Whether one calls oneself conservative or revolutionary, whether one composes in a conventional or progressive manner, whether one tries to imitate old styles or is destined to express new ideas—whether one is a good composer or not—one must be convinced of the infallibility of one’s own fantasy and one must believe in one’s own inspiration. Nevertheless, the desire for a conscious control of the new means and forms will arise in every artist’s mind; and he will wish to know consciously the laws and rules which govern the forms which he has conceived “as in a dream.”  Arnold Schönberg

Composer John Cage was a great admirer of Arnold Schönberg and he followed Schönberg’s model for the artist. Cage in turn inspired Sister Corita Kent. A fixture in the LA art scene where she was an instructor at Immaculate Heart College and a celebrated artist who considered Saul Bass, Buckminster Fuller and Cage to be personal friends.

In 1968, she composed what has come to be known as John Cage’s Ten Rules for Students and Teachers for her own class project. While Cage is quoted directly in Rule 10, he did not create the list. However, he was delighted with it and did everything he could to popularize the list. Cage’s life partner Merce Cunningham kept a copy of it posted in his studio until his death.

As Schönberg said in an essay entitled Problems in Teaching Art (1911), “I believe art is born of ‘I must’, not of  ‘I can’.”