I already brought up the sticky wicket of the Boutique, but here’s another one for ya: artist collectives. Philadelphia is blessed/cursed with 5 major Art Schools as well as some dozen near-by major universities with fine arts degrees. This city pumps out a LOT of bonafide-certified-genuine artists. And sure, some of them skip off to New York, another segment flit home to their parents to get “real” jobs and never work with the arts again, but there is a stubborn visible portion that takes their chosen field very seriously and attempts to buckle down and make their way in the world as a professional artist in Philadelphia.
Unfortunately, galleries are hard to break into, especially straight out of an undergraduate school. What is a budding artist to do? Why, band together. Form an urban tribe. Rent out some cheap space to work in, and every couple of weeks for a couple of days put on a show with a wicked byo party. The issue? Now what? What are you doing as a collective? Treading water? Putting off the inevitable grad school or real job dilemma? Parlaying a modicum of press and recognition to leapfrog to the more sterile gallery scene? Trying to bust the paradigm and do your own thing? Is this what you want to do with your life?
The issues of the collective are: who are they, how they fit in to the city’s art scene, what they want to accomplish, and why. For the month of October artinbars.com will continue to explore the collective issue, through my own art babbling, interviews with actual artists, and investigations of real local collectives. I hope to facilitate an ongoing discussion, so feel free to jump in with your opinions.
Tags: artists, babbling, big issues, Collectives, October, Sequoia