We put the ‘art’ in ‘heart’

With all the hype over Eric Gordon and our new University President Michael McRobbie, it can be easy to forget that Bloomington houses a world-famous music school and a dense local arts community. We’re going to change that. Both of us are passionate about the arts and our main goal is to make them more accessible to students and residents so that others can share our appreciation.\nCommon misconceptions about the arts are that they are stale, boring, exclusive and “dead.” This couldn’t be further from the truth. Take a look at any of the arts and you’ll find that it is constantly being reshaped, and that the people involved are pushing the boundaries to create something that has never been done before. While much of classical music may be well over 100 years old, today, countless musicians are reinterpreting these pieces and essentially creating new works of art. The same can be said for the plays of Shakespeare, the ballets of George Balanchine and many other great works of art. Looking at it this way, we would hardly say that the arts are dead. In fact, we’d say they are alive and well.\nWe’re hoping to revitalize the arts section this semester and to do so, we’ll be expanding our local coverage of the people and events that help make Bloomington such a culture hub. We want to devote more coverage to the schools and programs that don’t always get a lot of attention from us, such as the School of Fine Arts. We want to cover the entire arts spectrum and we’re going to do that by updating the Web site and blogging frequently. Oh, and we’ll also be including more entertainment and fashion stories, because hey, we’re girls, and we like clothes and (hot) movie stars. \nIf you ever have any suggestions for us, please feel free to contact us and let us know how we’re doing. It’s impossible for us to know about all of the arts events going on during any given week, so tell us what we’re missing and we’ll do our best to get it covered. We’re here for you, so please stop by, and maybe you’ll grow to heart the arts the way we do.