Originally published 11/12/09
Between yesterday and tomorrow spans an ethereal bridge often glimpsed but seldom truly seen. This path, which is much more than simply “today,” traverses the realm of possibility, a place where the sparks of dreams are struck, to either flare into life or sputter and die.
Ray Bradbury knows this mythical middle ground all too well. One of the giants of American literature, the legendary and prolific author has mapped that bridge for a vast population of readers, firing imaginations and those embers of potential to the incalculable benefit of not just the nation but the entire world. In truth, Bradbury’s influence can best be measured not in the numbers of readers who have thrilled to his works, but rather the successive generations that have taken such inspiration as his, and from it forged a future that is the world as we know it.
Such forging is work that is far from complete — and like those realms of past and future that meet on the edge of now, between inspiration and achievement lies the crucible of education. Thus, with arts education in public schools still on the endangered species list, a new manner of bridge is being built, between the public and private sectors, designed to bring the arts to life in young minds poised at the threshold of lifelong career choices.
Bringing the concept into focus this week is the Bradbury Foundation’s three-day film and theater festival, an ambitious multimedia event for students and young imaginations of all ages, designed to illuminate the potential of careers in the arts in a practical light. The festival derives from the auspices of Bradbury’s “Power of Imagination” Educational Initiatives Division, dedicated to the production of multimedia Edutainment “at the meeting point between science and fiction, inspiring young minds to see that there are no limits to human expansion through the power of imagination.”
Along with a slate of cinema offerings and an ambitious stage production of Bradbury’s landmark Farenheit 451, the festival boasts a master class workshop with Hollywood veterans that is unlike anything typically seen in youth festivals. “We’re very excited for Ventura to have this opportunity,” notes the fest’s creative director and Mayor’s Arts Awards Arts Educator of the year Patricia Lynn-Strickland. “This is an L.A.-caliber workshop that’s also great for adults. We’re hoping the kids bring their parents so that they can start seeing it’s absolutely appropriate for youth to contemplate a career in the arts, such as in film, graphic arts or photography.”
Underscoring the importance of arts education, Strickland cites the recommendations of the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, which outlines a future in which our industries are inevitably outsourced to the highly educated and cheap populations of nations like India and China, where skilled labor earns a bare fraction of the wages of their American counterparts. The report states that the future of the American standard of living “…depends on a deep vein of creativity, and on a myriad of people who can create ingenious campaigns, write books, make movies and imagine new ways to capture people’s imagination.”
“Our standard of living is either going to go down,” notes Strickland, “or our jobs are going to become increasingly innovative and creative. Our weapon to protect our economy must become the arts. Our purpose is to ignite the creative process in the person,” she concludes, “so it can then be applied in other disciplines.”
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