[Bards] Bards and A&S

[Michael Silverhands]

On Nov 8, 2006, at 11:44 AM, Cisco Cividanes wrote:

> anyone what to take a shot at that?
> are things different in central, coastal,western...wherever?
>
> Ivo
>

I think it's just the nature of the beast, Ivo.

I went to high school at a school called The High School for  
Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA). Note that "Performing" and  
"Visual" are named separately, despite the monster of a name that  
created.

I think that's for lots of good reasons. They are just different  
critters.

Performing arts *are* arts... and thus rightly under the purview of  
the Kingdom Minister of Arts & Sciences... but they are different  
from the visual (or "static") arts and historical reconstructions  
that typify A&S competitions, with their neat tables full of exhibits  
and documentation that reminds me of a museum display, and judges  
quietly wandering around and whispering and making notes.

Bards aren't museum displays. (Well, ok, some of us ought to be...  
but that's another issue. ;-)

So, no, I don't think that "Bardic has become the misfit child of the  
A&S community". I know that bards may feel like subclass citizens at  
a static A&S competition. *shrug* So what? How do you think a static  
artisan feels at a Bardic competition? Out of place? Fish out of  
water? Probably something like that. That doesn't make artisans the  
red-headed stepchildren of Bardic, any more than it makes us the red- 
headed stepchildren of static A&S. It just is what it is.

Of course, that doesn't stop folks from *feeling* like other people  
are treating them like red-headed step-children, but I think that's  
mostly their problem, their way of responding to feeling inadequate  
and out of place. I think it's their problem to get over, not  
"somebody else's problem" to fix.

The solution? Make our own venues, and make them some of the best and  
most prestigious in the kingdom. Don't worry about not fitting in at  
a static display. Be joyful at fitting in at a performance venue.

"Don't shorten somebody else's line. Lengthen your own."

That's my $.02, anyway. :-)

Michael