May 19, 1985-San Antonio Express-News

Dialogue II scores success for S.A.

Last week's Open Dialogue II put the city in another kind of national spotlight.

Representatives to the top ethnic arts and cultural programs in the nation convened at the Menger Hotal for the expressed purpose of speaking with one another.

Asian, black, Hispanic and Native Americans finally sat down at the table as artists and art administrators with the priority of coalescing as one voice.

Such an undertaking has been long in coming to the forefront. It had been proposed many times in the past, but it took the D.C. Commission on the Arts, Texas Commission on the Arts, the Arts Council of San Antonio and the city of San Antonio to put their resources on the line.

The conference worked out better than expected. There were no recriminations nor were there any attempts to undermine a delicate and needed process.

Credit must go to the staff of the Arts Council as well as to the national and state coordinators.

Louis LeRoy and Malena Gonzáles-Rich and the local staff should stand up and be acknowledged. Richard Huff, John Paul Batiste and the Texas Commission staff gave complete support to the conference.

Nationally. a steering and planning committee, headed by Barbara Nicholson, brought together a top notch array of movers and shakers who came here with the serious intention of working at creating a much needed network of administrators and artists.

Their efforts will surely have a decisive impact upon funding for the arts in the nation's ethnic communities.

Each group had its own caucus, with the underlying reasons being the need for self-defintion, establishing group priorities and assessing personal and group accomplishments and resources.

Along with workshops, there were numerous outings to events hosted by the Carver Community Cultural Center, Centro Cultural Aztlán, Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center and the city of San Antonio.

Celebration

A mood of celebration was evident throughout the conference. It was a different kind of mood from the usual fiesta shindigs that permeate the city.

The conversations focussed on the nuts and bolts of providing quality and aesthetic events that bespeak cultural autonomy and integrity - not at all just the entertainment and hot-dog-taco fare which prevails at Fiesta and the Festival.

These were serious folks wrestling with questions of cultural aesthetic survival by people who have decidedly different cultures and who want to preserve their diversity while celebrating the essence of being Americans in the full sense of the word.

As I said before, Dialogue II was long in coming, but it fulfilled some of the promise that serious artists have wished for.

The conference ended on a high note of unity, with the cornerstone being defined as the maintenance and retention of diversity.

Visibly impressed, the organizers of the conference - along with an audience of close to 400 presenters and participants - agreed via consensus to work toward creating a network of minonty arts programs and persons of both regional and national status.

One of the priorities voiced was the establishing of processes which will institutionalize ethnic arts as being part and parcel of general arts.

The main thrust of the speeches centered on the theme of a "new Americanization of America," and that was voiced by Luis Valdez of "Zoot Suit" fame; Arlie Schardt, editor of Foundation News magazine; and Elma Lewis, founder and artistic director of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, Inc.

Though some may have confused the call for a new blending and Americanization as just another name for assimilation, it was much more than such a simplistic notion.

It was a sanguine appeal to all peoples to simply realize that the human condition demands a lasting and realistic respect for self and others. An acceptance and celebration of our differences that can lead to the kind of humanization that imbues the person with dignity, meaning and access to self fulfillment.

Questions

There were many questions about funding, developing quality cultural programs and self-sufficiency. Those nuts and bolts meetings were of utmost importance, no one can deny that.

What was probably the most vital question was the basic one of the spiritual quality of life that all people must have in order to arrive at a humanization which bespeaks the greater definition of human life - irrespective of our cultural, racial and ethnic differences.

Within the process, people spoke of new definitions that will do away with labels and stereotypes, i.e., minority arts.

Schardt said, "The arts are a vital important and legitimate part of our inspiration - the nourishment of our souls."

Valdez spoke of "the magical forms of ourselves as those new Americans of the 21st century that we are and will be."

On the homefront, area participants came to a significant understanding of the role that ethnic arts are playing nationally from New York to California.

There will be another perhaps in two years. and it might be hosted by either the West Coast or the East Coast, or quite possibly the Midwest.

Wherever it is hosted, it will be compared to San Antonio and the diligent work performed by the Arts Council and other local agencies. Dialogue II will be considered a historical watershed in ethnic arts.