Hello World

The Rose is closing down. The annual at the DeCordova is going Biannual. Bill Arning is leaving for TX. John Updike dies. Bottom feeder mass market galleries are even closing. The LEF is not going to give money to artists anymore. The ICA just gave an award to an employee of a major gallery- whose owner happens to be on the ICA's board- and had the least interesting work in the competition. The art world is in transition locally.

Scotch whisky is looking like a good idea right about now. But seriously, there seems to be a need for some serious soul searching in the Boston Art scene. BRS and Greg Cook are talking about it. The more I learn about other cities, I find that Boston has per-capita the worst art scene around. I don't blame the substantial presence of NY in our backyard for the lack of exhibition space here. Contributing causes could be the price of real estate and the number of schools in the area. Or, it could be some melange of issues that will never be overcome.

I, and others need to be very exact when speaking about this issue. We could start by taking stock in what we have. We have numerous commercial galleries in Boston. They are diverse no matter how much people complain about them. No one should confuse the Nielsen, GASP, Sampson, and Diamond-Newman galleries.

One could complain about large local institute/museums- Phillips Andover, The Davis, DeCordova, The Rose, or the ICA for examples but in reality we have quite a few great local groups that put on pretty good shows. The most obvious one, the MFA has lots of great unnoticed shows, and if bringing in boring blockbusters to advertise on the sides of buses for tourists is how they pay their bills, so be it. And we haven't even talked about Harvard, BC, BU, SMFA, Tufts, Simmons, MIT, etc which at any given time one will have a knock you out show that will not be seen elsewhere.

Now we get to the other spaces. Non-commercial, institute, musuem or educational spaces. Other. The great missing link in Boston in my opinion. Boston proper is enclosed by spaces like Essex, the Danforth, or the South Shore. All three have a balance of classes, exhibitions, and bill paying worries. All three would love to see a proposal for exhibition. All three would love if you took or taught a class. And all three are often wrongly overlooked as they don't have a singular driving force that is obvious from the outside.

We lost artSpace@16 last summer. And that left a hole in Boston's fabric. We have the Berwick, and I for one believe we need more non-profit oranizations like the Berwick. Totally divorced from relying on classes for their money. Founded by someone or a group who means well with a singular focus. There are micro-locations in town with the Distillery or FPAC that have local members to serve, but always take proposals. Are there other places? Does the BCA counts as other and how does it take proposals? I'm running out of "other" here. And that I think is the problem. If you are not a prof/student or a member of a commercial gallery the next best thing is for you to start your own space?

If there is a lack of space, and this is something that people truly care about, than our goal should be to find each other and make something happen. Similar to Pure from 2006. To use an example from history, we are in the same place that Bambaataa was before he created the Zulu Nation. No one really cares about what artists are doing in Boston, so let's make it happen on our own. Let's put our time to good use and work together. I'll let you know when I have a good idea. For now, just taking stock is a good start.