Last Thursday, March 26th, attended a panel discussion at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago which featured Joyce Owens, Lowell Thompson, Natalie Moore, Andre Guichard and Patrick Rivers, organized by Quiana Burwell, all discussing the notion of the "Invisible Artist: Creators from Chicago's Southside."
First, in the disclaimer department I'm a northsider (and a Cubs fan) born and bred.<
The genesis for the panel was the notion that at the School of the Art Institute students are not pointed or directed to art, artists and art-life on the south side of Chicago. The short answer is that there very much is life, art, artists and art-life south of Roosevelt Road. The long answer as to why the art-school and general public at large have a different and possibly negative perception lies in a multitude of answers, many of which are racist and which I won't go into here.
I want rather to look at the question that Quiana posed which is why did the school not point its majority and minority students south of Roosevelt. My thought is that perhaps it would have been nice, but it is my general unscientific not backed up by any type of data but just anecdotes that the Art Institute and its school are not interested in Chicago art. The school is a machine for matriculating and graduating huge numbers of artists who then make whatever way they can in the world, as artists or not.
I also posit that art schools and major art institutions have serious significant relationships with power, be that money and politics. All I had to do was look out the window of the room that the panel was held in, the former ballroom of the former Chicago Athletic Club to see the Pritzker fountain to the left and immediately across the street to the main entrance of the Art Institute itself, where when you walk in, you are flanked by the bronze plaques of the donors and major endowers of the place, Swift, Armor, Medill, Patterson, some of whose fortunes were made on the backs of underpaid, under-privileged migrants the world over.
Which brings me to my next point, we were all, all of us, so privileged to be there, to be able to complain, while we still live in one of the most prosperous countries on earth, have full bellies, have the means to make art and to try to sell it, under the auspices of an art-school that has a director of multi-cultural affairs as a panel leader.
It occurs to me that my African-American artist brothers and sisters want the same things I want, the means to make art and the means to sell it, to gain some recognition for it. Bless us all.
7 comments:
Powerful post!BR/BR/Powerful points!BR/BR/And yes, we all just want to be able to make our work and make a living while doing it!
You know, I don't say this too often, but I am just three generations away from family who lived in a house with a dirt floor (in the shtetl in Ukraine) AND from illiterate women (they couldn't afford to educate them).
I think the entire panel discussion on The Invisible Artists on the Southside of Chicago was interesting. Is it just my impression that some of them did not have a clue as to what Joyce, Andre, and Lowell were talking about? But it is definite that something has to be done about it, and we cannot rely on a magic wand. BR/ BR/It just so happens that tonight I watched a wonderful episode called Ñ Beat, with Theresa Gutierrez. http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=resources/inside_station/station_infoamp;id=6707511BR/She profiled the men and women who have brought prominence and prestige to Chicago#39;s Latino fashion community. They are always talking themselves up; making everyone aware of their successes in the arts. We do too, but not to the extent that we should. I too am one of the guilty ones. I have been exhibiting my art here in Chicago on the south side since 1972 and at times it seems as though my art has barely left my basement. I listen extensively to the news and to news programs. (I think I#39;ve become a news junky.) I cannot recall any of our African American broadcasters tooting horns about the African American visual artists in Chicago. Never has our Doug Banks, Bill Campbell, Oprah Winfrey, ever talked about the work that our visual artists produce. We know our Black playwrights, writers, musicians, actors, dancers, and TV personalities, they#39;re publicized everyday. We spend just as much time perfecting and honing our craft as they do. Just because we are not Richard Hunts, we have things to say and it is not just something to hang on our walls to make our homes look pretty. BR/ BR/It would do us good to have a TV special or better yet, a cable TV channel dedicated to the quot;Invisible Artistsquot; not just our art but what goes into creating and producing our art and why, so that we artists and our southside art will not remain blank canvases to the rest of the world. We#39;ve come a long way since the 70#39;s when most of our work was focused on the plights of our Black community when we were not recognized for our landscapes, still lifes, abstracts, or crafts. Though we weren#39;t wrong then and we#39;re not wrong now. We#39;ve come a long way, baby and it is time we made some noise. BR/ BR/What I would like to see is for us to have more opportunities to talk about our work and interact with art lovers rather than allow them to spend two to three minutes glancing at our work while we secretly cross our fingers behind our backs waiting for a sale.
Patricia, I like the idea you're proposing, it's sort of a "teach-in." Instead of directing visitors to our studios because we have an open house, they are invited to look, think, talk to the artist, have the artist and the viewers engage in a conversation.
You're right, it's not that complicated, Black artists from the south side want the same things their White counterparts on the north side want....i thought your comment was right on point.
Thank you James. I do wish that the Art Institute and the MCA show-cased more of their native sons and daughters.
I understand your points Patricia, and I agree with some. But journalists such as Harry Porterfield and Cheryl Burton have featured artists on the air. Burton did a feature on Gallery Guichard and had our live work on the show. The only other recourse we have is public television. I saw Lowell's Obama piece on ArtBeat a couple of days ago. br /br /The features have to bring ad revenue. Everything is about the benjamins, especially in the art world. If you don't sell, you are likely not going to show again at galleries.br /br /Regretfully, most artists, including me did not learn we were in business. br /Most of us simply learned to make the best art we can!
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