Visual Arts Town Hall: Envisioning a More Sustainable Arts Community
February 11th, 2009 by eleanor - art and politics bay area blog events news State of the Arts TPG8
Building on the discussion that began with our eighth issue, “State of the Arts“, we’ll be hosting a Visual Arts Town Hall Meeting in Old Oakland Saturday February 21st from 3-5. Moderated by curator Joseph del Pesco, the meeting will be a chance for artists, gallerists, political figures and the public to discuss the way government can influence and support local art production. We’ll share opportunities that already exist and try to identify simple steps to creating a more sustainable visual arts community.
Participants will include: David Huff (Program Coordinator/Curator Pro Arts), V Smoothe (“A Better Oakland” blog Editor ), Mike Bianco (Queens Nails Projects), Christian L. Frock (Invisible Venue), Kerri Johnson (Blankspace Gallery) Svea Lin Vezzone (Swarm Gallery) and artists: Amy Balkin, Steven Barich (Artopic.org), Helena Keeffe, Aaron Gach, Chris Sollars, David Stein
Visual Arts Town Hall
465 Ninth St. Oakland, CA 94607
February 21st: 3-5 pm
1st hour: moderated panel of gallerists, arts administrators, and politicos
coffee and snack break
2nd hour: artists from the State of the Arts project take the “stage” and respond to the panel and audience questions and comments
This event is sponsored in part by PSAI Old Oakland Associates and Southern Exposure
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[...] followup article to the Town Hall Meeting by Angela Woodall appears today in the Oakland Tribune. “Just mention Germany or Sweden and [...]
Thanks!!
I’ve always fantasized about having a great deal more art around town…
-Isaiah
This comment was originally posted on http://www.abetteroakland.com/)”>A Better Oakland
It was my understanding that Ms. Weicker is the donor, although I’m not 100% positive about that. I would love to know why she decided to focus her philanthropy here.
This comment was originally posted on http://www.abetteroakland.com/)”>A Better Oakland
Do we know who the Vermont artist is? Open Circle’s website it lists Dorothy Weicker as a board member, and says that she’s an artist who splits her time between California and Vermont. So even if she’s not the donor herself, she seems likely to be the connection. It might be interesting for someone (a local blogger, perhaps?) to track down our benefactress and ask her about why she chose to use her money this way.
Splitting the money seven ways seems like the right call to me. It’s too bad that so much public art is so lame, and my hope is that if the allocation of the funds is less centralized, then we might be less likely to end up with art that looks like it was designed (or at least selected) by a politically-correct committee of city officials. Maybe that’s unrealistic to hope for, but at least with 7 discrete processes, you stand a higher chance that at least a couple of them are artistically interesting. (Don’t get me wrong — I prefer any public art to no public art at all, but I think we can do better than a lot of the murals and sculptures that we have around the city now.)
This comment was originally posted on http://www.abetteroakland.com/)”>A Better Oakland
Interesting post. I like the idea about distributing the grant money across districts. It’s nice to hear that an artist in Vermont is stepping up to help make our city better. It’s a little difficult to wrap my mind around. It makes me wonder what, if anything, people on a grass roots level can do to encourage benefactors far removed from their community.
I’m looking forward to the Town Hall meeting tomorrow.
This comment was originally posted on http://www.abetteroakland.com/)”>A Better Oakland