Farris — U.S. artists seek to rebuild Iraqi culture
Topic(s): Iraq | Comments Off on Farris — U.S. artists seek to rebuild Iraqi cultureU.S. artists seek to rebuild Iraqi culture
Mon October 27, 2003 02:08 AM ET
By Niala Boodhoo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Getting the music playing may not seem to be as high a priority as turning the lights back on, but in the eyes of some U.S. officials and arts groups restoring Iraq’s cultural institutions is just as important to the country’s rebuilding process.
Many of Iraq’s cultural repositories — not just its famed antiquities museum, but its libraries and music schools — were ransacked, looted or otherwise damaged during and immediately after the U.S.-led war to oust Saddam Hussein.
The U.S. State Department recently sponsored a trip to Iraq by a group of U.S. arts leaders to survey the situation. Some members of the cultural mission said they worried about Iraqi institutions facing the doubly hard task of rebuilding and learning to operate in a post-Saddam environment where government subsidies will probably not be as plentiful.
“How do we take what exists in Iraq, how we fortify those institutions, how do we fortify the schools that teach music and art, how do we fortify regional arts organisations and what holes are left?” said Michael Kaiser, president of Washington’s Kennedy Center for Performing Arts.
“Under Saddam, sculptors got a monthly stipend,” he said after returning from Iraq where he saw the country’s national orchestra rehearse in sweltering heat.
“They’re not high up on the priority list of people in Iraq, but somebody has to attend to this,” he said. “Every Iraqi we spoke to talked about the need for healing. Art is a wonderful way of dealing with pain and fear.”
The need for cultural rebuilding has been overshadowed by Iraq’s more basic reconstruction needs, such as restoring power and other services.
Officials are trying to raise $56 billion (33 billion pounds) to rebuild the country, but only the United States has pledged funds on a huge scale.
SYMBOLS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY
Arts and culture are areas where strong symbols of national identity still exist and therefore crucial to nation-building, said Ray Jennings, a senior fellow with the U.S. Institute for Peace who has worked on reconstruction in Bosnia, Afghanistan and most recently, Iraq.
“In every place we’ve worked (we) often have recognised the power of cultural preservation after the fact,” he told Reuters.
“That’s why the loss of the (Baghdad) Museum pieces was so devastating,” he said, adding “I think it was taken hard, too, because the U.S. didn’t appear to be interested in protecting the museum.”
Patricia Harrison, assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs, led the delegation to Iraq and said Baghdad Museum officials have already used $250,000 of a promised $2 million to help restore the institution, which housed rare artefacts documenting the history of mankind in ancient Mesopotamia.
Iraqi officials estimate more than 10,000 artefacts are still missing from the museum.
U.S. arts officials plan initially to focus on the museum and Iraq’s national orchestra and on bringing academic Fulbright scholars from Iraq to the United States early next year.
Days after the group returned from Iraq, the Kennedy Center announced that Iraq’s national orchestra will play a joint concert with their American counterparts in Washington in December — the first of many hoped-for cultural exchanges.
HALLIBURTON AN ARTS DONOR?
Theatre, sculpture and other artistic expressions were tightly regulated under Saddam, who regularly commissioned monuments and literary works praising him and provided many artists with monthly stipends.
Kaiser, credited widely for turning around the finances of the Royal Opera House in London and helping to establish a post-apartheid South African arts council, said that arts organisations need to be established so that groups rather than individuals receive funding.
He said companies such as Halliburton, the construction company once run by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney which has been awarded the bulk of U.S. contracts to rebuild Iraq, could be solicited for arts funding: “They’re doing a lot of work in Iraq. In this country, if a company’s doing a lot of work, you go to them for contributions.”
U.S. groups are also beginning to offer support in other areas. The U.S. National Endowment for the Arts has put out a call to local orchestras to donate money and instruments for the Baghdad School of Music and Ballet and Iraq’s national symphony orchestra.
Culture remains a secondary priority for Western countries, Jennings said.
Iraq’s reconstruction budget has so far been no exception, he added, which means that those rebuilding the country are missing a key lesson that literature, art and drama can often stimulate a discussion about national identity.
“If they have a lot of substance to them, that makes people consider who they are,” he said. “I’ve seen in other places how culture can very subtly bring people into a process of thinking about political issues.”
© Reuters 2003
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