The Boston Foundation last month issued a report entitled "Vital Signs: Metro Boston’s Arts and Cultural Nonprofits 1999 and 2004" where it suggested that smaller arts organizations consider "[e]xiting the market" (page 9.) Curious, as while the Boston Foundation is a philanthropy, it only gives grants to largest of arts organizations-- indeed as Bill Marx reported this past August, to the Citi Performing Arts Center whose internal financial dealings appear to be quite suspect.
Ian Mackinnon, in response, sponsored an "Art Die Off" at Outpost 186 where those of us in the arts community could apologize for not becoming bigger arts organizations and simply die. Purple Kool-Aid and chili was provided. Big RED, and Shiny's Matthew Nash reported and Christian Holland took photographs.
In an entirely extemporaneous speech, I apologized for co-founding a mime troupe in the Boston area, when clearly, the art-form in question was ultimately unacceptable, as evidenced by the failures of Pocket Mime Theatre Company, Mirage Mime Theatre, and Cosmic Spelunker Theater to become major Boston institutions. I apologized for the fact that Cosmic Spelunker created Waltzing to War before criticism of the U.S. invasion of Iraq had become mainstream, I apologized for performing in just the sort of spaces that the Boston Foundation feels should "[exit] the market." I even apologized for confusing the audience by often performing mime while reciting poetry-- it's bad enough to work in a medium or genre that does not fit into the appropriate disciplinary pigeon-holes but to combine it with another genre in a manner that defies expectations?
Ultimately, as the purple Kool-Aid took effect, I did die, landing on my back with a nice loud thud by means of the most elegant prat-fall I have ever taken.
Markus Nechay, and Alisia L.L. Waller of And So No Sin and Mobius Artists Group (which should "exit" because despite recently opening a new space, they are simply not large enough to be seen as viable by the Boston Foundation) also presented. Eric Zinman provided musical accompaniment.
We're dead, and all of you dance companies, small presses, tiny art galleries, and small theatre troupes are next.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Drinking Kool-Aid with Dead Artists
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7 comments:
I neglected to provide a link for Geoff Edgers' in The Boston Globe
MacKinnon's petition to the Boston Foundation can be found here:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/BFsmallarts/
Thanks to Art at http://mirroruptolife.blogspot.com/ for providing the link!
Hi Anybody,
The Boston Foundation never asked whether what they support may be overly tired and pedestrian. It might be said that the Boston Foundations attempt to fuse the old and familiar into a new quality visa the Boston Ballet, MFA, BSO etc.........and their products tailored for consumption through economic and administrative concentration has failed. The seriousness of art is destroyed by speculation on its efficacy. But at no point have they considered that they may be failures in what they support. I believe Mr. Bill Marx touched on this point at the event at the OUTPOST on January 13th, 2008. Perhaps it is not the job of the BFA to consider content since their study is only concerned with attendance and that through this study they create the impression of a science which thinks itself pragmatic. This alleviates any discussion of aesthetic content. In this sense the consciousness of the masses are not primary but secondary since we are merely an object of calculation and in this sense their concern is quite deceptive. This really proves their support for culture and their disdain for art. Art cannot compete with corporate models and while I think some interesting conclusions can be drawn from their study...........their recommendations are vacuous and shamelessly conformist. They speculate on smaller organizations that they have never investigated. Unlike the artist, cultural organizations like the BFA do not have to prove themselves in confrontation with human beings. They remain unquestioned and unanalyzed even if their understanding and awareness of the arts in MA is empty. To change this would require some street cred.........but of course its our job to make you notice us..
Art speaks to you and I, but culture speaks to US...........take a chapter from recent Eurasian history HAIL BUSH and
good luck in this academic insurance town,
Eric Zinman
's own report on the Art Die-In places it in the larger context of competition with more ubiquitous forms of entertainment, dwindling artists, and the increasingly corporate values that are finding their way into the larger arts institutions even before the Boston Foundation recommendations.
Curses.
The comments section is not rendering html properly. The report I meant to recommend to you is by Bill Marx.
Hi Ian
WOW!! Looks like you're having much of the same problems that we're having.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Arts Councils England's decision to cut funding to almost 200 of the organizations it previously supported.
I've been quite controversial in my response to it, stating that while it was an ill planned and catastrophic blow to the arts world, it could turn out to be quite good in the long run. This is due to the fact that I prefer to think of my organization as being more business based than other theatre companies and I feel that it's high time that we stopped taking handouts from the government and started acting (for want of a better word) more like actual businesses.
I think that the Arts Council should be done away with, because they have shown a lack of fore sight and business sense, but that we shouldn't replace them and should go it alone.
Please check out my posts if you want a clearer idea of what angle I'm coming from.
For yourselves though, it sounds like a very cut throat deal and it might just take a few cultural sacrifices before people wake up.
Killing of the smaller companies can never be a good thing. The smaller players are often where you find the cultural diversity of theatre.
I hope you're having a good day though (Despite your apparent demise)
;-)
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