May 9th: The History of Salons

May 9th Art Salon For Fertile Minds

Eighteen people arrived for the evenings discussion:  The History of Salons.
After enjoying some brownies and refreshments Karl gave all attendees an overview of the history of salons, from carvings on the rocks in Wyoming, to Greece, Italty, Spain, England, Mexico and then the final chapters in the United States.

Many were surprised to hear of the power of salons and how they were the impetus for revolutions. Throughout history there were periods of time when revoluntionary counsels outlawed salons. Some salons occurred in the bedrooms of wealthy aristocratic women and some occurred in simple coffee houses.

More recently in the 1990's Eric Utne, of the famous Utne Reader publication, started and encouraged the rebirth of salons. Within two years there were 10,000 individuals who had become members of salons.

After a short break, we brought the conversation to current affairs and personal experiences of the attendees. 
Questions posed ranged from
     how does one get inspired
     what is art
     where is the soul of the artist
     is beauty required in art

We wrapped up approx 9:30 p.m. due to early morning commitments for many.  We certainly wished we could all have stayed until the later hours of the evening.  We all agreed, however, that this is the type of rich conversational exchange that we were all hungry for and we wanted to continued more of this in future Art Salon gatherings.