Amid talk of anthrax, cluster bombs, and "credible threats," it’s easy to dismiss the value of turntable tricks or edible art. How much do those things really matter right now? In these pages last month, Jon Garelick wrote about the risk of art being "at worst inappropriate, at best irrelevant" in the midst of the current war (see "Looking for a High Note," Arts, October 12).

Meanwhile, at a reading last month for The Beacon Best of 2001: Great Writing by Women and Men of All Colors and Cultures (Beacon Press), an audience member asked local poets and authors whether they had a responsibility to speak to the current crisis. "I feel like I have a responsibility as a person, not as an author," was the sentiment voiced by both author Danzy Senna and poet Angela Shaw.

Here to mull over that very same question Friday at Harvard will be a star-studded line-up of artists for an event called " ‘Sprung from Ruins’: A Panel Discussion on the Arts during a Time of Crisis." New York Times Arts and Leisure editor John Rockwell will moderate the panel, which will include singer James Taylor, writer Jamaica Kincaid, actor Mandy Patinkin, visual artist Elizabeth Murray, playwright John Guare, and choreographer/dancer Trisha Brown.

The idea for the panel came to Jack Megan, the director of Harvard’s Office for the Arts, after reading a series of pieces compiled by Rockwell in the September 23 Times, in which various artists pondered their genres’ roles in the wake of the attacks. In the lead item, Rockwell wrote: "We have all lost our bearings. Artists, especially, whom we presume to be particularly sensitive to our dilemmas and our dreams, are peering apprehensively into the abyss of the future."

Over the phone from his office in New York, Rockwell throws out some questions he plans to ask the panelists: "Did you feel that in some way your art became, ir- — or less — relevant? Do you think that individual art will serve or be perceived in a different way? Do you feel that the arts, in the US or the world, will be different now? What makes you feel the way you feel? Is there historical precedent?"

And there aren’t necessarily any answers. "[The panel] is a symbolic act of affirmation of community," he explains. The important thing to keep in mind, Rockwell stresses, is that artists needn’t feel like they must speak directly to the conflict. You don’t necessarily want "a minimalist process artist to start doing charcoal drawings of The People United Will Never Be Defeated," he says. "If every novelist, choreographer, and filmmaker leapt in and did [work relating to] anthrax, it would be kind of shallow, opportunistic." At the same time, he adds, "it’s still a raw wound in the psyche ... and people aren’t going to lightly abandon it."

Whether art provides necessary entertainment for the audience, or cathartic release for the artist, the work has value, he says. At the end of the day, "no one wants all war, all the time."

"Sprung from Ruins" will take place at 3 p.m. on Friday, November 9 at Harvard’s Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge. Tickets are free. Call (617) 495-8676. Organizers recommend arriving at least half an hour early.

Issue Date: November 8 - 15, 2001

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