Artists' 1991 Wish List

WHAT do leaders in the arts hope for in the new year? Here are their answers:

``We have this attitude in America that you succeed by making a deal; nobody works at things anymore; no one is a professional. In the arts, people are deeply committed, deeply professional. That in itself is a value in the arts. I wish our political leadership would begin to have a much deeper understanding of the value of art.''

- Edward Villella, Miami City Ballet

``Some of the new governments in Eastern Europe have poets, musicians, playwrights in power. ... What I dream of is that we can learn from these countries - where you have only your values, only your spirit, and a tremendous material struggle - what it's like to live in a system in which getting ahead isn't measured by what you earn and what you spend.

- John Walsh, J. Paul Getty Museum

``I wish there was some way that the importance and the real value of the arts could be understood and supported by the American people. People tend to look at the arts as something worthwhile but not really theirs. I wish there was a way to get people to understand how important the arts can be to our lives - our values, understanding, cultural tolerance. After all, the arts deal with issues that are important for the survival of this planet.

- Harvey Lichtenstein, Brooklyn Academy of Music

``I wish everyone the joy and deep-felt understanding that one gets from something like music, in a way that is impossible to describe. Because it is music, it goes beyond what our vocabulary can imagine. I just hope that more people in the new year will be able to see that, hear that, be exposed to it.''

- Gerard Schwartz, Seattle Symphony

``My wish for this year is that the very essence of the act of creativity will help us look beyond ourselves for new answers to old problems.''

- Anne Murphy, American Arts Alliance

``My biggest wish is that the main energy of the arts go into creating art and not the circumstances for creating art - the security or the financing or the atmosphere - but the work itself.

- Gordon Davidson, Mark Taper Forum