Arts Wire CURRENT is a project of Arts Wire, a national computer-based network serving the arts community. Arts Wire CURRENT features news updates on social, economic, philosophical, and political issues affecting the arts and culture. Your contributions are invited. Contact Judy Malloy, editor, at jmalloy@artswire.org
To encourage the exchange of arts information and perspectives, Arts Wire CURRENT contents are not copyrighted unless specifically stated. Arts Wire is, however, very interested in documenting the use of material from Arts Wire CURRENT in other newsletters, publications and on online networks. Please send a copy to: Tommer Peterson, Arts Wire Publications Coordinator, Email: tommer@artswire.org
This week's Current is sponsored by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and OPERA America.
"This decision protects the speech rights not just of artists, but of every person in this country," said Robert Lederman, President of A.R.T.I.S.T. about the Supreme Court's ruling.
Lederman expressed the hope that "the Mayor and Council Member Freed will carefully read the 2nd Circuit ruling and abide by it," A.R.T.I.S.T. reports. He pointed out that "Street artists benefit the City. It's time for the City to recognize the significant contribution artists make to New York's culture and economy and to stop treating us like second class citizens."
According to A.R.T.I.S.T., police harassment against artists continued right up until this past Sunday, with confiscations of paintings and artist's displays, threats of arrest and numerous tickets being issued in SoHo, Members of A.R.T.I.S.T. staged an impromptu demonstration on West Broadway last Saturday after the police attempted to clear the street of artists, claiming that "The landlords don't want artists here, we have many complaints", and, "Giuliani appealed your case, we don't have to follow the ruling".
A.R.T.I.S.T. explains that from 1993 until 1997, the N.Y.P.D., under pressure from City Council Member Kathryn Freed and a coalition of landlord advocacy groups including the Fifth Avenue Association and the SoHo Alliance, arrested more than 400 artists. Thousands of original paintings, photographs, prints and sculptures were confiscated and sold at a monthly police department auction or destroyed by the City.
"Visual art is as wide ranging in its depiction of ideas, concepts and emotions as any book, treatise, pamphlet or other writing, and is similarly entitled to full First Amendment protection," the 2nd Circuit Federal Appeals Court ruling states. "....the City's requirement that appellants be licensed in order to sell their artwork in public spaces constitutes an unconstitutional infringement of their First Amendment rights...Displaying art on the street has a different expressive purpose than gallery or museum shows; it reaches people who might not choose to go into a gallery or museum or who might feel excluded or alienated from these forums. The public display and sale of artwork is a form of communication between the artist and the public not possible in the enclosed, separated spaces of galleries and museums...: [Lederman et al v. City of New York 959089 United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit. Argued April 26, 1996. Decided Oct. 10, 1996.]
For the entire text of the 2nd Circuit ruling and other detailed information on this issue visit the A.R.T.I.S.T. web site at: http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyc.html or contact Robert Lederman at E-mail ARTISTpres@aol.com tel: 718-369-2111; 212-334-4327 Lawyers for the case: Wayne Cross and Randy Fox at Dewey Ballentine tel: 212-259-8000
Stating that "Arts Council grants that are to be used for artworks shall include as a term of each grant that the artwork created with the grant funds shall not be displayed or performed in a publicly funded facility if the governing body of the community that would have zoning jurisdiction over the facility adopts a resolution objecting to the display or performance of the artwork in that community," This provision, according to ARTS North Carolina, allows local governing bodies (such as city councils and county commissions) to pass resolutions stopping or prohibiting performances or gallery showings they find objectionable.
ARTS Carolina states that the provision covers activities that would take place in publicly funded facilities. Grantees of the NC Arts Council would have to agree to these terms through their grant contracts. Unlike the provision of 1995, this attempt is in the form of a permanent amendment to the General Statutes of North Carolina.
ARTS North Carolina states that they strongly oppose this provision because it violates First Amendment rights of artists and arts organizations. They have been working to introduce an amendment to remove the provision from the budget bill.
For more information, call Rob Maddrey at 919/834-1411 or e-mail at artsnc@aol.com
Along with other sources, the organization has been receiving support from the NEA for the last 15 years for its educational outreach activities, "and therefore the rescinding of these funds came as a shocking insult and affront to the integrity of this 30-year-old distinguished organization," they write in an email alert.
Since 1967, Canyon Cinema has distributed award-winning films that have garnered the respect of museums and showcases internationally. Its historically significant collection of 3000 films includes titles by more than 350 filmmakers, showcasing such internationally acclaimed artists as Kenneth Anger, Bruce Conner, Stan Brakhage, Barbara Hammer, Les Blank, Craig Baldwin, Su Friedrich and Canyon founder Bruce Baillie.
According to the alert, Canyon Cinema was a focus of March 1997 congressional sub-committee hearings reviewing the NEA and its grantees. Representative Peter Hoekstra, Michigan (R), head of the House Education and Workforce Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations had objected to the sexual content of some of the works that Canyon distributes.
First Amendment lawyer Karl Olson, of Levy, Ram & Olson LLP of San Francisco, characterizes Congress' pressure on the NEA and singling out of certain films based on their content as "Sexual McCarthyism." Olson is currently representing Canyon Cinema, and is in the process of appealing the NEA's decision. Contact: Dominic Angerame, Executive Director of Canyon Cinema or tel/fax 415-626-2255; Email canyon@sj.bigger.net Details available on Arts Wire (AWNEWS Item 213)
From sculpture to folk art to painting, Current Visions celebrates the diversity of artistic expression to be found across the nation and in our own backyard. In a press release NASAA explains that the artistic plurality of this collection reflects the theme of the eight-part American Visions series, which takes viewers on a tour of this nation's artistic treasures that include among its achievements not only paintings and sculpture, but also its pueblo churches, skyscrapers and national memorials.
"American dreams, hopes, fears are written in the things Americans have made," a NASAA press release quotes series host Robert Hughes as saying. America is an immigrant nation, mixed and plural. Its arts have always looked two ways, into the heart of America and out into the world."
"NASAA and its member state arts agencies are pleased to be a partner in Thirteen/WNET's multilevel Web site for American Visions," says Jonathan Katz, NASAA executive director. "The works selected for Current Visions and exhibited in this dynamic new medium," Katz continues, "reflect the commitment of state arts agencies to enabling people everywhere in America to experience and learn more about the arts from their own state and from the rest of the nation as well."
Beside Current Visions, the American Visions' Web site features sections on the television series, a multimedia backgrounder, another gallery of images, reference materials, profiles of many key figures in the series, as well as links to other sites and online resources. American Visions can be seen every Wednesday on local PBS stations through June 18. The Current Visions gallery can also be reached directly from NASAA's Web site at http://www.nasaa-arts.org.
THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF STATE ARTS AGENCIES (NASAA) (http://www.nasaa-arts.org) is the membership organization of the nation's state and jurisdictional arts agencies. NASAA's mission is to provide its member agencies with the information, resources and representation that they require to engage issues proactively and serve the public effectively.
In addition to member information, and art and art advocacy resources, NASAA has set aside part of their Web site to highlight cultural tourism,including models, trends and data, links, and other information on cultural tourism.
NASAA's CULTURAL TOURISM site is a follow-up to the six regional cultural tourism leadership forums, that brought together leaders from the tourism, business, natural resources and the cultural communities to devise strategies and partnerships to address key issues in travel and tourism -- from product development and funding to marketing and technology. The site includes the action steps for cultural tourism developed by each state delegation to the forums, a rural tourism development project in North Carolina, facts and figures on cultural tourist and the impact of tourism on the economy, as well as other examples. If you have cultural tourism information you would like to have posted on this site, please contact Kimber Craine at kimber@nasaa-arts.org.
The AVODAH DANCE ENSEMBLE (http://www.artswire.org/avodah) is a modern dance company rooted in the Jewish tradition. Avodah tours nationally, presenting its diverse repertory in Sabbath services, concerts, arts festivals and as part of educational programs. Multicultural and interfaith projects play an important role in Avodah's performance and educational activities. Company, Reviews Schedules Repertory News.
THE CLAY STUDIO, (http://www.libertynet.org:80/~claystdo/) a non-profit organization in the Delaware Valley solely dedicated to education and instruction in the ceramic arts, serves as the primary resource center for professional clay artists, beginning and advanced students, and ceramic collectors throughout the region.
The site includes information about current shows that feature ceramics artists Antonio Fink and Hirotsune Tashima as well as a description of the "Claymobile", a traveling ceramics class in a van, that makes basic ceramic art education accessible to inner city and low-income communities.
In addition to both print and online resources about making art on the Internet, THE SAN FRANCISCO ART INSTITUTE WEB CLASS site at http://www.well.com/user/jmalloy/sfai.html has links to 15 web works created by this year's San Francisco Art Institute class in Web Theory and Design. The works situate art in an internet context -- from subtrgrl's underground pop to Susan Schmidt's intricately linked dream narratives to Robert Lee Montgomery's lab-situated chronicles of multiple personality.
HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS:
GAY/LESBIAN/BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENDER FAMILY VALUES
Challenging and transgressing accepted representation of "family" and values revolving around them, this exhibition is organized into themes that taken as a whole reflect on the relationship between art, society and families, and a range of possible meanings: fantastic, symbolic, mythic, romantic, moral, biblical, campy, sentimental and sexual, according to an accompanying statement by guest curator Cassandra Langer.
"Family is seen through the work of a variety of artists who recolonize territory previously claimed by heterosexuality so that it may now be understood as a series of cultural signifiers and comprehended as sets of codes by which they operate to change attitudes in a combat zone of competing notions of what makes a 'good' family in the late twentieth century in the United States," Langer writes.
The exhibition includes Jim Long's lushly homoerotic kisses; Barbara Hammer's appropriations from advertising and the wedding announcement pages of the NEW YORK TIMES; Lenore Chinn's representations of gay and lesbian couples in interior settings; Matthew Snow's modern day gods and goddesses frolicking at the beach; Tomas Rodriguez Gaspar's photographic narrative of babies with AIDS that "lets the horrific downside of modern life intermingle with the incredible compassion of two gay men who created a family for these children;" and much more.
"It is my belief that by giving people an opportunity to see gays and lesbians in all their human worth including common reference points between sexes, classes, ethnicities and cultures that individuals will come to appreciate this movement's struggle for equal rights," Langer writers. "A good relationship--indeed, a good marriage must be about love. It is love that makes a family."
There is a small catalogue available from White Columns. tel: 212-924-4212 Cassandra Langer can be reached at Email:Kelpie1@aol.com
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA
through July 31
HUMAN/NATURE: ART AND LANDSCAPE
This summer SPOLETO FESTIVAL USA adds a major environmental art exhibition to its renowned mixture of music, drama and dance. Stretches of an industrial waterfront, an alley of live oaks on a historic plantation and the lawns and beds of a private formal garden and a public park are among the 14 sites included in HUMAN/NATURE: ART AND LANDSCAPE.
"With Human/Nature, we take as our point of departure the physical and cultural landscape," curator John Beardsley writes on the website at http://www.awod.com/ccl/studio/humannature.html "For more than three centuries, people have been modifying the natural environment of Charleston and its region, making this place more habitable, more productive, more beautiful. You can find shell mounds built by Native Americans, plantations and gardens made by the first British settlers from Barbados, yards and gardens created by African-Americans, military fortifications and industrial alterations. By inviting artists to make their own interventions into these landscapes, we ask them to make us more aware of the qualities of this environment and the layers of cultural history evident in it."
The artists who are participating in Human/Nature are notable for their varied backgrounds and different approaches to the practice of art and were selected from the U.S., Europe and South Africa. A few of the many works included are:
Martha Jackson-Jarvis' RATTLESNAKES AND RAINWATER, a sculptural garden consists of a cross-shaped walk of tabby (oyster shell and concrete) construction, surmounted by houses and barrels covered with imagery relating to the African-American experience of the coastal landscape, including mosquitoes, rattlesnakes, fish and rice plants, rendered in ceramic, glass, mosaic, and terra-cotta.
Mary Lucier's HOUSE BY THE WATER is a multi-media video, audio and mixed media installation that blends radar images of actual storms that have occurred in Charleston with recent footage of the rivers and harbor and indoor vignettes evoking antebellum life -- continuously projected onto four walls of a house on stilts, drawing the audience to move around the piece to fully experience its content.
Also included are Thornton Dial's brilliantly-colored, mixed media lawn furniture and sculptures; and Adriaan Geuze's garden room in a swamp that room encloses a section of the wetlands.
For more information, visit the web site at http://www.awod.com/ccl/studio/humannature.html
WALNUT CREEK
July 2 - August 17 Reception: July 2 5:30-7:30
Bedford Gallery, Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts
55 AND UP: ART FOR A LIFETIME is an exhibition of works by senior artists of Northern California.
"Artists don't retire," says Curator Carrie Lederer, "they keep on practicing. It's a lifework. The examples are endless: Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, Imogen Cunningham, Alice Neel, Jasper Johns, Jacob Lawrence, Louise Bourgeois . . . . What we're doing with 55 and Up is to shine a bright light on a group of artists who do significant work but do not get enough attention."
Two special exhibits accompany the 55 and Up exhibition: GIFTS OF AGE: PORTRAITS OF REMARKABLE WOMEN by Pamela Valois, and TAPESTRIES by Victor Cabasso. ENRICHING YOUR BRAIN: A LIFELONG EXPERIENCE, a lecture by Marian Diamond, Ph.D., UC Berkeley Professor of Anatomy that is based on Diamond's discovery that with proper stimulation the brain can continue to develop at any age, accompanies the exhibition. The lecture is scheduled for Tuesday, July 8, at 7:00 p.m. in the Lesher Theatre of the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts. For more information, tel 510-295-1417 or 510-295-1423
Each year the U.S. Department of Education's Blue Ribbon Schools program identifies and gives public recognition to outstanding public and private schools throughout the U.S. Public and private elementary, middle, junior high and high schools are eligible to apply for this recognition. To date, nearly 3500 schools have been given national recognition in this program.
In 1998, the program will also recognize schools with outstanding programs in the ARTS. Applications for this recognition were mailed in May 1997 to state departments of education; deadlines for applications are set by each state, though state recommendations must be sent to the U.S. Department of Education by November 25, 1997. Recognized schools will be honored at a national ceremony in Washington, D.C. in the Fall of 1998.
If you are interested in learning more about the program, call the Blue Ribbon Schools' national office at 202/219-2149, or contact your Blue Ribbon Schools' state liaison and request an application. A list of state liaisons is provided on the Goals 2000 Arts Education Partnership website at http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/aep/aep.html
"A S B L U E A S I W A N N A B E " A Mail Art Exhibit ".........whatever b l u e means to you.......... "
All mail art will be displayed at GALLERY 1114, a small cooperative contemporary art gallery. No fees, no jury, no returns; no restrictions, except no live poultry! Documentation provided to all participants. Any sales will help the struggling gallery remain open.
Deadline: December 1, 1997 Opening: 7 p.m. Saturday, January 17, 1998 Technical Advisor: Rice Freeman-Zachery . Mail entries to: Gallery 1114 1114 N. Big Spring St, Midland, Texas 79701
The Regional Cultural Planning Committee (RCPC) seeks the services of a consultant to conduct a regional cultural planning effort for an eight-county area consisting of Butler, Clermont, Hamilton, and Warren Counties in Ohio; Boone, Campbell, and Kenton Counties in Kentucky; and Dearborn County, Indiana.
The cultural planning effort is an unprecedented demonstration of regional cooperation in the Greater Cincinnati area. Financial supporters of the citizen-initiated effort include nine local governments, two chambers of commerce, two convention and visitors bureaus, and the Kentucky and Ohio state arts councils. The Ohio Kentucky Indiana Regional Council of Governments (OKI) is the fiscal agent for the effort and is providing in-kind support. This is the first cultural planning effort to be undertaken for the region, however, there have been several studies on arts organizations, and a cultural economic study is currently being conducted in northern Kentucky. The cultural planning effort is expected to be completed by the end of 1998. The anticipated cost of the effort is $60,000 to $100,000.
Consultants interested in submitting proposals to conduct the regional cultural planning effort should contact: Carolyn Gutjahr tel: 513-352-4985 Email: carolyn.gutjahr@cinnhc.rcc.org for details on deadlines and submission requirements.
Details available on Arts Wire (AWNEWS 92:10)
SELECTED MONEY LISTINGS
Following is a small sample from the searchable database of current funding opportunities for artists and arts groups available in Arts Wire's MONEY conference to Arts Wire subscribers. To add your listings to MONEY send email to fyi@artswire.org. Please mention Arts Wire when you apply. MONEY is compiled by Joseph Hannan and Shu-Mei Chan.
June 30: 1998 L. ARNOLD WEISSBERGER PLAYWRITING COMPETITION - awards $5,000, a staged reading and publication for the best full-length, unpublished and unproduced play. Commercial producers, artistic directors and literary managers of non-profits, literary agents, etc. may submit one original script for nomination and an optional letter of nomination. Musicals, screenplays and children's plays are ineligible. There must be only one submission per playwright. For more information, contact: L. Arnold Weissberger Playwriting Competition 424 West 44th St. New York, NY 10036 (212) 757-6960 Fax: (212) 265-4738.
July 15: GRAHAM FOUNDATION - awards grants of up to $10,000 to individuals and organizations for projects in architecture, design, planning and related fine arts fields. For details, contact: Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, 4 W. Burton Place, Chicago, IL 60610. (312) 787-4071.
July 15: W. EUGENE SMITH MEMORIAL FUND - will award one grant of $20,000 plus $5,000 additional at the jury's discretion for a secondary grant to a photographer who aspires to perpetuate the spirit and dedication that characterized Smith's work. Apply for a specific project; most grants are awarded for the completion of photographic works-in-progress. For information and application, send a 55-cent SASE to: W. Eugene Smith Memorial Award c/o International Center of Photography, 1130 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10128. (212) 860-1777, ext. 186.
Perseverance Theatre is seeking a permanent full-time Finance director/Associate Producing Director. This position will be responsible for day-to-day budget needs, long term financial projections, maintain general ledger, financial reporting to granting agencies as well as developing grant and program budgets and annual audits. Must also be a skilled grant writer and have excellent written and oral communication skills. Ability to work independently is essential.
Send resume and letter of interest by June 15 to Perseverance Theatre, 914 Third Street, Douglas, AK 99824. E-mail: persthr@ptialaska.net Perseverance Theatre is an equal opportunity employer.
VISUAL RESOURCES PROFESSIONAL
Otis College of Art & Design Library
(Los Angeles, CA)
Otis is seeking a dynamic and energetic visual resources professional who will be responsible for the development, circulation, and management of visual resources (slides, CD-ROMS, videos, and image databases) for the library. This person will be primarily responsible for the slide collection (purchasing and making) as well as developing future digital image and multi-media resources. The Visual Resources Librarian also actively works as part of a team of 3 professional librarians who provide reference and other library services. Teaching two 1-unit "Methods of Research" courses per semester, participation in faculty governance, and supervision of student assistants is required.
This is a year-round full-time (37.5 hours) position with good benefits. Salary is commensurate with qualification and experience. Position will begin no later than August 1, 1997.
Qualifications: MLS from and ALA-accredited school with an undergraduate degree in Art or Art History or MA in Art History with additional coursework or experience in librarianship. Minimum of 3 years work experience in a slide library or visual resources collection. Classification, management, and some teaching experience is required. Experience with digital imaging and electronic information technologies important. Knowledge of Embark cataloging software desired. Strong commitment to proactive library service and enthusiasm for work with students and faculty; ability to initiate, plan, and carry out projects, both independently and as a member of a team; ability to communicate effectively both orally and in writing.
Otis College of Art & Design is an accredited professional art and design school offering BA degrees in the areas of Fine Arts, Communication Arts, Environmental Arts, Fashion Design, Toy Design, and Digital Media; and MBA degrees in Fine Arts. Otis was established in 1917 and now has a student body of 750 and a faculty of 130 members. It has recently relocated to a new site on the westside of Los Angeles and is planning for expansion. The Library contains 30,000 volumes, with approximately 80,000 slides. Librarians work closely with faculty, especially Liberal Arts & Sciences, and teach a required 1-unit freshman course in Methods of Research. Applicants should send a letter and resume with the names of three references to: Sue Maberry, Director Otis Library, 9045 Lincoln Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90045. DIRECTOR OF EXHIBITS The Computer Museum (Boston, MA) The Computer Museum is the premier institution of its kind and is internationally recognized for its innovative and educationally effective exhibits, as well as for its award-winning Web site, The Computer Museum Network. The Museum's Boston waterfront location is a 50,000-square-foot facility with 33,000 square feet of exhibit space, currently serving 150,000 people a year. The Museum seeks a highly motivated individual to lead the development and implementation of its exhibits programs. The Director of Exhibits reports to the Executive Director and serves as a key member of the Museum's management team. BACKGROUND: The Museum is seeking an individual with: a broad and current knowledge of and enthusiasm for computing technology, its evolution, uses, and impact; and a desire to communicate this to a broad public; excellent verbal and written communication skills at all levels of technical knowledge about computing; the ability to promote the mission of the Museum and secure support from the corporate and academic technical community; strong management and project planning skills. Extensive existing relationships with this community a plus. RESPONSIBILITIES: lead the development of the Museums exhibit strategy and specific exhibit concepts with Board Exhibits Committee: implement exhibit development; develop proposals and work with development staff to raise corporate, foundation, individual, and government funds; assemble and lead teams of staff and volunteers; develop and manage exhibit development budgets; provide technical resources and strategies to enable exhibits to be maintained at the highest level; lead ongoing development of The Computer Museum Network, reinterpreting the Museums major elements for the online medium; build relationships with the technical computing community in industry and academia.
Please send resume and cover letter to Director of Exhibits Search, The Computer Museum, 300 Congress Street, Boston, MA 02210, USA Fax 617-426-2943 E-mail mccann@tcm.org http://www.tcm.org/ The Computer Museum is an Equal Opportunity Employer. _____________________________________________________ ELSEWHERE ON THE NET THE NEA TAPES DOCUMENTARY & ARCHIVE TRANSCRIPTS "All is not hopeless, the NEA is not yet dead," write Paul Lamarre and Melissa Wolf ,who work together as the artist's collaborative, Eidia. Their effort to confront this problem, THE NEA TAPES DOCUMENTARY AND ARCHIVE was conceived in January 1995, at about the same time it looked like the NEA was about to be totally eliminated. "We began by video taping interviews with artists commenting on the eminent dissolution of the agency and the controversy surrounding funding for the arts," they write. "Two years and 200 video later we are still here." They began the tapings because "we were upset that the news media seemed only to present the 'Right' point of view on the subject of the NEA. Where was the artist's voice we asked ourselves. Surely they deserved to be heard and we were determined to facilitate that." Sponsored by the New York Foundation for the Arts, "Artists New Works," the NEA Tapes is a "work in progress." Its completion is pending funding. In April 19 and May The NEA Tapes aired on 31 cable stations nationally and selections from the archive were included in THE EXHIBITIONIST, April/May 1997. Below, are four perspectives from THE NEA TAPES: LAWRENCE WEINER - ARTIST, NEW YORK CITY "Artists are people just like everybody else. They are citizens. They pay taxes. They have to take their kids to the dentist. They are under the same social obligations to participate during the draft (my generation). We are all walking under the same stars and stripes. A large percentage of the population are involved in what the government calls the arts. It is an international money maker for the United States in fact. But if they [NEA] are not willing to support the few people that they can't seem to stomach... whose investigations or feelings don't seem to suite... then just drop the whole damn thing. And it's a pity because the Museums will close... and these are thing that are a viable part of the United States. For something that is supposed to be so unpopular culturally, just go to the Museum of Modern Art some Sunday and you see lines of people." JESSE RHINES - FILM MAKER / EDUCATOR, RUTGERS UNIVERSITY "The attacks on the NEA, I do feel have been unfortunate. Rather than fund the arts, quote unquote, the NEA stimulates funding of the Arts. What the NEA does is offer a certain amount of seed money. [the artist or organization] can then with that guarantee go out and get the money they actually need to do what they need. Its also an organization that traditionally has been multiethnic, that is focused on multiethnic to a much larger extent than many other organizations. In Washington DC where I grew up I was in a many arts programs. I would not have gotten out of the kinds of stuff my family lived in had it not been for arts programs. My refuge was reading, photography, and the arts. When there was confusion that is where I could go. It was very important for me. It pointed my way to college--I now have my Ph.D." SUSAN K. FREEDMAN - PRESIDENT, PUBLIC ART FUND, INC., NEW YORK CITY. "One of the depressing prospects of our government not supporting art is the potential reality that the arts will become relegated to just the providence of the rich. The accessibility will become so rarefied that even in the museums efforts to broaden audiences and do outreach just won't be enough. It's sending a message to the artistic community that the arts don't matter. This is a horrifying thought. Because we know that we do. We know that culture distinguishes societies. The arts empowers people and can give them a sense about themselves as almost nothing else can. It is not just the passion that it evokes for the artists but it is a visceral response that we the viewers can get. Taking the arts out of the schools is a huge loss and very short sighted."
MARY MISS - ARTIST, NEW YORK CITY "I don't think every artist should be doing work that everyone in the community is going to like. Its important that artists are investigating all parts of experience and life. These interior lives of ours, psychological, spiritual, sexual all these things that we are afraid to look at and talk about usually. I layer meaning and experience into my works that I think is beyond what might be apparent when people look at it--which maybe they get maybe they don't get. But other artists might do it in a more overt way. That possibility should be there. I think we are about diversity, so why all of a sudden do we have to eat, drink, sleep, the same? I don't understand."
The work is copyright Eidia 1997 and they ask "Please inform us if you intend to use The NEA Tapes Documentary & Archive Transcripts. We are very interested in documenting the use of this material in other newsletters, publications and on online networks."
Contact Paul Lamarre, Melissa Wolf, Eidia, Project Directors The NEA Tapes PO Box 11 New York, NY 10012 tel/fax 212 529 0487 eidia@thing.net
Details available on Arts Wire (AWNEWS Item 208)
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