Living in Newton and not actually knowing that many artists (or people) here, perhaps I am not really in the position to make an accurate assessment of the situation, but here goes: I feel like there could be a lot more communal activity amongst the artists here. It seems the majority of art is made by individuals or couples with very singular interests and ideas. They are all vying for representation by the same handful of galleries or juried shows and this (palpable or not) creates a certain amount of tension and rivalry.
There must be a way to alter this model in a way that still keeps the Darwinian selectivity to cull the best art, but removes the individualism and self-centricism. What I mean to say is, if there was a way of giving other people a stake in each other’s work, by means of group curation or group production, I think we would be in a better place to grow and expand the community.
These are more conceptual/idealistic ideas for sure, but here’s one proposal: a weekly or bi-weekly meet up where artists can talk about the kind of things they’re working on, ideas they’re thinking about, books they’re reading, shows they’ve applied for, shows they’ve been to, open discussion about the future of art, discussion on the efficacy of video art, (I could go on and on…….).
Basically I wish there was some sort of an open door group (NOT a critique session) where artists could get together and bounce ideas off one another, even come up with communal objectives. I always love that scene in A Beautiful Mind where the guys are at the bar and John Nash (played be the adorable Russell Crowe) explains the principles of his economic theory (if we all go for the hot one, we all lose, but if we all go for her slightly less hot friends, we all win). I think we can translate this idea quite neatly to our own struggles to find modes for dissemination and exhibition, to take back the control, even a little, from the galleries and exhibition spaces we are more or less beholden to.
Discuss amongst yo’selves…
Let’s do it!