the circle be unbroken"? Johnny Cash and other less academically 
inclined but successful musicians and or entertainers.

So the next time you walk past that street musician drop a bill or two 
in his hat, no chump change in his tambourine, he just might be a 
displaced PHD Music professor who ran out of grants and still can't buy 
a real music gig.  :))

Cheers,

Tom Wiggins

-----Original Message-----
From: Steve barbone <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
To: DJML <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Sat, 21 Jan 2006 10:59:02 -0500
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] $101 MILLION to PRINCETON UNIVERSITY FOR 
"CREATIVE & PERFORMING ARTS".

    There seems to be renewed commitment to the "Arts" today, through 
donations.
At least here in the Eastern USA. This article is but one example.

BTW, Princeton University provides quite a few OKOM gigs each year for 
bands
 from New York to Washington DC. Especially at Alumni Reunion Week. And 
the
great cornetist/trumpeter Ed Polcer is a Princeton Alumnus. I will never
forget a gig there with him, where he taught us the Princeton Fight 
Song on
the spot and we played a damn good Dixieland rendition of it, in a
magnificent two level theater.

Moral of the story? If Government won't do it, lets do it ourselves by
putting our money and/or talent where our mouths are.

Article is snipped (excerpted) for brevity. But note the last sentence 
the
University President said about the arts; "We're not going to force feed
it," she said, "But we're going to make it hard to avoid."

Perhaps, in this era of positive signals about "The Arts", we might go 
forth
and do likewise with OUR music?

Cheers,
Steve


Princeton to Receive Record Gift for the Arts

NY TIMES  By ROBIN POGREBIN - January 21, 2006

Peter B. Lewis, the Cleveland philanthropist known for his tough 
standards,
is giving his alma mater, Princeton University, $101 million to expand 
its
creative and performing arts activities, including the creation of an
artists-in-residence program. The gift, the largest in the school's 
history,
is to be announced today.

Mr. Lewis, . . . called the arts "an important part of life I didn't 
know
when I was at Princeton and didn't know when I was a kid." . .  . SNIP 
TO

"This will have a transformational effect on Princeton," said Shirley M.
Tilghman, the president of the university. "It will bring the creative 
and
performing arts into real focus in a way they haven't been in the 
history of
the university." . . .SNIP TO

Princeton hopes to capitalize on the university's proximity to New York 
and
Philadelphia to attract working artists. The center will also expand the
campus's physical space for art, possibly providing a new gallery and
additional theater space. . . SNIP TO

The arts emerged as an area in need of redress. In talking to students 
and
faculty members, Ms. Tilghman heard of student dance groups having to 
move
all the chairs out of a classroom to create rehearsal space;  . . . and 
of
music students who carried their instruments all over campus in rain and
snow because there was no storage area.

"It became clear to me that this was one area in which Princeton was 
just
simply underperforming," she said. . . SNIP TO

"Part of this initiative is to visibly commit Princeton to expanding 
these
programs in the arts." . . . SNIP TO

While the arts on campus will intensify, students will not be required 
to
participate. But Ms. Tilghman said she hoped students would experience 
more,
if only as members of an audience. "We're not going to force feed it," 
she
said. "But we're going to make it hard to avoid."


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