At Miami’s YoungArts, erasing boundaries unlocks new potential for artists | Opinion
As the leader of an organization devoted to nurturing young artists and championing them for their entire lives, I am constantly inspired by the tapestry of talent in our artistic community. I began my own journey as an artist at the age of 5, playing the piano and laying the groundwork for what would become a multi-faceted career as a classical pianist, composer, theater-maker and business leader. In reflecting on my own path thus far, I’m struck by the magic of interdisciplinarity — the potential of what we can create when we blur, and even erase, the arbitrary lines between skill sets and fields of practice.
Our world today is defined by the multi-hyphenate: those who fluidly shape-shift to occupy space in a variety of industries. Everywhere you look, silos have broken down, and the same is true in the art world.
At YoungArts, where I lead the charge in mapping innovative support for artists’ lifelong careers, we’re witnessing a seismic shift in how artists practice and define their work, with the boundaries between areas as seemingly disparate as classical music and fashion design becoming increasingly porous. When we consider our work in supporting these artists, and the societal imperative of ensuring their livelihood, it becomes clear that embracing this interdisciplinarity is crucial to the development and success of the modern artist and citizen.
The idea — one that’s notably Euro-Western — that fields within the arts are completely distinct and isolated detracts from a greater truth: that each of these expressions, from dance to writing, are threads that weave together to form our collective human experience.
Consider James Allister Sprang, 2008 YoungArts winner in visual arts and recent YoungArts Artist Fellow, whose work blurs the boundaries between the visual, aural and experiential, incorporating emerging sound technology to create communal somatic experiences.
Or Samora Pinderhughes, 2009 and 2010 YoungArts winner in jazz, who extended his artistic exploration into the realms of film and theater to yield multidisciplinary work that examines and confronts social issues. The examples are varied and numerous, but they all point to a common theme: working across disciplinary bounds expands the promise of artistic expression and creative entrepreneurship.
My own career has borne irrefutable proof of the value and necessity of being able to traverse freely across traditionally defined boundaries. I often think of my current work leading a diverse and dedicated team of talent at YoungArts as akin to being a chamber musician: using a sensitive ear, detecting one another’s breaths, intonations, subtle shifts in tempi, passing the theme fluidly from one voice to another. I tap into this experience each day as our team navigates the immense honor and responsibility of investing in artists’ lifelong creative freedom.
Moreover, my own lived experience as an artist has uniquely equipped me to be in conversation with artistic communities and respond to their evolving needs.
At YoungArts, we know that artists shape our society and define cultural dialogue, but we also know that they don’t always do so explicitly within the confines of one traditional artistic category. Nurturing an interdisciplinary mindset early on prepares even more artists to chart and embrace unique, never-before-seen paths by which they might make their mark on our world.
As we welcome 153 artists from around the country to Miami for 2024 National YoungArts Week, I can’t wait to see their wild talents displayed in public showcases throughout the week.
But even more thrilling to me is the prospect of the seeds that will be planted as they participate in classes led by boundary-transcending artistic leaders, dig into the fundamentals of their practices, meet lifelong peers and collaborators practicing in seemingly disparate fields, and discover affinities for the creation of art they never knew to be possible. This is the true magic of our work at YoungArts, and an early spark of our evolution as we imagine how best to nurture tomorrow’s creative voices.
Clive Chang is president of YoungArts.
