Design / architecture

Jaime Cortez was an arts and culture fellow at the San Francisco Foundation for two years. At the end of his fellowship, he and the other outgoing fellows were asked to read a prepared farewell statement to the board and staff of the foundation. Following is his closing presentation, given on July 9, 2008.

2008, 326 pages. Published by New Village Press, PO Box 3049 Oakland, CA, 94609, 
(510) 420-1361, www.newvillagepress.net

2007, 44 pages. Minnesota Citizens for the Arts, 2233 University Avenue West, Suite 355, St. Paul, Minnesota, 55144, (651) 251-0868, www.mncitizensforthearts.org

http://mncitizensforthearts.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/interioronlyfinal.pdf

2007, 16 pages. Americans for the Arts, 1000 Vermont Avenue, NW, 6th Floor, Washington, D.C., 20005, (202) 371-2830, www.artsusa.org

2008, 49 pages. Bush Foundation, 332 Minnesota Street, Suite E-900, Saint Paul, MN, 55101, (651) 227-0891, www.bushfoundation.org

http://www.bushfoundation.org/publications/BushFellowsReport.pdf

2008, 328 pages. Published by University of California Press

Crossing Borders and Boundaries was the theme of the GFE Conference in 2007, and shortly after the GFE and GIA conferences and the Arts and Education Weekend, I left for a trip to Asia including visits to Thailand, Cambodia, and Hong Kong. The GFE conference underscored the fact that one of the most important skills needed now is to be globally literate, which is pretty much being neglected in schools at the moment.

According to some, "the word twain has its origin in the Old English twegen, meaning two. The phrase never the twain shall meet was used by Rudyard Kipling, in his Barrack-room ballads, 1892: 'Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.'" Kipling uses a colonial lens to bemoan the lack of commonality and accord between the British and the indigenous East Indian. Until my recent trip to New Mexico I often felt that same lack of accord between arts funders and education funders.

There are few moments in life when you get to experience a series of "firsts." That thought occurred to me in the Albuquerque airport as a first-time visitor to New Mexico, as well as a first-time attendee to both the GFE and GIA conferences.

Accountability vs. Trust