New humanities leader builds bridges

The arts and humanities aren't just for the university-educated and upper-class.

They're for everyone.

"The humanities, to me, are a part of everything,” Idaho Humanities Council Executive Director David Pettyjohn said Tuesday. “Our chair, Jenny Emery Davidson, she described the humanities this way, which was perfect: ‘It’s like a bridge. We all cross it together. It gives us guidance, but we might reach different destinations.'"

The nonprofit IHC serves as the state-based affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Pettyjohn said IHC's mission is simple: Deepening the understanding of the human experience by connecting people with ideas.

"We believe that ideas are critical to understand one another, to provide opportunities to learn different viewpoints and different perspectives,” he said. "When you provide those opportunities for people, it doesn’t matter where. It creates a sense of community, of understanding and a sense of place."

Pettyjohn stepped into his role in January, following the retirement of longtime Executive Director Rick Ardinger.

"I can’t speak highly enough of him,” Pettyjohn said of Ardinger. "He has been an incredible resource to me. He’s always eager to help in any way. He is just a dear man. I'm honored to follow in his footsteps."

Pettyjohn is spending some time in North Idaho this week. It’s his first time visiting the region.

"We fell in love with Boise the moment we arrived,” said Pettyjohn, who moved to Idaho from Oklahoma City with husband Geoff. "I’ve had the great pleasure of going all over Idaho. It’s just amazingly beautiful and the people are so nice."

He is working to make connections around the state and understand each area's needs that the IHC can fulfill.

"What do Idahoans want to talk about? What are the issues facing people up here in Coeur d’Alene?" he asked. "What are things that the Idaho Humanities Council can do to help facilitate discussion, find common ground? What are those things?"

Pettyjohn is a lifer when it comes to appreciating the humanities. His exploration of knowledge and love of history began when he was quite young.

"My mom had a bookshelf with books and an encyclopedia set — and this was before Google and the internet and all those things — and I fell in love with knowledge, I fell in love with that encyclopedia," he said. "It just opened up a whole new world to me. It allowed me to connect and not feel so alone."

Pettyjohn said the humanities are a "vast pool of knowledge of everybody who has existed before us."

"And it’s free. We can reach in," he said. "Having that knowledge and understanding these different viewpoints and understanding different ideas and different challenges, it opens your eyes and it provides a sense of comfort, in a way. It’s listening to those voices who were here before us."

Humanities include the different ways people record the human experience, whether it's through a story, a sculpture or a song.

But people don't have to be writers, artists or musicians to enjoy them.

"There’s a perception that art, which are the arts and of course history and literature, that it belongs to the elite, it belongs to the privileged, it is something that is not accessible,” Pettyjohn said, adding that he argues the exact opposite.

"We’re all a part of that human experience," he said. "Of course it’s accessible."

He said a great discussion among humanities councils right now concerns facts and the truth.

"I do think that yes, we have become incredibly partisan in all aspects of our life — where we watch news, what newspapers do we read, where do we get our media, who do we talk to — and of course the arts and humanities fall into that as well. It’s just the natural course of things,” he said. “But one thing is the fact that what I have seen is a lot of people want this. A lot of people want the opportunity to learn about their history and learn about different ideas and different viewpoints.

“I’m from a lower-middle-class family that had an encyclopedia set that opened the world to me, and it changed my life."