Author Archives: Matthew

Now that Art­Prize 2009 is a fad­ing mem­ory, I can say there is more good than bad to Art­Prize (gasp).

I have many issues with Art­Prize on a func­tional level but it has the poten­tial be very good for the Visual Arts in Grand Rapids over time. Put another way: how is this not an improve­ment over hav­ing large fiber­glass painted cows, fish, birds, etc. scat­tered around down­towns across Amer­ica and call­ing that art?

The salient point of dis­cus­sion: We all must con­tin­u­ally broaden and improve the qual­ity of the work shown and the sub­tlety of the exchange between Artists and the view­ing public.

While Artists are not Doc­tors, they do share that sin­gu­lar ded­i­ca­tion and desire for pro­fes­sion­al­ism and knowl­edge found in med­i­cine and other pro­fes­sions such as the law, the sci­ences, the base­ball. How does one get the pub­lic to under­stand that premise, fend off bit­ing alle­ga­tions of elit­ism, while at the same time being respon­si­ble as artist/curators for select­ing 1/2 of the top 10?

Margo Burian, a painter friend of mine, remarked the following:

It seems like every­day, more fund­ing to the arts is being cut at both the state and fed­eral levels.My take on it is that the gen­eral pub­lic feels gen­er­ally excluded from the arts, there­fore the pow­ers that be can make cuts with­out suf­fer­ing too much backlash.If Art­Prize did some­thing well, it was get­ting peo­ple to feel included and that they were par­tic­i­pat­ing. Does that qual­ify them to judge art? It’s not my place to say, but what I do know is that many of them cared enough to get off the couch and get down to venues to look at Art.

If we as an artis­tic com­mu­nity want to have sup­port for the Arts, we have to get the greater com­mu­nity as a whole to see the value of the inclu­sion of the arts in their lives. If by allow­ing a pub­lic vote, you get the pub­lic inter­ested in the arts, we bring the com­mu­nity up as a whole. Its then, when we cre­ate an inclu­sive com­mu­nity, that we can edu­cate peo­ple as to the value of the arts and how they play a part in the qual­ity of daily life.

Peo­ple will defend some­thing they care about. As cre­ative pro­fes­sion­als we need to own Art actions, not just be pas­sive observers wait­ing for an audi­ence to saunter by. The increased traf­fic will give our local insti­tu­tions an oppor­tu­nity to show work that we will want to see that pub­lic will be inter­ested in as well.

Art­Prize was a great mem­ber­ship drive for the UICA. Also, sev­eral pieces are under nego­ti­a­tion of sale to col­lec­tors and UICA gets a cut–another win for the home team. My hunch is that the suc­cess of this year will help to shape deci­sions of who shows next year and where. UICA has set an expec­ta­tion for suc­cess (4 of the top 10). Many other works are in the top 25/50/75/100. I won­der if next year, GRAM will throw it’s doors open for 3 weeks and show work inside instead of just two walls on the exte­rior. I would not be sur­prised if the Fred­er­ick Mei­jer Gar­dens and GVSU are more involved next year as well.

Sure, you will still have the B.O.B. and other restau­rants show­ing work. Smarter artists won’t go back to the venues that make their work sub­servient to the spec­ta­cle of that venue. I felt very uncom­fort­able look­ing at art­work and some­one else’s lunch or din­ner at the same time. The Kiss­ing Booth was the excep­tion that proved the rule.

Besides the UICA/Old Fed­eral Build­ing, I can think of 5 or 6 venues of the dozens I vis­ited that are role mod­els of well pre­sented, non-institutional spaces cov­er­ing a full spec­trum of cura­to­r­ial premises: Betade­sign, Brass Works, 47 Com­merce SW, Mon­roe Com­mu­nity Church, Peaches B&B and Tan­gle­foot. The work varies in qual­ity, like much of Art­Prize, but these venues really cared about the presentation–they respected Artists. By the way, 2010 venue orga­niz­ers, you could cherry pick a great 10–12 per­son show from the right 1–3 artists found at each of these locations.

In the end, advo­cacy, edu­ca­tion and most of all, empa­thy will improve the con­ver­sa­tion and the qual­ity of the work. The pub­lic will develop a more informed opin­ion to com­pli­ment an intu­itive one about Art and Artists. Artists will gain much in speak­ing to this newer audi­ence, but it will take some time. Ask­ing ques­tions and lis­ten­ing may be the bet­ter action for now. Both sides will gar­ner respect from each other. There is a big­ger agenda in play that goes beyond just look­ing at Art. It will prob­a­bly take 3 of these before you can effec­tively cri­tique its impact to the larger schema of the Art World.

Last Sat­ur­day, on the last day, two days after all of the win­ners were announced, there were thou­sands of peo­ple out in the streets of GR sim­ply because they wanted to see the work. Some were artists, 20-somethings, the usual sus­pects. But also moms and dads tak­ing their kids around down­town. I had great con­ver­sa­tions, I lis­tened. A typ­i­cal story: ‘We wanted to see the top 10 and then got sidetracked.’

Side­tracked: it’s a start. Thank you.

Orginal Post: http://patulski.is/t/432 http://patulski.is/t/432

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