Bell, the Post claimed, took a taxi from his hotel to the subway station, a distance of merely three blocks, because his violin was too expensive to risk walking with on the street. My question arose out of a trivial detail that the Washington Post mentioned as it related Bell’s preparation for this experiment. But when I initially read about this experiment, I found myself obsessing over an entirely different question. What happens to art without a frame? Can people not recognize quality art on their own? Why would people shell out upwards of hundred dollars a ticket to hear Josh Bell play and not stop to listen when the music was free? Does cost add value? Is it all part of our herd mentality –if we aren’t told something is good we cannot realize it is good? In its aftermath, scores of articles were written about the experiment, and all kinds of questions were asked. No wonder the experiment caused a sensation! Ordinarily, when Bell gives a recital, he earns about a thousand dollars a minute, but in the 45 minutes he played in the subway, only 27 out of the 1,075 passersby threw a donation into his violin case, netting him a grand total of $32. subway and play classical music.īell played for about 45 minutes, during which time more than a thousand people passed by. The experiment – arranged by the Washington Post to study how people react to unexpected, out-of-context art – called for Joshua Bell, world-renowned violinist, to stand in a Washington D. Įight years ago, an intriguing little experiment made news. Reprinted with permission from Ami Magazine.
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