Think for a moment:
What is art?  What is entertainment?
What is beauty?
Are art and entertainment in conflict?
What are the purposes of art and entertainment?
Why is art valuable? Why is entertainment valuable?
Can good art also be popular?
Should public funds be used to support art?
Does entertainment enhance or hinder education?
Should ones exposure to entertainment be limited or avoided?
Why do communities thrive where an art community is prevalent?
Why does the United States lead the world in the creation of entertainment?
How has technology changed art and entertainment?
When, if ever, is art and entertainment immoral?
Has art and entertainment improved over the years?

Art and Entertainment

It is by their art that societies and civilizations are so often remembered, but what art is remains ever-elusive, springing from mysterious sources and serving a myriad of masters--the subject for millennia of intense speculation and debate, endless opinion mongering and taste making. Now flip the channel and bring entertainment into the fray. If art shoots simultaneously for the head and the heart, then perhaps it can be said that entertainment aims a little lower. If art seeks after eternity, then entertainment goes for the immediate effect and by nature remains a product of its times. If art is an ocean, some might see entertainment as a wading pool, perhaps not noticing that both are filled with the same water. But is it really so simple? Matisse once said art should be a “comfortable armchair”--a remark misunderstood by many--and basketball is not infrequently described by commentators as “ballet.” One person’s art can be another’s entertainment and, conversely, one’s entertainment another’s art. Perhaps art is but entertainment that has survived the proverbial test of time. If so, by what quality does it transcend the particulars of that initial gratification to speak across the ages to our universal humanity? Whatever the definitions to which one clings, there remains an undeniable energy that flows between these two poles of our collective cultural life. Please join the Muskegon Area Arts and Humanities Festival for a month-long celebration of the arts and humanities exploring the theme of Art and Entertainment. Be uplifted, be challenged, be moved, enlightened--and be entertained.--Foley Schuler (shorter version, 9-14-5)

Past & Future Themes
2001 – Friendship & Community
2002 – Good & Evil
2003 – Work & Play
2004 – Freedom & Privacy
2005 – Technology & Humanity
2006 – Art & Entertainment
2007 – Need & Want
2008 – Tradition & Change