Height of the storm
All over the country, the idea of the subsidized life for art and culture seems to be fading. For libraries, artists, writers, journalists, filmmakers, academics, small farmers, museums and foundations, resources are shrinking, and creative people do not have a lobby in Washington, alas.
Generally, the story is one of great lament – how can we survive? Nobody wants to buy our work. No one is buying it. No one seems to care what we do, or feel our work is important to a world driven nearly mad by insecurity, greed and fear. What will become of us?
The elaborate system of publishing, galleries, teaching positions, grants and government subsidies are out of fashion, not only disappearing but the idea of subsidizing culture is now almost violently opposed by politicians in power. During the Depression, the idea that art and writing and artists and writers needed to be supported and given outlets for their work was enormously popular, and some great works of public and private art still grace our lives and post offices and public squares. Even poor people struggling through the Depression elevated the idea of art and writing and sarificed to support it. In the Great Recession, there is a different idea. There is no public will to fund art. So art is on its own and has to find its own way back. Writers are not nursed for years, and artists are not protected by galleries.
I think creative people need a new story – not one of lament and struggle. Gallery 99 – Art In The Public Eye – is, to me, a great leap in that direction. Creative people are getting creative all over the country – changing fixed notions about galleries, marketing and technology.
I’ll be giving a talk there on February 11, in the Empire State Theatre on South Street in Glens Falls – 6 p.m. on “Creativity and Change” and I hope to talk about the need for creative people to conjure up a new vision, a new story for themselves. The show will feature gifted artists from Washington and Warren Counties upstate and will run for several days in the beautifully restored Empire State Theatre building. Artists will be offering good words inexpensively – for less than $99. I will be selling photographs and notecards and Maria is bringing quilts and sketch-based potholders and other stuff.
I’m excited to be a part of it. I think it’s part of a revolution in the way creativity is marketed to people. And a step towards reconnecting people with art and reminding them why art is important. I’ll be hanging around all weekend.
I’m finally firming up all the details on the Library Tour, underway next Sunday. I’ve now got all the spellings, times, dates and places right. Librarians are touchy about correct spellings.
The Loving Libraries Tour stars off at the end of this week – January 23, Sunday, 2 p.m., at the Pember Library, Granville, N.Y. Tuesday. Talk. I don’t believe the library is selling books, but if you bring yours, I’ll happily sign them. Anything else you wish signed, as well.We will also be selling notecards to benefit libraries and family farms. Maria will be helping me, and doing sketches of the tour, which she will turn into potholders.
No dogs are coming with me on the library tour.
Then:
Monday, January 24, 6:30, Community Library, Cobleskill, N.Y.
Tuesday, January 25, 6 p.m. Scoville Free Library (one of the nation’s oldest), Salisbury, Conn. Talk and signing.
Wednesday, January 26: 7 p.m., Free Library of Northampton, Pa., Richboro, Pa. Talk and signing.
Thursday, January 27, 7 p.m. Providence Public Library, Rochambeau Branch (Hope Street). Where I became a writer.
Friday, January 28, 2 p.m. Osterville Public Library, Osterville, Mass. Talk and signing.
Friday, January 28, 7 p.m. Scituate Town Library. Talk and signing.
Saturday, January 29, 2 p.m. Edgartown Library, Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.
Monday, January 31, Jury Duty, Washington County, N.Y.