August 29, 2010
The 2010 Long Island Contemporary Arts Examiner Project Summary and ConclusionsCarleton Palmer IntroductionIn the first half of 2010 I wrote more than a hundred articles as Long Island Contemporary Arts Examiner; articles which might remain online until a sunspot, neutron bomb other source of intense microwave radiation (or good sense on the part of an archivist) eliminates them. The Examiner is a for-profit online publishing project claiming thirty-thousand or more participants who report mostly local news, and that obtains its revenues from advertising. Participants receive nominal compensation, exposure, and a vanity boost. Aside from the vanity boost, I became Long Island Contemporary Arts Examiner hoping to learn more about art on Long Island, to meet people with shared interests and perhaps to get my sedentary self out of the house on some worthwhile art-related missions. Then my car died and my arthritis medication ran out. Some months later, with a new old car and on fresh medication, I had learned more about art on Long Island, made a friend or two and had occasionally left the comfort of home on expeditions that resulted in the small body of work which, in retrospect, breaks down into several categories. Summary Announcements The largest number of articles naturally consists of announcements of exhibitions and events. Most have come and gone, but articles about two events that at the time of this writing have yet to occur fairly suggest the content of the category. “The Long Island Fringe Festival,” at The Tilles Center It was a pleasure to have met artists, curators, publicists and directors of a wide variety of projects in this connection. Resources In addition to articles discussing resources for artists such as deadlines lists, blogs, indices and funding sources, I created and maintained a tool on my website that I named “The Long Island Visual Art Links Directory,” with which one could access by major category the websites I discovered as Examiner. Long Island visual art links directory: Public Museums Galleries, Not-for-Profit College and University Galleries and venues Art Advocacy, Not-for-Profit Libraries Private Galleries Online Galleries Artists Registries Art Studios and Ateliers Artists Advisors Information Sources General Blogs Networking Grants Deadline Lists World Uncategorized
It was gratifying to have had the opportunity to explore and discuss the work of artists in early and mid-career, and it is something that would be interesting to pursue further in a different context. Where Fernand Botero and Rackstraw Downes have little need of my interest, meeting and corresponding with these artists, and writing about their work has been mutually beneficial: Robert Carioscia The Artists’ Statement Artists often are obliged to write about their work in formal “artists’ statements.” This is taught in college art programs, recommended by marketing professionals and included in the training programs for “artist-entrepreneurs” such as are conducted by the New York Foundation for the Arts. The Examiner project enabled me to engage in a sub-project concerning this interesting conjunction of verbal and visual systems. Pictures and Words and the Artists’ Statement Aesthetics Another personal project attempted to offer readers useful definitions for terms and concepts often misused in the casual, and sometimes not so casual, discussion of art. In another context these observations might have provoked lively discussions, yet here the silence was deafening. Art is . . . What? Social and Community Issues Correspondents raised questions concerning the needs of regional artists, funding and information sources for the arts. I reported on these issues as Examiner and provided Facebook Discussions regarding the issues on the ISALTA Organizations site. Again, the response was profoundly underwhelming,. Carletoons In an admitted digression from the Examiner mission, I shared a few visual jokes under the title of Carletoons with my readers that I hoped would encourage a smile. Even the NY Times publishes editorial cartoons, so why remain aloof? Recent examples continue to be posted on Facebook. Conclusions Having reached the limits of what I felt that I could accomplish with the Examiner project, I stopped producing articles. On learning of this one correspondent responded, “. . . good. We desperately need publicity coverage on a more aggressive, ongoing fashion. Nothing can be accomplished if the world doesn't even KNOW about it.” Reporting on the activities of the major institutions was made easy by the work of publicists, volunteers and websites, and there have been good and thoughtful exhibitions brought by the museums, galleries and universities. The private domain is more difficult to characterize, but in my experience only a small fraction of what appears on such walls has been worth seeing. Having made the decision to report only what I considered worthwhile meant observing large amounts of detritus that was never reported. It may be the responsibility of a journalist to sift the dross to find the gold, but it is a vexation upon the spirit, and a reason for limiting an Examiner’s tenure. Other project ideas that went nowhere included an attempt to engage the SUNY Stony Brook faculty and MFA candidates in art with the column. SUNY Stony Brook is Long Island's only MFA granting institution, so it might have been interesting to have included them in the study of artists’ statements and in other mutually developed ideas, but this and other brainstorms were disappointingly unproductive. As a result of this project I conclude that Long Island is awash in art; that there is relatively little overall Long Island sense of art community despite some collaboration, but many regional fiefdoms, and that the visual art of which I am competent to speak is given almost wholly to the decorative and commercial. The general disinterest in visual art as disciplined inquiry or intellectual work is not exclusive to this region, but one had hoped for more exceptions. While jealously guarding their turf, many groups claim to service “the Long Island Community,” and some don’t hesitate to disregard or insult the efforts of others through ignorance or local chauvinism. There are enough opportunities in the form of walls in galleries, frame stores, bars, restaurants and gift shops to accommodate the vanity of this huge population of amateurs and “wannabees.” Paraphrasing the words of the above correspondent, “You can’t swing a cat on Long Island without hitting an artist.” In conclusion, I value the experiences of and the acquaintances made in my six months as Long Island Creative Arts Examiner, and hope that this small body of work has illuminated some of what was worthy of that time and place. |
