- A Philly Biennial
- A City wide contemporary arts prize
-A Philly Contemporary Art Fair
-Some combination of these?
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
The Right Path to Take...?
So from Roberta's post today on the artblog and from conversations I've had with a few bigwigs, it seems that there is gathering momentum to do something more grand (and in my estimation needed) to promote the Philly art scene. I would love to hear some opinions on possible pie-in-the-sky scenarios that could get this done and what that would mean. ie possible problems, winners, losers, etc.
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Well…
ReplyDeleteAll of the above of course :)
Not to flog the DIY argument even more, but there are things that can be done at a grassroots level that don’t involve lots of money or institutional/corporate backing.
Random ideas:
1. Invite all exhibition spaces in Philly to rent rooms in a hotel, Scope or Gramercy style, over a weekend, shlep work there, and promote the hell out of it. Hotel Palomar would run $200 a night.
Advantages:
- welcoming for art-going crowd.
- hip enough to attract the kind of folk who actually buy stuff
- doesn’t have to be exhibition venues, really - ANYBODY could rent a room and open their door
Disadvantages:
- $400 for a weekend isn’t cheap.
2. Rent/obtain space in a warehouse, similar deal to above.
Advantages:
- cheap
Disadvantages:
- may end up off beaten path.
I had some other stupid ideas about invading and annexing Brooklyn, but I’ll leave them out of here.
I'm not opposed to the DIY perspective (Hell, I've grown up with it) I'm just very curious about what could be next for Philadelphia Art and how to get philly artists to a point where they can compete globally. I know that's foolishly ambitious but there you have it.
ReplyDeleteI've seen the hotel idea done from a curatorial perspective in London and it was marginally successful. Although, I think this idea could work as an 'art fair' stand in.
I much prefer the idea of a warehouse. Build a few floating walls and viola.
I wanna hear about "invading and annexing Brooklyn" That sounds fab.
We really like the DIY (DIA by "A"rtists types) in a large space. The Ice Box and 2424 are cheap for a month. There are a lot of ways to go, like the x-initiative, that we know some filly artists participated in. The Brucennial is another.
ReplyDeleteHere is what our Magical Fantatical Ball says. The insiders are going to wrest this away and it will be all their frenz that are shown. Then, we artists are going to have to have an Anti Biennial show. Tis is what they want, Berta already said it or someone did. This happened here the last time they tried a big regional survey and just based on the fact that no one is brining it up is proof that they don't want it brought up.
The co-ops and small galleries could join forces to organize a show and could rent a big space. They could man the exhibition during the run. Electronic PR is all that matters anyway and it's free. As for curating the space that's the only problem we see you guyz and galz are going to have. We say let each co-op curate a portion of the space they pay for or are given and that a committee curates the co-ops as entities. They could submit basic proposals/sketches and an appropriate spot could be given.
If you want a Whitney style, tightly curated, minimal layout, with 50 some artists then we say it won't work or will piss a lot of people off. But in the end, if artists are pissed enough to have their own show then that's all good too. At least that would show some ambition.
BTW we didn't just start thinking about this and have heard many of these ideas come out of the mouths of artists wee know.
lovvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeee ya!!!!!!!!!! +H
Framing this as an us-versus-insiders debate is (in my humble opinion) counterproductive. You have, after all, accused ALL of us of being insiders - and if we take you at your word there's really no "us" left to take the versus role. I realize that I’m a glass-half-full kind of guy, but you mostly come off as a “the insiderz stole my glass, pissed in it and put it in a blender” kind of guy.
ReplyDeleteTo my mind the Philly art scene is NOT about us-vs-them. It’s about us-PLUS-them. Every new venue, every new event, every new opportunity ADDs to the value of the scene. They don’t all have to be framed as another opportunity to be screwed and get all refusnik.
Not to say that these (in your above post) aren’t good ideas - they are very good. I like that you're thinking about the structural issues of how a collective of collectives can actually be curated. I’d just ask that you offer these ideas without your usual wrapper of “get the evil insider elite” rhetoric, and keep that on artblahg.
I think there can be a Biennial AND an artist-run fair/exhibition/whatever you want to call it. They don’t serve the same purpose, they don’t interfere with each other, they aren’t oppositional stances to each other, except by format and mission statement. Mounted at the same time, they become even more of a draw.
My opinion: Philly doesn’t need some kind of coup-d’etat of frenz and insiders to “level up". It just needs MORE of everything. It needs critical mass. The problem isn’t that the current actors are imperfect - that’s a natural consequence of the actors being human - the problem is that there need to be MORE actors on the stage.
It's this MORE that I think efforts like this can move toward. Framing them as yet another opportunity to perceive yourself getting screwed over is a waste of time. If I want that I can just go over to artblahg and get my daily fill.
Dear Hollin,
ReplyDeleteYou crap us up. You are a newbie here as is everyone on this blahg. Wee helped build this community long before you came and know it way better than you. Let's see what you can do with Roberta the other institutional art backers.
Also remember that this blahg and your presence at the "Art Wake" happened because we got our proposal accepted and invited YOUS. We actually DID something tangible, or you forgot that already. You are welcome BTW.
You are making us and our supporters unwelcome here, so who is dividing the community? You are. You are already losing support by your tone.
Just by saying you already embrace the idea of separate Biennials you are falling into their trap. You sound like a well meaning person, but we doubt that that corporate tude is going to get you anywhere, We have tried all that and more long before you came around. Have a little respect will ya.
We are not going away and if you think we will stand by and watch this thing go south, meaning another frenz fest, then you're wrong.
Also note that the negative rhetoric has already started between this blahg and yeOLDEartblog and now yous and us. And you think wee are naive? Har! The establishment loves it when wee "divid ourselves so they can conquer" without even lifting a pinkie.
lovvvveeeeeeeeeee ya!!!!!!!!! H+H
"Also remember that this blahg and your presence at the "Art Wake" happened because we got our proposal accepted and invited YOUS. We actually DID something tangible, or you forgot that already. You are welcome BTW. “
ReplyDeleteYou didn’t invite me. I showed up because I happened to be in town, am old friends with Jen, and wanted to support the Philly folks who DID show up (you didn’t).
"You are making us and our supporters unwelcome here, so who is dividing the community? You are. You are already losing support by your tone.”
So let me see: I say it’s not about us-versus-them, and you translate that to mean it’s about me-versus-you? You missed my point.
"Also note that the negative rhetoric has already started between this blahg and yeOLDEartblog and now yous and us.”
Whose fault is that?
OK,
ReplyDeleteSo I spoke with the gallery director and program co-ordinator of Temple galleries last night and told her about the proposed follow on discussion in Philly. She was interested in setting something up and offered up temple as a venue. I think if we're really going to make this comprehensive, we could use the space and gravitas. Thoughts?
That’s great news! That’s my thought. At what level does she want to be engaged in the process? Is the space offer itself a one night deal?
ReplyDeleteIf you're cool with Temple, I'll start trying to figure out dates that could work. I'm thinking that Fri nights would probably be best. I don't think we could get it for Saturdays.
ReplyDeleteColin do you have a list of people you'd like to contribute to this? I don't know if she wants to do anything other than give us the space. SHe was very into it and started rattling off people she thought might be interesting to be involved. She also wants to get Temple students there. I think it is a one night only type of thing but I hadn't thought about anything more than that. What were you thinking?
My idea was basically a ripoff of #class - open schedule over many days/nights, whoever wants to pick a topic time can reserve it - which won’t work in one night, so something else is in order if we do something at Temple.
ReplyDeleteI do think a series of conversations with multiple voices is better than a one-off.
As for people to contribute to this, do you mean conversation on this blog? Or to the followup discussion idea? Or both?
o I also spoke to Julian Robson over the weekend and he mentioned doing a talk at PAFA during their Vogal (SP?) collection show specific to curating. I told him about the talk idea we've been discussing and he sounded interested. So, the possible talk at PAFA I'm into but I think its a separate thing. Its possible that we could get Julian to be a part of the Temple thing.
ReplyDeleteAnyway regarding multiple talks, I'm into that idea but I think thats something that would have to be sponsored by a venue. I'm just not sure how we could do that relatively soon.
Regarding people to contribute...I'm referring to both. More discussion here and people that'd be willing to take an active roll in a talk. Do you have people in mind?
Let’s just stick to an initial talk/roundtable at Temple then.
ReplyDeleteAs for this blog, I can think of a few people, and I’ll send out invites.
There are a few random resources I have in mind, all Mt. Airy related, who I could try to get involved here on the blog - though not necessarily for this particular talk at Temple:
- a guy in my neighborhood who co-founded Galapagos Art Space in the 90’s - he ran the performance venue mainly but a very active guy. He’s now in real estate and has a huge building in Mt. Airy that he’s been wanting to do something with. I think his main thing these days has been building a skateboard park somewhere in Philly.
- another NY artist transplant who moved here around 2000, and who we (MACAS) have been planning a series of art salons with. They got stalled for a few months, but I could see her being interested in…something.
- http://adaptationart.wordpress.com/ - I’ve talked to these guys before about a curatorial proposal, but they also have been planning storefront reuse - type projects. They’re serious, and appear to be good planners - and may be interested in discussion here.
For the talk: not sure - I think what we’d want is more people with a more historical perspective of what’s been possible or has happened in Philly in the past, and I’m not the one to ask about that…let me think about it.
Well, all of these people sound interesting. Bring'em in. At this point, I'd just like to hear more opinions from more people. I can think of a few people that have a good historical perspective. Sid Sachs, for one. My only hesitation with bringing in people that were here back in the day is that their perspective may be clouded by what did happen and not what could happen now.
ReplyDeleteFrom the thread on artblog, it seems that there are a lot of opinions about doing a 'big show' Could the talk idea be focused around that? Maybe a continuation of the thread but with lots of #class ideas thrown around that? I guess that I'd like to finalize a date and a tentative panel in the next couple of weeks. Wanna keep the momentum going...
I had a few constructive conversations, but want to flesh them out first. I’ll send you a private email update.
ReplyDeleteBen, check your email.
ReplyDelete