Necessary Essential Arts ...

First, a drawing a day for a year: I am sticking to the resolution. I continue to draw, every day. Like breathing, I draw. That’s as it should be.

Next: the NEA. National Endowment for the Arts. Necessary essential arts. Never enough art. Not eliminating arts (funding). All of that. Why am I writing about the NEA, again? It has to do with Wright State University and the re-installation of a great work of art, originally created in 1981, removed some years later, and now recreated, permanently, in the Robert and Elaine Stein Galleries at Wright State.

That work is a piece by the conceptual artist Sol Lewitt, and it was originally funded by a grant from the NEA. Students helped with its creation in 1981, and now in 2017, students and patrons get to enjoy it again. Were it not for the NEA grant, we would not have this very important work available to us. That’s what those grants are for, to allow artists the means and the time and the space and the place to create work, and to allow the public the time, the space, the place, and the opportunity to experience the work.

I am worried about the future of the NEA. It’s funding is always tenuous; it has often been a target of federal budget cutters who want to appear cost conscious. However, the NEA is a tiny, tiny part of the federal budget, and eliminating its funding would have little to no impact on the budget. And it is necessary for our government to support the arts; they should be leading the way.

Have you ever studied life under totalitarian regimes? Those worlds are, almost literally, gray. People dress in subdued clothing, work in drab buildings, stand in line for low quality goods. Art adds color and shape and texture and breath to the world. We need that. We need the NEA. 

  Students working on the original Sol Lewitt wall drawing, 1981.

Support your local arts…

With all the uncertainty surrounding the futures of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), I have been thinking quite a bit about support for the arts. (It should be noted that the NEA and NEH combined are only about 0.003 percent of the federal budget; each received $148 million last year which is not very much.) In fact, according to news sources I consulted, it’s kind of like this: if you make $50, 000 a year, spending the equivalent of what our government spends on the NEA, the NEH, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting combined, it would be like spending less than $10. Holy cow, you say, our federal government spends that little on the arts? Yep.

So, that aside, let’s think locally. I have been thinking locally because I am involved with both the Dayton Visual Arts Center and the Dayton Society of Artists (as well as a few others …). I want both these organizations to be not only useful to artists and art lovers, but vibrant and growing. They serve different and very necessary purposes for the arts in our community.

Currently I have been working on growing sponsorships and memberships for Dayton Society of Artists. This art organization is entering its 79^th year and the last few years have seen new growth with an infusion of younger artists and consequently new ideas. However, it is a non-profit and non-profits can be a little financially tenuous. Thus, we are always seeking additional support.  

New members bring in new members and new ideas and new art and new life. So, those of you – including me of course – who are already DSA members need to seek out other artists who could benefit from our great programs and opportunities to exhibit, in addition to the creative comradery.

For those of you who love the arts and understand how a vibrant bevy of creatives contributes to lively communities, think about becoming a Friend of the Gallery or sponsoring an exhibition award. I am including in this post the information you need if you wish to befriend our gallery at 48 High Street in the St. Anne Historic district. Isn’t it beautiful?

SICK LEAVE AND WHY ARE YOU MAKING THIS?

I didn’t post last week because I was slammed with the gastro illness everyone I know has had. I was too sick to write. Totally recovered now I am ready with some musings on a question I am often asked, and was most recently asked, today.

“Why are you making that? Who is it for?” In my experience it seems many non-artists assume artists only make work when there is a commission. Otherwise, why else would you do it? It is outside their experience to create simply because one is compelled to do so.

Creating is what artists do. Creators is what we are. Making art is so identified with self that we “make” no matter what. Maybe we have a commission, maybe we don’t. We still create. And we will always create, just as long as it is physically possible. 

Have to add one last thing: these images of a bikepath created by Dutch artist Dan Roosegaarde. Located in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, Van Gogh's birthplace, 600 meters of LED lights allude to his most famous painting, Starry Night. Can you see something like this in Dayton? 

http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/11/17/364136732/in-a-dutch-town-a-glowing-bike-path-inspired-by-van-gogh