Aparna Ramaswamy, the Minneapolis-based co-director of Ragamala Dance, has earned a very favorable preview blurb in the October 7 issue of The New Yorker; she’ll be performing at Pace University on October 5. The praise comes on the heels of the Minnesota Legislature’s decision to block future state funding for artists to travel out of state (or for out-of-state artists to come here), with Ramaswamy’s educational trips abroad being widely cited as an example of misspent funds.
It’s clear that there are those who cannot see the value to Minnesota of our artists traveling out-of-state, and people who take that view must be feeling very satisfied right about now. Ramaswamy will be making no more trips on public funding, and the Minnesota Orchestra won’t be playing those planned Carnegie Hall gigs either. Clearly the decision to block travel funds and the locked-out state of the Minnesota Orchestra are making clear to the world just what a dazzling, forward-thinking arts mecca we have here in Minnesota.
Right?
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