Recap of Panel from St. Petersburg Conference on World Affairs

With places like the Salvador Dali Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, the St. Petersburg Museum of History, the Florida Holocaust Museum, and the Morean Arts Center, St. Petersburg is making a name for itself in the arts world. In fact, it was recognized by the New York Times as one of the 52 places in the World to Visit and well as one of America’s 10 Most Beautiful Cities.

It seems fitting that during the annual St. Petersburg Conference on World Affairs, which was held this year at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, they had a panel that featured the arts. The question debated during this panel was whether the arts is a pillar of civilization or an increasingly commercialized commodity.

The four guest panelists who discussed this question were Kent Lydecker, Donald Cleary, Deborah Lapidus, and Ilgiz Yanbukhtin.

Donald Cleary, who has performed numerous diverse jobs like being an arts administer in the field of classical music and then being the Director of Business Affairs for the Jane Rotrosen Agency for over 30 years and who is now the Treasurer of the Animal Farm Foundation, talked about the dark side of art as a commodity. “Art as a commodity actually confers status,” said Cleary. He then went on to talk about how this status is creating the problem of inequality. “Many people who otherwise could afford to attend an artistic event…don’t feel like they’re welcome there, or that people like them don’t go to these events,” said Cleary. He believes this is a problem art organizations need to overcome.

Deborah Lapidus, an acting and singing teacher at Juilliard and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, believes art can simultaneously be a pillar of civilization and a commercialized commodity. “People who create art are different from the people who are in the commerce-end of art, and I think there’s a place for all of them at the table,” said Lapidus.

Ilgiz Yanbukhtin, a former Russian  diplomat who has now moved into international cultural activities, made a valid argument on the reason why art can be seen as a commercialized commodity. “I rely on the basic assumption that culture is also a sector of economy…where there are masses, there are businesses,” said Yanbukhtin.

One of the more special moments of the discussion was at the very end when several of the panelists paid their respects to the community of St. Petersburg.

Kent Lydecker, former director of the Museum of Fine Arts here in St. Petersburg, spoke about the creation of the Museum of Fine Arts. “The Museum of Fine Arts was created around an idea of being around a great city that needs and deserves a great art museum….[St. Petersburg] is a tremendous place…it only happened because of individuals like you,” said Lydecker.

Yanbukhtin and Lapidus, both visitors of St. Petersburg, both said they are extremely impressed with our city. Yanbukhtin even went on to say that we as a city are making progress in terms of our cultural progress and he sees a great future ahead and very big potential for St. Petersburg.

HCXOXO,

Kelli Carmack

Photo courtesy of St. Petersburg Conference on World Affairs’ facebook page

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