I’m surprised the latest piece by Christina Rees on Glasstire hasn’t gotten more play on the local blog-o-chats. In it the former Road Agent gallery owner / new Curator of Fort Worth Contemporary Arts, TCU / former The Met, D Magazine, Dallas Observer, and Village Voice critic (take a breath) - who previously offered her take on the state of our local visual arts scene – has turned her impassioned ire on our local media, who she taps for the task of deepening the content and lifting the tone of public discussion about art in Dallas.

It will come as no surprise that I think Rees makes an important point. After all, that is a primary reason we started Renegade Bus. But as Rees says in her piece, sites like this one, Art & Seek, and Glasstire are having to play the role of carrying this discourse almost for free and without the reach of the general interest print media. These sites end up as “arts ghettos,” places read by people already engaged in the conversation, steeped in the scene.

This was never our intention with Renegade Bus. We have tried to switch up our content with pieces about food and parks and urban planning and, well, anything we find interesting. We never envisioned this as an arts site per se, more of a general interest culture rag. This was because we recognize that the value of “the arts” rests only in their ability to point beyond themselves towards the way art informs how we live. In the opinion of this author, if art doesn’t point beyond itself – even if that pointing is only to force recognition on the part of the viewer of the curiousness of a particular shape or color, or the loveliness of a particular sound – then it is pointless. Art is never an end in and of itself, and so coverage of the arts should try to avoid being cut off from the lives it is trying to inform. If Renegade Bus finds itself ghetto-ized, then it is by the lack of resources – oh precious time and money – to realize this site’s original vision. That’s fine, we’re happy we were naïve enough to try this and proud of what we have done despite our lack. But here Rees’ vision steps in to point to the role mainstream media needs to play, a role we couldn’t hope to achieve.

Mainstream media has the reach, credibility, reputation, and resources (though dwindling) to have a real impact on how this city imagines and understands itself. But Dallas media, Rees argues, has been mired in a tone that cripples any efforts to be about more than itself. Take her example of the quippy little piece that passed as arts coverage in FD Luxe. The tone Rees digs into is not unique to that publication; D Magazine reeks of it. It could be argued that the tone is a reflection of a character of this city that people like Christina Rees (or myself) don’t care for or have much contact with. Fair enough. But the question here is should our media merely mirror the desires of readers, or help elevate readers where it is appropriate? In other words, does media have an educational imperative or is it there to simply satisfy the expectations and self-image of its customers/advertisers, those who consume its content? The easy answer is both, but too often it seems that its efforts to satisfy come at the expense of education. Education sounds dull and boring, but all it really means here is coupling the fun, enjoyable content on light matters with fun, enjoyable content on matters that demand a more serious eye or ear. It means not talking down to readers – assuming we are all airheads or that the airheads are incapable of intelligence or curiosity.

Rees acknowledges the exceptions to the rule in her piece, but her’s is an encouraging call to arms I hope local media takes seriously. There will no doubt be resistance from those who believe Rees’ vision for a new tone won’t sell advertising, or that Dallas is too dull, stupid, or hopeless to invest in the effort to raise its level of sophistication, or that even talking about sophistication and raising the level of discourse belies a lack of sophistication and an inability to be anything more than what we are. Humbug to all of that. We should also avoid the temptation to believe that the media question is the only thing that lays between this city and a greater cultural sophistication (just as some believe respected buildings, or fancy bridges, or any other dream are the singular obstacles to the realization of this place’s imagined significance). But there is no denying that changing the way the media thinks of this city is a key element in re-writing how we think about this city.

There is some hope that this is happening already. Take for example the 1982 piece by George Rodrigue D Magazine re-ran in its October issue. The original piece had the headline “The Arts District: Taste, culture, class, status, money. Who wouldn’t want to be part of all that?”

How far we have come - I hope.