This blog is written by one of 15 individuals attending the South By Southwest Conference in Austin with the intention to bring back ideas and to reimagine Richland County.
“What is culture?”
I challenge you to answer this question before reading on, because it’s the question that opened my most valuable session here at SXSW (so far).
If you’ve been following along with my Instagram or Twitter feeds @rentheatre and @ren_ed, then you already know that I completely geeked out over this session. (And if you haven’t been following along, well, obviously you’re missing out on all the fun).
So what is culture? It’s different to every single person, but this remains true for each: it’s deeply personal. It’s the thread that connects us to humanity, the thing that awakens our souls and helps us see purpose in the world. But aside from that, the lines are blurred on what exactly constitutes “culture.”
The New York-based strategy firm, Culture Track, recently completed its 2017 study on culture – the largest in the world, with a margin of error of only 1.6 percent and over 4,000 respondents who mirror our current national demographics. They found that the marketplace is dynamic: people are redefining culture and what they seek to gain from it.
Since 2011, the paradigm has shifted dramatically and the boundaries between discipline have started to blend; culture is so much more than what we previously assumed. In fact, more respondents cited street art as a cultural experience than the traditional art forms of dance, theatre, music, etc.
But Culture Track’s study found three commonalities across respondents as they described their definition of culture:
• Culture is transformative. It changes the way you look at the world.
• Culture is a force to build community and bring people together.
• Culture fosters empathy, understanding, and acceptance.
In the arts, we talk often about the research that details its correlations in everything from brain development in the formative years of childhood to increased business demand for workers with 21st century skills; and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Now more than ever, we need the feel-good aspects of culture, the things that unite us as human beings and forge connections that minimize our differences.
The Culture Track study revealed another interesting finding: the types of cultural experiences that we seek are not oppositional. For example, those who find reflective experiences most meaningful still seek social experiences, and vice versa, depending on how they feel at any given minute.
Someone who most often searches out lively, interactive experiences can still have a desire to experience calm, immersive experiences. In short, humans build a portfolio of opportunities to find meaning and make a connection to themselves and the world around them, and the way that they do it can fluctuate depending on a host of different factors in their current situation.
In the city of Mansfield alone, we have a wealth of cultural opportunities that run the gamut from live theatre and musicals to dance, classical music, and opera; live concerts of nearly every genre imaginable; incredible art galleries, comic books and Artistreet; talented poets, and storytellers, and creative writers; and our arts programming for young people is rich and plentiful.
The more we immerse ourselves in cultural experiences, the more we crave. I’ve always loved the phrase “cultural omnivores,” and for all the reasons listed in the Culture Track study and more, I truly believe this: the more opportunities there are for people to experience the arts of every type, the better.
Cultural engagement enriches the soul, blinds us to the things that divide us, and highlights our common bonds as humans. A rich cultural environment exists in North Central Ohio – it’s our fortune to be able to seek out our own meaningful experiences within it.
Stay tuned and follow the progress via #SXSW419. And watch for more blogs at richlandsource.com/rising_from_rust/sxsw.
