Art – Page 26 – Robert Bettmann

Arts Advocacy in the DMV

It’s impossible to really dialogue about support for the arts, and arts advocacy, in the District without considering what policy-makers and stakeholders are doing in Virginia and Maryland.

As example: the great Film Tax Credit fire of the early 00’s. In that case legislators (across the country) provided tax credits to lure film and television productions to their municipalities. Quite quickly EVERYONE had a tax credit, and the race to the bottom began to offer the best tax credit, resulting in actual revenue losses for municipalities. (I’ll link these later today or tomorrow) Currently states are rolling back those initiatives.

For the most part, there are no new ideas in arts advocacy, or governance. We make hay from efficiency, and finding the best ways to provide services to our communities. Arts are a natural ally to developers in place-building, to educators in reform, and to care-givers for seniors. Further, the arts are a part of almost every local economy. The film tax credit is an example of how policy-makers and arts advocates lose by not considering their neighbors.

Here in the District, with 600,000 residents and 17-20 million visitors a year, our arts and culture sector provides over 20% of local tax revenue. In addition to serving community interests, government support for funded and un-funded initiatives to support the creative economy (private and not-for-profit) makes sense.

There are barriers to local and regional best practices emerging, but most of them are only political. (As opposed to a new metro line, or stadium, where big money must be lined up.) Legislators in DC, MD, and VA perhaps have few excuses to find common ground, and direct local pressures. In my capacity as Chair of the DC Advocates for the Arts I’m trying to further develop our organization’s relationship with the Maryland Citizens for the Arts and the Virginians for the Arts. Good policy emerges from good information, and our job as advocates gets easier when we really are able to provide policy-makers with the best policy suggestions. I’m looking forward to attending the Maryland Citizens for the Arts Advocacy Day, and have reached out to try and do the same with the Virginians for the Arts.

As artists and arts advocates we are not alone in our struggles. I’m taking comfort, and pride, from my work with other artists and arts administrators as an arts advocate. If you’re interested in participating in arts advocacy in the District, please check our website, and sign up to receive our monthly updates.

The other week I made the graphic in this post for our invite on Facebook. This was to be a graphic used internal to our community. One of my board felt that it was confrontational and that we shouldn’t use it, so we’re not. This is why we do drafts of things, to be sure. Perhaps it is confrontational. I was thinking that in arming artists and arts organization leaders, many of whom have been to this rodeo one or two times before, a call-to-arms type of thing wasn’t such a bad idea. There’s a real potential role there: encouraging local, and regional, participation/cooperation in arts advocacy.

Mera Rubell Didn’t Mean To Scare Us

Sometimes, because of insecurities, we see critique as criticism.

By example: the energy created by the journalism around Mera Rubell’s recent set of studio visits.

As noted by the Washington Project for the Arts, “Coverage of Mera Rubell’s DC studio tour by journalist Jessica Dawson in The Washington Post touched a critical nerve in the DC arts community, and set off impassioned conversations on social networking websites such as Facebook about the quality of life for artists in the area. Artists, writers, and arts professionals weighed in on aesthetics, isolation, ambition and support for the visual arts.”

Dawson’s Washington Post article, titled Collector Mera Rubell makes the rounds of Washington’s isolated artists includes the following quote:

“The pecking order is so vague here, so nebulous,” the collector says. In New York, top artists become untouchable. For them, it’s a badge of achievement to pull up younger ones, to mentor them. Not so in Washington, where no one knows who’s on top and everyone is on the defensive. “It’s like children fighting for their parents’ attention,” Mera say. “It’s basic competitive survival here — you don’t give an inch.”

Journalist/blogger Kriston Capps’ article about the same event for Art in America, includes the quote:

“I think they’re hungry for community. I’m not saying it’s unique to D.C., but it’s the reason so many artists go to New York.” Less prosaically, Rubell offered what she perceives to be the impact of international museums on local artists. “This is a place with some of the greatest museums on earth. But artists aren’t part of that family. They’re more strangers than the tourists. It makes them feel provincial. If you put a kid down enough, he gets discouraged.”

The response to Capps’ and Dawson’s journalism in online media has been somewhat surprising. Capps himself blogged that Dawson’s story was a “cynical exercise”, and that Rubell’s visits were like “an auditor” trying to “suss out a cyst”. In point of fact Rubell was selecting works for a new exhibit. Her assignment was not a comprehensive review of the District art scene’s mental health.

Were she charged with that task, I think she would have seen it possesses a schizophrenic quality. It seems like when we’re not busy crying, we’re busy insisting that we’re doing great. I think the reason we cry and then claim not to be crying is that we don’t want anyone to be responsible. Many artists are also involved in arts organizations, and arts service organizations, and curating, and journalism… many of us wear multiple hats, and have intimates who also wear multiple hats. We don’t want it to be our fault/anyones fault.

In the discussions around Meera’s statements some have suggested that journalism is failing us (ah, an outsider to blame!) It’s solipsistic to blame journalism for calling attention to this, but inside that, there’s your basic chicken/egg kind of an argument. As Lenny Campello wrote in a discussion on facebook, “The question is: if they saw coverage in the media about the art, would that trigger them to visit a gallery?”

The dance community in DC has been through this exact same thing. I transcribed a meeting between the District’s dance critics (wash post, wash times, etc.) and the dance community two years ago, prompted by community outcry about decline in coverage. And just like in the dance community, the visual arts community can complain about wanting more coverage, but newspapers are not a public service. They’re a business. When a business goes bankrupt it’s nice to say that it’s cause the marketing people did a bad job. But maybe the product sucked. Or maybe the service sucked. Or maybe the customer service sucked. Or maybe there wasn’t enough funding. Or maybe… Arts coverage has declined because there isn’t the interest, and the business model no longer exists. New models may emerge that serve the public and the arts community. I believe that with Bourgeon we’ve found one.

I think there’s a culture of inflexibility, fear, protectionism, power, and politicism that contributes to aesthetic blindness. I’m looking forward to attending the WPA’s upcoming panel discussion on the arts criticism in the DC area. I wonder how similar it will be to the one two years ago with the dance community.

Running for cover(age): A panel discussion on arts criticism in the DC area

Moderator: Kriston Capps
Panelists: Jeffry Cudlin, Isabel Manalo, Danielle O’Steen
When: Monday, January 4, 2010 from 6:30-8:00pm
Where: Capitol Skyline Hotel (lounge), 10 I Street SW, Washington, DC, 20024
(Free and open to the public)

Dexter

I’ve been watching some of this show called Dexter recently. This is the fourth season, but the first one I’ve watched. I didn’t see the whole season, but the last little group of episodes drew me in, and I just saw the season finale. We know the star (Michael C. Hall) from his role in the sort-of-similarly-themed Six Feet Under. Mr. Hall is experienced playing a caring ghoul, and does so with a great deal of savoir-faire and on screen humility.

The basic premise is a CSI/Law and Order show; the twist is that the main CSI we follow (Dexter) is a mass-murderer. The viewer feels privileged to witness Dexter and the team building relationships and catching crooks, Dexter taking the law into his own hands, and Dexter balancing these two worlds.

We get to know the character of Dexter through dialogue, but also through the lead character’s brutal and sensitive narration. The show has Hannibal Lecter appeal; he’s your friendly neighborhood worst nightmare. It’s a similar, but less assuming and serious, posture to (for instance) Dead Man Walking.

This season’s climax revolved around an investigative and personal crisis: Dexter’s capture and execution of another murderer (guest star John Lithgow), and the question of whether or not Dexter has any more control of his life than the older murderer (Lithgow.) The shine on Dexter is that we see his misgivings, his sense of being trapped by his past and ‘the dark passenger.’ This season’s climax further connected the viewer to his personal struggle, and the price he pays for it.

All of these theatrical tools do invite us to empathize. When characters are well written, and well acted, it’s easy to become playful with one’s boundaries, and Dexter challenges us to maintain our independence, and judgment. How does crime spiral through generations? Who is served by punishment? Can good ever win against evil?

Fiction provides us a means to investigate the deeper truths that pass un-noticed in our daily lives. I’m not saying Dexter is all that. The Iliad it ain’t. But then again, neither was Dallas. I wrote this post feeling a need to write… a sense of restlessness eased by the work of writing. I don’t have any illusions about achieving major impact or insight, and I sort of doubt that the writers of Dexter do either. Which is part of the show’s appeal — the feather brush of an ax passing by with a giggle.