One of the biggest challenges around bridging the fine arts knowledge gap is the concept of “dumbing down.” Have you heard that term used before? People who work in the fine arts use it a lot to describe bad attempts at arts education for the public. They’ll say a presenter or article or video “dumbs down” a great work or era or technical concept.
One of my greatest joys is explaining just about anything. I was perhaps the most talkative child you’ve ever met, and I can still be ridiculously chatty, especially if the topic is something I can teach or explain. Breaking down complex topics is what I enjoyed most about law – even the most outrageously complex cases or principles can be taken apart and communicated in basic principles and analogies. This skillset led me to my corporate position, where my job was basically to explain complex investment topics to very important lay people.
Which brings me back to “dumbing down.” When people with a high level of knowledge try to break down complex topics for “lay people” (i.e., people without little to no knowledge of a subject), the most common mistake they make is starting too high. They jump in at mid-knowledge, which turns half the crowd off the topic entirely. But they do this to avoid “dumbing down,” for which their colleagues might look down upon them.
The reason people with a high level of knowledge (including many fine arts professionals) often show disdain for “dumbing down” is that they know how amazing their topic is. They want to stay way up at the level they’ve obtained, with the context and the nuance and the interpretation, because it’s so good, so fascinating, so rewarding. So it irks them profoundly to hear only the soundbite about a piece of music, or a painting, or a ballet. They’re thinking “god, there’s way more to it than that!”…
Read More
