The importance of Elitism in the Arts (and why everyday folks should demand it)

By Aida Mancillas

Those of us who advocate for the arts here in San Diego and elsewhere have not been exactly candid with the powers who shape the budgets we live and die by, or the average citizen who wants to know where his or her tax dollars are going, why his trees aren’t trimmed, and why the potholes in front of her house remain unfilled.

We arts advocates have made a good case for why the arts are an economic engine; why visitors stay in San Diego longer and spend more money when they are also drawn to arts & culture experiences when they visit here. We do it by hiding, however, the fact that we ARE elitist. We do sometimes give off the sense that WE know what’s best, with an artspeak that can seem dense or undecipherable. The general public can only react to this with anger. “You think I’m not as smart as you,” is how it goes. Or worse, “you’re trying to pull a fast one.” No one wants to feel this disrespect, even if it’s unintended. Being a populist is a much easier position. You get to be the “good guy: non- threatening and unobtrusive like everyone else.

So, in the interest of plain speak, WE IN THE ARTS ARE ELITIST, or more accurately we have a high level of expertise that comes via years of training and practice and it’s important that we maintain that level of what is erroneously characterized as excluding or exclusive.. Here’s why:

In any given arena, from the arts to sports, to medicine, engineering, or any professional field, we owe it to ourselves, our city and our region to demand excellence, practice it, and reject mediocrity. There is enough that is mediocre to bury our vibrancy as an innovative, inspiring, risk-taking city, region and environment.

I want to be able to sit in the Encanto, or Scripps Ranch, or San Ysidro, or North Park, or Golden Hill or Barrio Logan library or rec. center and find myself in conversation with the next Maya Angelou, Sandra Cisneros, Pablo Neruda, James Baldwin, Spike Lee, Sydney Bechet, Paul Robeson, Wilfredo Lam, and a host of other great Americans that open us to a wider and deeper experience of American life and life in general. The arts provide the place for the exchange to happen and we need that meeting ground so that new understanding and arts and culture forms can take shape. I want and need the excellence of these new artists-becoming. We all need them to help us shape our collective American experience; something that brings us together as one people rather than separated as The Blue States' people and The Red States' people. The arts are one of the few things that can do this. Just recall the genius of Maya Angelou and her presidential inaugural poem. Who didn’t feel the power of that brief address, or more collectively American at its end?

In those libraries and coffee shops or houses where young people gather they are throwing each other soft looks, risking asking about what the other is working on, what music they’re listening to. Next thing you know there is a connection, and lumpia and collard greens and menudo get tossed together. Who knew it would be so unexpectedly delicious, or at least complex and interesting? Let us support that American genius for innovation, observation, and “why not” can- do attitude. Let’s support curiosity and freedom by claiming our own elitism and supporting everyone’s right to the finest arts & culture we can provide or produce.

Aida Mancillas
April 16, 2007