Datastan Meets Storyland: Surfing the Zeitgeist Without Wiping Out
Date Published: November, 2008
Published In: ICASC
Resource Types: Articles, Resource Library
Distinguished writer, speaker, activist, and consultant, Arlene Goldbard, was hosted by the International Centre of Art for Social Change (ICASC) to give an opening keynote talk.
She presented the insightful, thoughtful and provocative “Datastan Meets Storyland: Surfing the Zeitgeist Without Wiping Out”.
“As I begin this talk, I want to tell you a bit about what to expect, what I am and am
not going to say. I am not going to tell you a little story about art and how it is good for
you, even though I believe that is true. Instead, I want to tell you a larger story, so much
larger I sometimes have trouble wrapping my mind around it. I want to tell you a story
about how an old way of understanding our lives and societies — one that I call
Datastan—is giving way to a very different paradigm — I call it Storyland — and about the
critical role that culture and culture-makers can play in helping the new paradigm into
being. Along the way, I’ll share stories about projects that can be variously described as
community cultural development, community arts or arts for social change, most of them
drawn from my own writing. Their importance to me is that each one affords a glimpse of
something that is waiting to be born, something that you and I can bring closer to fruition.”
We have a PDF of this seminal speech! Read on to hear what the pioneer in Art for Social Change (ASC), Arlene Goldbard, has to say!
To learn more about Arlene Goldbard, go to her website.
Resource(s):
Datastan Meets Storyland: Surfing the Zeitgeist Without Wiping Out