{"id":5661,"date":"2009-12-02T13:54:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-02T13:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/are-you-an-arts-patron\/"},"modified":"2009-12-02T13:54:00","modified_gmt":"2009-12-02T13:54:00","slug":"are-you-an-arts-patron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/are-you-an-arts-patron","title":{"rendered":"Are You An Arts Patron?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every once in a while someone will say to me, “If you don’t do ‘A’ or ‘B’, then you’re not really an arts patron.” Being a thoughtful person, I don’t dismiss these comments but, rather, reflect and consider their merit. Should I allow someone else to define my own passions, interests, or level of participation in the cultural landscape that I so dearly cherish? <\/p>\n

It is true that I’ve not been to any local theater performances in a while. I like theater. I do. For some reason, however, I just don’t go. I love live music and, although I don’t make it out as often as I used to, I still manage to catch local performances from time to time. I don’t go to many gallery openings either, but have recently been to the University Art Museum<\/a>‘s exhibition of 77 Million Paintings at least 3 times, and will try to make it back before they close for the year. I’ve also caught shows at the LBMA<\/a>, but haven’t been to MOLAA<\/a> in a while. <\/p>\n

I love orchestral music, and opera, but haven’t been to many local performances of either. The last opera I attended was in LA, a production of Camille Saint-Sa\u00ebns’ wonderfully impressionistic Samson et Dalila, featuring an electrifying performance by Denyce Graves. You can rest assured, however, that I’ll be first in line to see the Long Beach Opera<\/a>‘s production of Nixon in China. <\/p>\n

I spend most of my time talking with people involved in the arts and, when I’m not doing that, I’m being an artist<\/a> myself. Everyone needs to find their own level, their own way to sustain the passions they have for arts and culture. I think it important, too, that we recognize the local riches we have in our City, and understand that one need not wander too far beyond one’s doorstep to discover a wealth of talent, energy, and excitement. Should you, or I, allow anyone to define our level of commitment to anything? I say, “no.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Should I allow someone else to define my own passions, interests, or level of participation in the cultural landscape that I so dearly cherish?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-5661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hi-lo","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5661\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5661"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=5661"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}