BUSINESS OF ART: SOCIAL POWER OF ART
This week from the Business of Art Question Vault:
“Are the arts accessible enough for artists to further society and culture?”
Wow … heavy. I wish I would have kept better record of which applicant asked which question. I really see this question as two questions– one being “is art accessible?” and the second being “can art still be used to effect society and culture?”.
In response to accessibility I think it is more a question about education and the importance placed on art by the community. If people are educated at a young age about art and the community they live in is supportive of the arts then they are much more likely to support artistic expression and venues. I don’t think it is about art being accessible. Art is never inaccessible. By this I mean that anyone can go to a gallery or a museum, anyone can go to the theatre or music venue and anyone can go to a book store … but … do you know enough about art to feel comfortable going to any of these places?
I do think that the internet has allowed artistic expression to become more accessible. Sites like Youtube or Vimeo have open the doors for artists to get their work out to the public. The internet has helped many young creative entrepreneurs promote and sell their products through sites like Etsy. People are being given the opportunity to understand creative processes through blogs and how-to videos. It is a great time to be a creative person because of these tools. Creative people now have a platform where they can educate the public about the value of handmade goods.
Let’s move onto the second half of this question– can art result in change? Another huge topic. My personal opinion is yes. I do think that art has the power to effect people, make someone consider something in a new or different way and encourage people to make changes in their life or community. I think the easiest way to illustrate this point is through a few examples.
- I recently watched a Vice TV series about Palestinian filmmaking. The series focuses on a young man working towards educating Palestinian youth about the power of film. The series explains how some Palestinians are using film as an expression of what it is like to grow up in the camps. Obviously Vice has a lot of critics and there are different sides to the Palestinian situation … I am not trying to take a stand with this reference I simply think this series was an interesting showcase of how people living in the Palestinian camps are using film to communicate their experiences.
- On a much less political note I would like to reference a TED Talk by Ze Frank. I watch a lot of TED Talks and one that stands out in relation to this topic is Ze Frank’s 2010 talk, specifically the collaborative music projects. Ze does many interested and weird online collaborative projects but his song written for Laura (mentioned at the end of this talk) was composed of voices from people all over the world telling Laura that “Hey, you’re ok. You’ll be fine. Just breath.”. The idea that strangers came together, took time out of their day, to participate in a creative group collaboration to benefit a stranger is pretty powerful.
- This article on Hyperallergic titled “Can Art Create World Change?” talks about three artists, Claudy Jongstra, Vik Muniz and Olafur Eliasson, who’s work directly effects their local village, their country or many areas around the world.
I hope these artists properly illustrate just some of the power creativity can hold in today’s society. If you have examples of how artists have effected you or your community please post a comment below.
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LAST WEEK AT SPARK BOX
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We had to say good-bye to Kirsten McCrea and J.P. King at the end of last week. The two left to begin their new life in Toronto. They are already off to a great start with a presentation at the Come Up To My Room “Let’s Talk” conference. Last Friday J.P. spoke to the C.U.T.M.R. crowd about his Free Paper Press project (see the video above to find out more about this really cool project).
Luckily, before they headed off we got to have one great event at the house with them. Last Wednesday we hosted a collage party inspired by all the great work J.P. was making while at the studio. To our surprise people were excited about created collaborative collages and we had a great turn out. I plan to scan all the collages that were made and create a collage party pdf book.
With all this going on Kyle and I still managed to finish all of our work and set-up for the upcoming exhibition at the John M. Parrott Art Gallery, which opens this Thursday from 6:00 – 7:30 PM.
Sarah Burwash received some amazing press on two great art websites – the Jealous Curator and Art Hound. She was also kind enough to give Spark Box a really sweet shout-out on both, here is a little bit of what she had to say about her stay so far (taken from the Jealous Curator post):
… it is so blissful to be in a big old house surrounded by corn and hay feilds, it is peaceful and relaxing, and also productive and inspiring. The sun has been out often and the fields are dusted with snow. Chrissy and Kyle who run Spark Box are amazing hosts, light hearted and ambitious pair, they make you feel very comfortable and welcomed and go out of there way for you. I have a large studio space to work, and there is a great library of books from art books, to wild flower books, to old life magazines.
Genna Kusch and Carl Wiens both used the open studio to continue to work on personal projects. Carl worked on a new silkscreen piece from his Swimmer Series (my favourite) and Genna continued working on her woodblock insect pieces (as seen above).
**I would like to thank Genna Kusch for the images she supplied of the Collage Party **
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LETS RAISE ENTREPRENEURS
We love TED talks and these two are very fitting with what we encourage here at Spark Box – thinking outside the box, being creative and getting people interested in the things you make. We have been pouring our collected knowledge into our two guide sites: The Emerging Artist Guide and The Art School Guide that are meant to help artists at all stages of their career.
I found the Cameron Herold video on the site Etsy.com and at first his talk sounded a bit too business for me. With all his references to accounting, market research, revenue, etc. I didn’t see where an artist like myself could relate. But after watching it again I started seeing myself in many of his stories. I started selling my art outside my house when I was 10, I created a handmade dog biscuit business and had pet stores selling them when I was in my last year of high school, I saw that kids had nothing to do in my small town so I convinced a local bar to have a Youth Party night where we could dance until 11 PM when I was 13. Sure I may not be doing all of these things now but my parents always stood behind me, helped me out and encouraged me to pursue my dreams. This has helped me immensely as an artist.
I struggle with seeing myself as a business person on a pretty regular basis. I worry about the typical issues of “selling out”. But the reality is artists make things and they want galleries, people, etc. to show these things or buy them. Even if you make art that isn’t for sale you still need to get galleries interested in showing them. No matter how you try to swing it artists are entrepreneurs. So embrace this notion and find the resources out there that will help you get people to see the awesome things you are making!
ONLINE FINDS: JAPANESE POPSTARS
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We recently found a great video on the Montreal blog BLDG//WLF.
The video gives you an inside look at the animation process of the Japanese Popstars music video “Lets Go”.
SWOON
With an upcoming day workshop in relief printing (July 29) and the screening of the Bansky film “Exit Through the Gift Shop” at the Regent tonight it seemed appropriate to do a short blog about a pretty amazing relief printermaker /street artist in NYC. Her name is Caledonia Dance Curry or better known as Swoon and she has taked the art world by storm with her wheatpaste drawings, large scale installations and fleet of make-shift pirate ships that made sailed down the Mississippi River and crashed the 2009 Venice for the Biennale.
I first found out about Swoon through The Run Up interview series. Her interview was really inspiring because not only is she amazing and talented but you can really feel the passion she has for what she is doing. I think that Swoon is one street artist that illustrates the power of taking art to the streets and making art an experience for everyone to enjoy.
On top of everything else her relief work is absolutely stunning. Each piece is a highly labored portrait of someone she saw in a park, met on the streets or has known for years. These relief prints are detailed, captivating and remarkably well executed!
ART:21 VIDEOS
Here is an amazing documentary series on artists that PBS has produced. We remember first watching these videos in art class and we are excited that they’re now available online as full length videos. These videos focus on contemporary American visual artists. Strongly recommend spending a few hours checking out this series. The videos are just under an hour long and generally each one will focus on a few different themes, such as identity, memory, power and humor.
Check out www.pbs.org/art21/, enjoy some amazing documentaries.
