There’s a lot more art activity, ‘art strolls’ in all directions these days, and sooner or later it will sort itself out -- won’t need my help. The condition that has prevented local artists from finding support on their own for a generation or two, small town academic monopolies on what was presented in galleries, both on campus and in the non-profits, what was written about, what was sanctioned as serious art, is essentially over, evaporating before our eyes and there’s a reason.
Exposure, plain and simple. All citizens have a dusty, mostly unused room in their heads full of gears and levers that they seldom visit, but looking at art turns on the lights. If they think about it at all they quickly begin to realize they like some of it less, some of it more, and before long with gears and levers engaged, they start making their own decisions about art. Taking on that largely private responsibility can ripple out into other areas, more cooking at home, a refocused conviction about larger issues, a more grounded and stable sense of self, such as that, but no need to get too far ahead.
Conditions are evolving so rapidly the complaint I register here turns rancid in hand, irrelevant, pages turning brown before our eyes, and if you go way back to the beginning of this you’ll see I said it would. As art finds its way around the grant funded, peer reviewed checkpoints, seeks and finds a broader audience, art production becomes self-sustaining, and pretty soon neighbors are noticing what’s on the wall. Won’t happen all at once, but sparks and smoke say soon.
Up until just recently most folks were actually afraid of art. Here’s the erudite arm chair interviewer, reading glasses pushed up on his furrowed brow, a world-traveled expert and authority on every level of human activity, yet he proudly proclaims he knows not a thing about art, the only deficiency he’ll admit to and he doesn’t mind who knows it. Lesser humans have been too self-conscious to even try, afraid of the secret opinions of family members, friends and acquaintances, just about anyone who might ‘know’ more about art than them, a self-imposed, life-limiting straight-jacket. Unbuckle and look around, it’s a brand new day.
Exposure, plain and simple. All citizens have a dusty, mostly unused room in their heads full of gears and levers that they seldom visit, but looking at art turns on the lights. If they think about it at all they quickly begin to realize they like some of it less, some of it more, and before long with gears and levers engaged, they start making their own decisions about art. Taking on that largely private responsibility can ripple out into other areas, more cooking at home, a refocused conviction about larger issues, a more grounded and stable sense of self, such as that, but no need to get too far ahead.
Conditions are evolving so rapidly the complaint I register here turns rancid in hand, irrelevant, pages turning brown before our eyes, and if you go way back to the beginning of this you’ll see I said it would. As art finds its way around the grant funded, peer reviewed checkpoints, seeks and finds a broader audience, art production becomes self-sustaining, and pretty soon neighbors are noticing what’s on the wall. Won’t happen all at once, but sparks and smoke say soon.
Up until just recently most folks were actually afraid of art. Here’s the erudite arm chair interviewer, reading glasses pushed up on his furrowed brow, a world-traveled expert and authority on every level of human activity, yet he proudly proclaims he knows not a thing about art, the only deficiency he’ll admit to and he doesn’t mind who knows it. Lesser humans have been too self-conscious to even try, afraid of the secret opinions of family members, friends and acquaintances, just about anyone who might ‘know’ more about art than them, a self-imposed, life-limiting straight-jacket. Unbuckle and look around, it’s a brand new day.
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