Siouxland Magazine - Volume 5 Issue 3

Siouxland Magazine | Conversing /11
Todd Behrens, Executive Director for the Sioux City Art Center, addresses the fundraiser attendees.
that come alive in your imagination, music that fills your
body and gets stuck in your head, or art that brings to you
entirely new visions of the world, the gentle, quiet, internal
feeling of excitement that comes from having your brain
take a new journey is unlike anything else.
What does art have to do with diversity? Two important
things. First, art can provide a more direct and
emotional connection to lived experiences than
simply reading historical or biographical information.
While our embracing of diversity has also brought
with it an awareness of how many different categories
of identity can exist within a single person, humans
cannot be understood as data points or boxes to
check. Literature, music, and art connect us not just to
a thing or idea but to the inspiration behind that thing
or idea. And second, art represents the best of us.
The writer, poet, composer, singer, painter, sculptor,
etc., responsible for the artworks you are experiencing,
have given everything they have to share their thoughts
and beliefs in a way that is most potent for them.
Whether the creator of the work checks some of the
same demographic boxes that you would or matches
none of them, set aside your preconceptions—I know
it’s incredibly hard for me to do, so it’s probably at least
a little difficult for you—and open yourself to whatever
ideas and emotions underlie their work.
Might it change how you think or believe? There’s no
way to know unless you try. But, in this increasingly
loud, often obnoxious world, I believe nothing is more
valuable than time spent with the arts.
Todd Behrens, Executive Director for Sioux City Art Center.