Harry Harrison Talks About Goombay, the YMICC, Education, & the Arts

Executive Director of the YMI, Harry Harrison.
by Moe White

Harry Harrison has built his entire career around the arts, beginning with an 18-year stint with the South Carolina Arts Commission in Columbia.

Twelve years ago he went to work for the Afro-American Cultural Center in Charlotte, NC, and before arriving as the Executive Director of the YMI Cultural Center in Asheville, he led museums of African American history in Detroit and Philadelphia. With a BA in Arts Education (and a minor in History), and an MA in Planning & Public Administration, putting together art, cultural history, and education is as natural to him as breathing.



Harrison
began drawing all over his composition books in elementary school,
frustrating his mother until, at the advice of a friend, she started
buying him paint sets. Drawing was both an outlet for his creativity
and a way to occupy himself in a generation before the passive
entertainments of television and video games became popular.



Art also give
him opportunities to enter contests, design school bulletin boards,
and, most important, “adjust as well as adapt to conflicts. We all
drew, outside in the street, on the ball field, we’d draw a ’57 Chevy.”
It was a way to communicate that helped avoid confrontation. “[Drawing]
helped us learn to negotiate and problem-solve.” Harrison still
identifies with children, including his own young grandchildren. “I try
to give them a personal outlet to express themselves. Art lets you
channel positive energy.”



As we talked, our conversation ranged from the Goombay festival’s financial benefits to its potential as an educational tool.


UNO: How does
Goombay impact young people in high school or middle school? Is there
an educational aspect to it beyond the exposure to the arts, crafts,
and music?



Harry Harrison:
First, I see promise and I see hope. Without those two elements you are
headed down a long, dark road. Goombay provides interaction and
connection with sounds, with smells, with creativity. Whether kids
realize it or not, when they leave here and run into someone elsewhere,
they start to realize they have a treasure here.



UNO: Do they realize what that means for them?


HH: Put it this
way: it’s going ‘uptown.’ Like working on a farm all week and then on
the weekend you go into town, and you’re at your best, you look your
best, you see people and wave at them. You have a sense of connection.
In that way Goombay provides a sense of place for Asheville. Goombay is
calling out, saying, “Come. Come see, come hear. Hear the drums, the
beat, the rhythms. And come participate. Don’t just watch, get
involved. This isn’t window shopping.”



If the young
people allow themselves to get involved, to be uninhibited, they can
explore and examine their own cultural beginnings. They can learn about
their own identity. But it’s not just a call, it’s a call and response.
They have to participate.



UNO: Can that experience be continued beyond the festival itself, during the school year?


HH: There’s such
a gap between what Goombay offers and what the schools offer. We need
to bridge that gap by developing curriculum programs. When kids come
here they shouldn’t have to ask, “What is this?” or be here just to
watch a star. They are the star. They should feel they have something
to offer, not just something to take away.



Lots of museums
are developing summer institutes to prepare teachers. They’re
curriculum-based, integrating arts education, history, social studies.
After all, you can’t teach history without art, and you can’t learn art
without history. But most schools treat the arts as electives; they
need to remember that basic education is more than reading, writing,
and arithmetic.



UNO: So what do you see the YMI doing to bridge the gap?


HH: We should be
looking for a new formula for teaching that engages parents and
teachers as well as the students. Parental involvement is not just for
dealing with problems but for ongoing guidance. We can be an asset for
the schools. Kids are a lot smarter than we give them credit for. But
even smart kids can cause problems if they’re bored. So we have to set
up new sets of issues for them to study and understand. Create a united
front – schools, the arts community, business, corporations – show them
possibilities.



UNO: In other words, create a village.


HH: Yes! Kids
entering college to study the arts feel cheated, they ask, “Why didn’t
I learn about this in high school?” We have to advocate a truly well
rounded education, because Asheville is not competing with Raleigh or
Savannah but with Korea and Budapest. Kids here have to be prepared for
international challenges. There aren’t enough McDonalds in the whole
world to give them all a job.



UNO: And how does Goombay fit that vision?


HH: Goombay,
from a financial standpoint, can be a profit center for the YMI. That
income allows us to expand our reach into the community. We can use our
programs to express the cultural differences that are unique to
Asheville, to Western North Carolina, to the state and the region.
Goombay pulls people from all over – the artists, the vendors, and the
public who attend. It will involve and teach young people as long as we
keep it sweet and flavorful, introduce new talent, not just familiar
names, and involve the kids, like the YMI Jazz Band and other young
local groups.