State of the Arts: Fort Collins

Alternate title: Still Nothing There. (Part Two)
Naming no names.

Flying over a flyover state.

My lack of interest in this blog is a good indicator of my opinions of the current state of the arts in ole Fort Collins. All too often, the community's lack luster reception of contemporary art makes it a frustrating and unrewarding experience for the artist. (At least for this artist - I speak for myself only.) The avant-garde is shunned, any artwork that is too unusual, too challenging, or different, is scoffed at, or worse, ignored. There is a serious lack of critical thinking on art, and a total lack of good dialogue going on in this town. Luckily, there IS some great work coming out of the region, there are many great artists in this town, and a few fabulous galleries. It's the reception of the art works, the faked interest, that undermines my efforts to expand my communications with my local audience. Why bother? There is nothing, or rather, no one there.

Further proving my point was the hype around the hiring of a new 'arts and entertainment' writer at our local paper. This has again proven to be a disappointment. This writer's youth, (evidenced by her twitter TL) and her lack of knowledge in the arts, (probably due to a lack of education in the area) is obvious in her writing.  It is a lack of respect for the discipline, knowing what it is to be an artist, how art is made and what makes a good gallery/museum/exhibition.  The in-ability to articulate well to the reading public, to contribute meaningful dialogue to the discourse of contemporary art, is a dis-service to the reading public, and has only managed to maintain the "blah", status quo of Fort Collins' art scene.

Photo by Alex Kuznetsov, http://www.calgarygemshow.com/2012/02/nothing-rock-shop/

I have not completely lost hope, however. Nothing motivates me more than a challenge. I do have high hopes for the Fort Collins Museum of Art with the hiring of a new executive director. Patience will be needed however, as it will take several years to see the changes in the exhibitions. Other bright spots in our local art scene include the growing group of artists active in promoting a vibrant art scene. It is not an over intellectualized state of mind that I am craving, rather a curious disposition, a mind full of wonder and a spirit engaged in raising the bar, expanding ideas, and through these interactions gaining a greater understanding of one's self, one's community and the world.

"Somewhere over the Rainbow" photo by Laura Cofrin, 2014

To see the previous post regarding my ongoing struggle with the local art scene,
please click here.

Unsettled Landscapes, a new take on the biennial at SITE Santa Fe

I had the great experience of attending the opening festivities of the new biennial at SITE Santa Fe. This was a "radical rethinking" of the biennial model, and a rebirth for the show after a 4 year hiatus. The process of re-evaluating the biennial model was instigated with Irene Hoffman's arrival in 2010 as the new director and chief curator at SITE. With this change in leadership, there was a critical re-evaluation of the institution, and the concenus was that a change was needed in the biennial exhibition. There have been umpteen other biennials that have sprung up around the globe since the first Biennial show at SITE in 1995, and these shows have become just another venue for the commoditification of the arts. SITE's leaders wanted to find a way to create a more sustained engagement, a more art (and artist) centric, engaged platform, a furthering of research in the creative arts of our times. It was a collaborative curation, with the involvement of Janet Dees (SITE Curator of Special Projects), and two other guest curators, Candice Hopkins (from Canada) and Lucia Sanroman (from Mexico). The idea of focusing on the Western Hemisphere was hatched and the ideas for the show percolated from the artworks.  The structure of the biennial was changed into a six year process, a tri-biennial, if you will, with the next three exhibits over six years exploring the ideas behind the new title, "SITELINES; New Perspectives on Art in the Americas".
This year's theme, "Unsettled Landscapes" came from the artists' ideas, and the works, and it became apparent after much discussion and dialogue with experts and other consultants that there was a a changing idea about landscape. "Landscape is not neutral", Hopkins says, and the idea of "landscape as a form of alibi" was raised by Sanroman. There are many political and social ideas in our perceptions of landscape, including occluded histories, native issues and ongoing imperialist and colonialist issues. The curators did not want the show to be yet another colonialist gesture, and much "deep time" was spent with the works, the show and the place. This slow contemplation is balanced with the current state of urgency that is needed in the arts in all parts of the Americas. There currently may be inclusion in the art world for many artists coming from non-traditional locations, but there still needs to be an equalization across the board, an up-ending to conventions and an unsettling of ideas. This will bring the arts into the future. It's an Unsettled Landscape for sure.

Change and State of the Arts in Northern Colorado

"It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad." ~C. S. Lewis
Image by surrealist painter Rene Magritte

Change is good, although some may resist it, others resent it, but none can avoid it. Growth can be a painful experience but only through change can one achieve progress.

At this juncture, Valhall Arts is undergoing a shift in the way it operates. Going forward, the gallery will no longer be showcasing other artists, but instead will serve as the working exhibition space for Laura Brent, the artist. I am hanging up my 'gallery director' and 'curator' hats for the time being. This change was brought on by the ever increasing demands on time and a prioritization of my artwork above the running of a gallery, and promoting contemporary art to Fort Collins.

The general climate in this area has been lukewarm in its support of the arts in general, and icy-cold when it comes to interest in contemporary art. Due to this lack luster reception of contemporary art in Fort Collins, I will be putting my energies into art creation, and distribution/exposure to other areas of the country. The gallery will still be open during the First Friday Gallery Walks, held the first Friday of every month, 6-9 pm, and my contemporary artworks will still be shown, however the shows will be a looser arrangement of current projects in process, instead of juried, group, curated exhibitions.

Why is there this lack of interest in the arts in Fort Collins? There are those in the community who would have this be an arts destination in the spirit of Santa Fe, but we have a long way to go to reach this high ideal, and need a better foundation, and extensive improvements in the types and qualities of artworks created, exhibited and received in our town, to make this goal a reality. There is a superficial embracing of the arts, and misguided support by a local (unnamed) arts promotional group. There are too many resources and dollars spent supporting art activities that do nothing to create lasting effects for the art community. The program supporting street entertainments over the past few summers, is, in my mind, a flip-flop of how this sort of thing should work. These opportunities, if made available to working performers through legislation, could actually generate income for the city (through license fees, for example). Instead, funds were spent to promote buskers to bring their entertainments to the migrant visitors to our city. Instead, these resources could have been better spent supporting local, existing, organizations to build a permanent infrastructure and take us further down the road toward our goal of being an "Art Town".

The wealthy donors in the region, those who give generously to these promotional organizations do not seem interested in supporting the arts, or there is a lack of understanding of art historical models and metropolitan art cultures. We do have our newly built (and almost completed) history and science museum, and the university has a wonderful arts center with world class performing and visual arts. But the private sector in general, the visual arts field in particular, is filled with amateur/hobbyist infused art co-operatives, and a few remaining commercial galleries, each offering the expected 'western' souvenirs, (landscape paintings and photographs of aspen trees in their fall colors), these mundane and tired artworks, offering little in the advancement of the arts. Art can expand one's mind, bring the world to one's community and teach us something of ourselves and our culture. Instead, it seems, our community is only interested in being entertained.

Why this lack of diversity and interest in the arts? Is this due to an un-enlightened or un-educated art audience? With the higher educational institutions in our town, I would expect a better informed audience, with a more diverse understanding of art history and the cultural importance of showing important works to enhance of our local community. How else are we to achieve our goals, without high quality institutions and private organizations to bring this to the public? How can these organizations survive with out the support and commitment from the public?

I've been smelling something funny in my local art scene, a rotten egg is among us, and only through change can we become the bird we hope to be and fly into the future to become an art destination. At this point its all just scrambled, and I am ready for the next change.