Downtown & Economic Revitalization
“The Arts are Alive in our region! Take a walk through downtown Scranton during First Friday art walks. [First Friday Scranton] Even in the dead of winter with snowflakes falling and bone-chilling temperatures, the streets are bustling with human beings in search of art...There are great opportunities to make a living in art, and I don’t see that changing in the foreseeable future,” says Joan Mead-Matsui, a Paper Artist Specializing in Chigirie or Japanese Torn Paper Collage Art whose work is permanently displayed at Art Gallery 408 and the Hilton Scranton & Conference Center. [Hilton Scranton]

Other cities and towns across PA seem to be filled with the same sentiment - praise over the arts in this area. Ken Marquis of Marquis Art & Frame adds, “First Friday in Scranton [First Friday Scranton] and Third Friday Art Walk in Wilkes-Barre are great events, and the downtowns flourish as a result of these things. Milford also has arts on Saturdays [Art After Dark]. Restaurants will flourish and peripheral businesses will stay open. There’s activity in town, and everybody wins.” Marquis cites that art has transformed former economically-depressed areas of the country such as SoHo and Greenwich Village in New York City. Also, cities with a flourishing arts scene may better be able to attract top talent to fill job openings in the region, and when people come to a city to enjoy arts events, they often invest more of money into non-arts-related businesses, such as restaurants and hotels.

“Most Americans understand that the arts improve our quality of life. This study demonstrates that the arts are an industry that stimulates the economy in cities and towns across the country. A vibrant arts and culture industry helps local businesses thrive.” said Robert L. Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts, commenting on the May 2007 study “Arts & Economic Prosperity III: The Economic Impact of Nonprofit Arts and Culture Organizations and Their Audiences,” [Arts USA] a report which cites that the national nonprofit arts and culture industry generates $166.2 billion in economic activity annually and nearly $30 billion in revenue to local, state and federal governments every year (although they collectively spend less than $4 billion annually to support the arts) and supports 5.7 million full-time jobs.

Relationships & Community
Laura Goss is executive director of the Pocono Arts Council, which has a mission statement that says it all, “Culture builds community.” Goss says, “It is important to understand, the arts touch all our lives. For us to move forward as a society we have to make sure these arts are protected.” She compares the world without arts to a car that functions but does not have shape or a garment that covers but is not appealing or fashionable. She also says arts get people involved, and when people are involved, they have a steak and investment in the community in which they live, adding, “People always think the arts are a fluff, and school districts cut arts programs first. But the arts are not out there for the elite or the talented few. They are what hold our lives together as human beings, so we should recognize that and contribute to that as much as we can.” David Zarko, the producing artistic director of The Northeast Theater (TNT), explains, “Theater and the arts generally are community builders. They gather people together in one place to exercise their imaginations at one time. Actors are there live in an immediate interactive, real-time manner responding to the audience. A community is built in the room itself, because you’re creating something together. Then that same community goes beyond the theater and outside into the general community...What keeps my passion going is providing a gathering place. Where people come to interact with each other. Creating things together is one of the most important things we have.” TNT believes so much that everyone should have an opportunity to become a part of that community experience that they offer “pay-what-you-can” Wednesday performances and “cheap as a movie” Thursday shows ($8 tickets) in addition to student and senior discount tickets ($6 and $17 respectively). Marquis adds, “Art brings people together; it crosses all boundaries...and can become a history lesson.”

Education, Preservation & Communication
Irina Krawitz, an artist whose work is on display at the Widmann Art Gallery at King’s College, says art is a vital form of communication and preservation of our current culture, “I believe we need to express our time with our own ideas and impressions in order to give the right message to the future...Visual art is a window into our time. It is important to have that window and to take care of it and cherish it; ancient people knew it, and we know it. It teaches us to live, to love, to recognize and to learn about a lot of valuable aspects in our life. Art is a connection between people in a different level of communication. I do talk through my paintings to people; I can see the reactions; I can feel the emotions. It makes us better understand, and being understood is an experience of sharing and adapting a very important aspect of human growth.”
Through her art, Mead-Matsui has learned about the Japanese culture and shares her knowledge with others, “Chigirie is a wealth of information about the medium, that without words tells a story about a culture.”

“Theater helps give audiences a sense of where they come from - not just history, but there’s a whole language of culture reflecting our regional community and cultural language which is both American and international which gives you much deeper roots with who you are as a human,” admits Zarko. “The language of culture is essential part of getting ahead. The structure of society is contained in the arts; the arts tells us who we are by understanding who we are through the arts...TNT is here to make an effort to do several things- to reveal the depth and value of the heritage of this region, which is astounding, and to give artists in the region opportunity to work with and stand equal to artists outside of the region. There has been a terrible inferiority complex here, but when we work with people from New York as peers, it gives people a stronger sense of what they can do here and elsewhere by bringing the richness of their experience in either place to the other.”

Thoughts From the Gallery
Five creative minds from Northeast PA were featured in the January 2008 issue because of their accomplishments in furthering the arts. Here’s what they had to say about the value of art.
“Arts are so important because today we’re such a television audience. Especially for live theater and live music, art takes imagination and interaction with the audience and participation with what’s going on stage. It stimulates the mind and creativity, and it gives more space for imagination. It’s important to get young people involved in that because in their usual entertainment, the passivity is palpable. It’s amazing how much some children don’t interact as much as in previous generations. Without the arts, we are not a society; we’d have nothing but mundane living, and we need the arts for expression of creativity.” - Judy McLane, Broadway Performer [Momma Mia] “Assessing the value of art is a difficult question to answer. What I can tell you is...the funding for arts has become political and people use words very loosely to summarize that arts and culture bring money to community. It’s as if it has to be materialized as to what benefits the arts can bring. You can measure some benefits, and it can be objective - but that aspect of art isn’t the most important thing. The important things are the intangible. There are things that people need besides housing and food that the arts can give you. It does have tangible benefits, students who study in the arts brings structure, organization and commitment and even helps them with various subjects. But how can people define what beauty does for your life? It’s hard. isn’t it? Not everything that you can touch is most important. If someone goes through a performance or reads a book or sees a painting and is touched and moved by it, then you know it enriches your life. If you don’t have that experience you’re missing something.” – Barbara Weisberger, founder of the Pennsylvania Ballet

“The quality of people’s lives is constantly influenced by the level of aesthetic appreciation people have. When you can find beauty in things, you can find wonder and fascination. Every thing that you see influences your mood, your outlook and your inspirations. When you live in a beautiful place with a beautiful town and beautiful landscapes and work with beautiful materials, it seems life is so much more worth living than if you didn’t have these things. I see that in everything. People are attracted like moths to flame or some sort of magnetic attraction to things that are aesthetic, which adds in every way to quality of life.” - Chris Ries, Sculptor

“I especially think the arts are essential for children one hundred percent. In private school, they had that art component, and I was lucky to understand that I might have some talent there. I would like to be a spokesperson for arts in education because it’s so important. I would not have known of my interest or talent in art if I didn’t have access to it as a child. Some children posses raw artistic talents, and they need to be exposed to art to have the opportunity to develop it.” - Jack Puhl, Watercolor Artist

“Number one, music becomes such a part of your life whether or not you go into it as a profession. Specifically as a child, but also as an adult, it is a means of expression and gives children a great sense of accomplishment and success. I think they’ve done studies that classical music can do much for helping the brain and education and improving problem-solving skills and growing a general appreciation for music. The bonds you make with students and tteachers through music are incredibly strong and valuable...There is a lot of culture in Northeast PA; people out of the area don’t realize how much culture there is in our area. And the desire for young people to study music is extremely strong in his area, and that impresses me. There aren’t enough string teachers to go around. I love the fact that there is so much culture and yearning for music from young people here.” - Jule Sipler, Northeast PA Philharmonic Violinist