BERMUDA'S press have been publishing the various points of view prompted by Mr. Gregory Volk's lecture and interview on the island's "boring" and "tourist boat" arts scene. But British art lovers are now also in a dither over a speech made deploring "fast art" in which "anything goes" at the annual Royal Academy following preview of their summer exhibition.

Robert Hughes, the Australian critic and author who literally wrote the book on modern art with 1981's accused wealthy collectors such as Charles Saatchi (whose business depends on advertising various commodities) of, among other things, promoting the artists whose work he collects to such a degree that they become "fetished" (and, by extension, their works become more valuable).

Hughes remarks about the unsavoury influence collectors have on art were qualified by his opinion that he was not opposed to conceptual art in itself, just that few of its most famous names were a "great talent".

Added to this, he said, "a string of brushmarks on a lace collar in a Valasques can be as radical as a shark . . . now murkily disintegrating in its tank", a direct reference to Damien Hirst, the one-time darling of shock-tactic modern art whose star, mercifully, is now on the wane among both critics and collectors.

In calling for a more aesthetic rather than "merely sensational" form of artwork, Hughes likened this to "fast" art ? akin to "fast food".

"What we need more of is slow art," he said. "In a word, art that is the very opposite of mass media . . . that doesn't get its message across in ten seconds, that isn't falsely iconic, that hooks on to something deep running in our natures."

The reaction to this speech may take time to digest ? none of the listeners, who included David Hockney who had helped hang the show, seemed able to commit themselves one way or another ? but it could very well be applied to the current situation in Bermuda vis-?-vis Gregory Volk.

Volk advocates works that produce "astonishment", a very transient emotion surely, rather than art that has an essential lasting effect on us.

His credo includes such hot-button words as "current" , even "avant garde", terminology that Hughes says "has lost every last vestige of its meaning in a culture where everything goes. When everything is included in the game there is no game to be ahead of."

With a culture based on "Who earns most, wins", we in Bermuda are more vulnerable than most to the insidious influence of critics and taste-setters like Mr. Volk who, when speaking under the aegis of the National Gallery, acquire an authoritative status they do not necessarily deserve.

And any "expert" who appears authoritative can sway our reliance on the opinion of institutions such as the National Gallery ? overshadowing our gut feeling that someone is putting something across that is akin to a promotional advertisement.

As no one seems willing to offer a definition of what art is, but is more than forthcoming about what it isn't, perhaps we should put greater emphasis on our own instincts. Gut feeling, for instance, tells us that although fast food is convenient, it doesn't exactly have what it takes to satisfy our sensory perceptions or personal aesthetic criteria.

We should not be dictated to, according to Mr. Hughes, by those who have acquired influence in the arts world "merely because the tax laws enable them to use museums as megaphones for their own taste, however debatable".

We do not acquire taste without experience. If our generation doesn't have enough experience of art to decide whether it is good or mediocre, then it should ensure that the next generation has that opportunity.

Rather than throw money at the Gregory Volk's of the art scene, who are two a penny (or as expensive as Princess Anne, depending on who is paying the bill), far better for the National Gallery and similar Bermuda cultural institutions to invest in our future and educate our children to appreciate what art, its history and its present, is all about.

June 7, 2004

THE Jewish Community of Bermuda would like to extend a sincere thank-you to the entire Bermuda community for helping to make the educational exhibition "Anne Frank: A History for Today" a huge success.

The exhibition was presented at the Bermuda Society of Arts from May 10 through June 4 and attracted a constant stream of viewers from all corners of Bermuda including residents, visitors, and hundreds of schoolchildren.

Starting with the planning phase (about one year ago) through the end of the exhibit last week, volunteers and sponsors from the entire Bermuda community worked tirelessly and with great dedication to educate viewers about our individual and collective responsibilities to understand and respect diversity in our society. We would like to extend a special thank-you to all the educators who went the extra mile to weave the exhibition into their already full schedules and curricula. All the school groups visiting the exhibition showed true Bermuda courtesy and respect, and displayed an intellectual curiosity that was clearly sparked in their classrooms.

We hope we have achieved our goal of spreading Anne Frank's optimistic vision, expressed so well in her diary with these words: "Nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world". The Jewish Community of Bermuda would like to extend a sincere thank you to the entire Bermuda community for helping to make the educational exhibition, "Anne Frank: A History for Today", a huge success. The exhibition was presented at the Bermuda Society of Arts from May 10 through June 4 and attracted a constant stream of viewers from all corners of Bermuda including residents, visitors, and hundreds of school children.

Starting with the planning phase (about one year ago) through the end of the exhibit last week, volunteers and sponsors from the entire Bermuda community worked tirelessly and with great dedication to educate viewers about our individual and collective responsibilities to understand and respect diversity in our society. We would like to extend a special thank you to all the educators who went the extra mile to weave the exhibition into their already full schedules and curricula.

All the school groups visiting the exhibition showed true Bermuda courtesy and respect, and displayed an intellectual curiosity that was clearly sparked in their classrooms.

We hope we have achieved our goal of spreading Anne Frank's optimistic vision, expressed so well in her diary with these words: "Nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."

MANY thanks for your space. My purpose in writing this letter is to challenge Dr. Eva Hodgson regarding her letter (, May 28) about Mr. Brian Duperreault's remarks at the recent UBP convention on volunteerism.

Dr. Hodgson, I will quote from your letter as saying "we Black Bermudians have been told that we were not good enough," and the inference is that we have accepted these comments with no defence. In your letter you used the term "not good enough" at least six times, if not more, in reference to inferred lack of ability on the part of blacks.

I have been trying to visualise you in the position of a football coach who repeatedly tells her team that they have been thought of as "not good enough" ? and thus at some point it begs the question, with this type of coaching, one can imagine the amount of games won at season's end.

To illustrate a point, during the middle and late '50s, I was a student at Howard Academy under the principalship of Edward DeJean, who was a boxer during his early years.

The spirit that he imparted to us (his students) was that if life's challenges knock you down, you must get up and devise a new strategy. The thrust of his comment was, if told by someone that you were not good enough ? it was someone's opinion, and only that, and not gospel, but if you accepted this opinion, you would have given your power to someone else and by so doing, living up to someone else's bidding (usually for ulterior motives) and not realising your own potential.

At the end of your article, Dr. Hodgson, you write the following: "Elitist hierarchies have always been useless whether social or political. Black Bermudians cannot continue to be treated by both a black Government and white business as if we are not good enough ? and Bermudians, generally, cannot continue to be 'strangers in a strange island'. The well-intentioned and very wealthy power players in these corporate giants like ACE Ltd., XL Capital and others must use their tremendous wealth and creative minds for more realistic imaginative ways to (a) bring Bermudians together and (b) to include Bermudians in their wealth rather than simply encourage them to pursue non-contentious 'volunteerism'."

From this, Dr. Hodgson, I feel you are implying (and I am being generous here) that we as Bermudians need to be spoon-fed and can't fend for ourselves.

Wouldn't it be better to approach these comments viewing the glass as half-full and thus having a foundation to build on, as opposed to looking at the glass as half-empty?

If one's present strategy is not working, then as Bill Cosby said in his recent speech, one must find a new strategy and not use excuses to justify one's present plight ? based on excuses.

It's Challenge Time, Dr. Hodgson. I will donate $100 to your favourite charity if you can give us three insightful articles for June, highlighting such motivational topics as (a) personal initiative and responsibility; (b) resourcefulness; and (c) chutzpah, etc.

Outside of my challenge to you, Dr. Hodgson, we as Bermudians (black, white, Portuguese, expat, etc.) have to work our way forward together ? because just as an engine that has problems in one area has to be either oiled or be fixed in order to run smoothly, so we as the Bermudian machine must collectively start looking at our glass with a half-full mindset and in addition, with hard work, we can achieve that success story which we all hunger for, and in so doing become an example to other jurisdictions.

CALVIN Smith's comments dismissing the immense good Bill Cosby did by focusing the spotlight on the black leadership in the US in today's ? a combination of denial, shooting the messenger and self-aggrandisement ? puts into perspective your columnist Alvin Williams' thoughtful in this past Friday's . Mr. Williams' thoughts on the same controversy were simply world-class.

Mr. Williams has a passion for Bermudian Independence (which I disagree with) and has been a longstanding champion of "black" issues. He accepted Bill Cosby's comments, even though the actor was airing the black community's dirty linen, as positive, inevitable and even necessary. Not to trumpet my own contributions to this same debate but those who have listened well to what I have been saying for many years say that I pre-empted Bill Cosby's comments by a full decade. I have tried to contribute to what is ailing Bermudian society by contributing directly to the education of the black community ? sending a black out-of-wedlock child to Warwick Academy for the last ten years.

The double bogeyman of segregation and slavery's lingering legacy cannot be used to excuse all of the social woes plaguing the black community. There are approximately 6,000 children under the age of 20 in Bermuda who were born out of wedlock.

I have no moral qualms about single-parent households ? I was raised in one myself. But I am painfully aware of the lifetime of damage that can be caused by inadequate parenting. It is these unhappy consequences that have to be both considered and addressed, Mr. Calvin Smith!

Over the past ten years the only one of Bermuda's legion of black activists who has responded to my commentary has been Alvin Williams ? once. Is what I have been saying so inconsequential? Or, rather, do I have their numbers?

Cabinet-led, race-based party politics continues to create immense ? and unnecessary ? problems in Bermuda. The "leaders" in the Progressive Labour Party are in fact "followers" in too many cases ? followers of score settling, followers of petty vendettas, followers of pie-in-the-sky political fantasies rather than the pragmatic solutions that Bermuda needs for its socio-economic problems. The island requires a leader with the wisdom of a Nelson Mandela ? not to save the whites' hides but rather to save our angry black leaders from themselves, from their own negativity and sterile thinking.

Aside from Mr. Calvin Smith's confrontational article, today's also carries one of my letters in its sports section. In that missive I made a few suggestions to the largely black sports associations on how to put the "U" in CURE, our almost forgotten Commission for Unity & Racial Equality. We need to keep at-risk young black males occupied with extensive, extra-curricular sports programmes and our sports clubs are perfectly positioned to help make a contribution in this regard. Education does not comprise simply putting children in a classroom from 9 a.m.-3.30 p.m. It also requires involving children in worthwhile programmes and pursuits during after-school hours. It also necessitates adequate parenting in the home environment. Educating a child is a 24-hour-a-day "programme", if you are honest about it.

May I have the temerity to suggest that your newspaper interview the lone man in the current Cabinet who might actually be able to co-ordinate an island-wide, Government-led parenting and mentoring programme ? Mr. Dale Butler. If Mr. Butler was given such a mandate by Cabinet ? initiating a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week initiative to better educate and better take care of our children ? then he would effectively become the Youth & Sport Education Minister.

If nothing else, think of the money we could then save by closing down that miserable, failed Ivory Tower on Point Finger Road! In conclusion, since we are talking about education, I would like to grade Mr. Williams A+ while giving Mr. Calvin Smith's article an F (for "foolishness").