Maryo's Story
of "The Windmill Book"
The Arts in the Small Community 2006
My father, Robert Gard was an American pioneer, even something of a revolutionary, in advancing the idea that the arts were more than just entertainment and decoration; they were the way for individuals, their communities and the democracy itself to articulate and develop a true grassroots strength.
After World War II he was hired
by the University of Wisconsin College of Agriculture as a "circuit-riding
writer," traveling from community to community in Wisconsin to help
people collect and write down their stories. The University of Wisconsin
at that time was committed to the idea – articulated through the
first half of the 20th century as "The Wisconsin Idea" –
that there was an important "agri-culture" to develop in the
farmlands as opposed to just the "agri-business"; in addition
to a writer, the UW College of Agriculture, later the Extension Division,
employed painters, musicians, dancers, children’s theatre experts,
and others.
In 1969, my father received the first rural arts grant given by the new
National Endowment for the Arts, to carry forward that work, and as part
of the grant, he and his associates Mike Warlum and Ralph Kohlhoff wrote
a manual for communities to use in developing their own creative cultural
lives. This book, The Arts in the Small Community, became known
as "The Windmill Book," after its cover picture, and it helped
towns and cities across America develop local and regional arts councils.
Last year, the Wisconsin Arts Board decided that "The Windmill Book"
should be updated; Robert Lynch, director of Americans for the Arts who
had used "The Windmill Book" early in his own career, agreed,
and Americans for the Arts decided to publish it. I was asked to bring
the book and its examples up to date as a useful tool for communities
today, and had the pleasure and privilege of working on it with Mike Warlum,
one of the original authors.
We retained the original "big ideas" – which were (still
are) ahead of their time and are absolutely contemporary for the 21st
century – and we retained the original opening essay and closing
poem, which are stirring and timeless.
But otherwise, we provide contemporary examples; key issues for each topic
area; and Questions for Discussion.
The book is inteded to be a do-it-yourself workbook for planning, or re-planning,
your own local arts endeavor. We’ve pilot-tested it in four small
communities, and all four have declared it to be an invaluable, useful
tool for them.
"The Windmill Book," The Arts in the Small Community 2006,
is now available through the Americans for the Arts online bookstore.
www.artsusa.org.