Libby and I attended a one-day panel session Saturday on the future of arts journalism. The sessions were held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. While we sat inside the auditorium listening to panelists brought together by NAJP –from arts journalists and arts administrators to futurists –outside on the Parkway was another kind of art and culture confab focused on the future. It was Sikh day of unity where the community came together for speeches and some traditional sword dancing and to remember that there’s a struggle going on between India and the Sikhs that has resulted in loss of life.
As I came out of the museum thinking all kinds of thoughts about computers and how my computer may soon be a hand-held device that I put in a pocket and take everywhere, I saw this group, also obviously concerned about their future. I took a bunch of pictures of the crowds and dancers. You can see the sword dancer and swords in the middle left of this picture (click to see it bigger). This real world encounter outside the PMA made me think again how multidimensional and varied is the world in Philadelphia, something that I know but don’t always see first-hand in such extreme juxtapositions. Here’s my flickr set with more pictures.
