> KANSAS CITY ORCHESTRA'S LAWSUIT MAY THREATEN ALL MISSOURI ART FUNDING?
Symphony’s suit scaring some arts advocates
They worry that the KC orchestra’s court action jeopardizes their state aid.
By ROBERT TRUSSELL
The Kansas City Star
Leaders at the Kansas City Symphony thought it was time to do the right thing: Force the state of Missouri’s hand and make it live up to its commitments.
But some arts advocates fear that suing the state for $83 million — the amount that the symphony thinks the Missouri Cultural Trust has been shortchanged — may have alienated Gov. Matt Blunt and jeopardized future arts funding.
Mike Vangel, chairman of the Missouri Arts Council, called the lawsuit “ill-advised” and “baffling.”
“From my perspective, they’ve thrown a tantrum and put arts funding for everyone else in jeopardy,” Vangel said.
Janette Lohman, a St. Louis lawyer who is the president of Missouri Citizens for the Arts, a nonprofit lobbying group, said she had no advance warning about the lawsuit.
“If I had, I would have been on my knees begging them not to,” Lohman said. “There is not a single arts advocate in Missouri who would not advocate fully funding the trust. What amazes me is that Governor Blunt and his administration have all been working very closely with the arts organizations and the Missouri Arts Council to try and increase the funding.”
Since the lawsuit was filed last week in Cole County Circuit Court, word has rippled through nonprofit arts organizations across the state that the governor’s office had sent a message: All potential arts funding in the budget that the governor will announce on Jan. 24 has been withdrawn from consideration.
“The word I received from the governor’s staff was that when the lawsuit was filed, all the funds were off the table until further review,” said arts lobbyist Kyna Iman. “That has not been made official.”
Jessica Robinson, a spokeswoman for the governor, said she had no direct knowledge of any communication between the staff and arts advocates after the lawsuit. She added that the budget had not been finalized and that all funding proposals were still “on the table.”
She did suggest, however, that arts funding could be held back if the lawsuit dragged out for years.
“That is a potential,” she said. “The bottom line is that Governor Blunt has made a commitment to make sure that dedicated taxes are directed to the appropriate recipients.”
The Missouri Cultural Trust was created by statute in 1993. It was intended to be an endowment for the arts council and is funded by personal income taxes collected from out-of-state professional athletes and entertainers.
The legislation allows the General Assembly to transfer as much as $10 million a year into the trust with the goal of reaching $100 million to make the arts council self-sustaining.
But the annual transfers never approached $10 million. The previous governor, Bob Holden, faced with huge budget deficits, cut all funding to the trust for three consecutive years and in one of those years eliminated any money for the arts council.
The lawsuit argues that the payments into the trust are legal requirements, not options.
“We’re simply asking that everyone just follow the law,” said Frank Byrne, the symphony’s executive director. “The symphony took this step very reluctantly … but I think it was a sense of responsibility about the long-term security of the arts. … Sometimes someone has to step forward and take action.”
Marc Wilson, executive director of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, said he supported the lawsuit as a “statement of a moral position” and dismissed any threats to cut future arts funding as “childish.”
Jeff Bentley, the Kansas City Ballet’s executive director, said he understood the reactions of concern to the lawsuit.
“I wouldn’t want to see anything signaled to the governor that we didn’t appreciate the movement forward that (he has) shown quite clearly,” Bentley said. “On the other hand, it was something the legislature passed. It was a requirement, not a suggestion.”
But Vangel said he could appreciate the governor’s position.
“Just speaking as a citizen, it’s kind of hard for me to imagine the state is going to fund the arts when they’re being sued by the arts,” he said.
On Wednesday, Vangel wrote Blunt that the boards of the arts council and cultural trust viewed the “ill-advised, unilateral” lawsuit as a threat to the “spirit of cooperation” that the governor had forged with the arts community.
The episode has left Lohman with mixed emotions because of her respect for the symphony.
“The Kansas City Symphony is a pillar in the arts community,” she said. “That’s why we’re all in shock. Obviously they have their reasons, and obviously we are 100 percent behind them in wanting to get the trust funded. We just don’t agree with the method.”
Friday, January 05, 2007
January 2007 Page 3
> A NEW BOOK WORTH READING
"Letters to a Young Artist"
Darte Publishing, New York
96 pages
$15 paperback
This book of 23 letters to a "young artist" seeking career advice from successful older ones (e.g. Gregory Amenoff, Jo Baer, Alex Katz, Adrian Piper, Elizabeth Murray, John Baldessari et al) would be a useful read in these days of so many artists wandering around in the commercialized wilderness of concept and technique.
In 20 years of private work with artists who, having created art which they believe is worthy, find it desirable or necessary to either "market" or be "recognized" (two VERY ambiguous words :-) for it, some of the advice offered in this book may not resolve either of those two common objectives, but it may make it easier to accept the consequences of making the effort.
From what I've seen of the book, it has some extremely good suggestions... which very few will heed, but ought to.
"Letters to a Young Artist"
Darte Publishing, New York
96 pages
$15 paperback
This book of 23 letters to a "young artist" seeking career advice from successful older ones (e.g. Gregory Amenoff, Jo Baer, Alex Katz, Adrian Piper, Elizabeth Murray, John Baldessari et al) would be a useful read in these days of so many artists wandering around in the commercialized wilderness of concept and technique.
In 20 years of private work with artists who, having created art which they believe is worthy, find it desirable or necessary to either "market" or be "recognized" (two VERY ambiguous words :-) for it, some of the advice offered in this book may not resolve either of those two common objectives, but it may make it easier to accept the consequences of making the effort.
From what I've seen of the book, it has some extremely good suggestions... which very few will heed, but ought to.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
January 2007 Page 2
> "TEMPTATIONS OF THE [ART] FAIR"
Peter Schjeldahl wrote (NEW YORKER magazine, Dec 25 - Jan 1, 2007 issue, page 148):
"In contemporary art, this is the decade of the fair, as the nineties were the decade of the biennial. Collectors, with piles of money, have displaced curators, with institutional clout, as arbiters of how new art becomes known and rated, and therefore of what it can mean: less and less, after qualifying as the platonic consumer good."
The entire two-page article is well worth reading, and archving, for any aspiring working artist.
I might add to his comment that "Educators" are ALSO well along in the process of displacing curators in museums; some of which have either eliminated curatorial positions entirely (as at the Norman Rockwell), or have subjugated curators to the whims and fads of socially engineered so-called "Education" in selection and presentation of exhibitions (as at the Brooklyn Museum.)
If what the author says is true, and I believe it is largely true, then artists need to aim their marketing approaches at Collectors with "piles of money" and at the dealers who service them.
> AUTOMATION '07
Exhibition runs January 6 through January 20, 2007
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 6, 2007 6PM - 10PM
From the birthplace of the automobile, and in concurrence with the 2007 North America International Auto Show, the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit (CAID) presents Automation '07, the show that takes a look at the big idea that really got the Motor City rolling.
"Our material environment, aesthetics, and culture are dominated by the output of automation", says Exhibition Coordinator, Sambuddha Saha. "For the last century, systems of economic production and consumption have been underpinned by the ability to manufacture repeatable products in marketable volumes to predictable standards of quality. Abstraction, repetition, aggregation, encapsulation, order, and mass are some of the underlying principles on which modern work, leisure, society, and environment are organized and managed".
As the dominant modes of economic production and industrial organization mutate, adapt, and evolve, we search for our place in the new order of things. CAID has challenged the artistic community to pause, reflect on, recast, and reinvent the technologies that were once taken for granted. CAID invites the people of Detroit and its vast motor hinterland to join them in a skeptical celebration of the automated life.
Automation opens to the public on January 6 and runs through January 20 and will feature the work of Andrew Thompson, Oak Park, Michigan; Brandon Vickerd, Toronto, Ontario; Charles Fairbanks & Adrienne Vetter, Ann Arbor, Michigan; David Bowen, Deluth, Minnesota; Deva Eveland, Chicago, Illinois; Erin Swanson, Indianapolis, Indiana; Frank Pahl, Wyandotte, Michigan; Katharine Liesen, Detroit, Michigan; Melissa Machnee, Canton, Michigan; Mike Richison, Oak Park, Michigan; Moshe Quinn, San Francisco, California; Ryan Buyssens, Tawas City, Michigan; Tectonic Industries, St Paul, Minnesota; Teresa Petersen, Detroit, Michigan; and Tyler Bohm, Columbus, Ohio.
An opening reception to meet the artists will be held on January 6 from 6PM to 10PM. The reception is free and open to the public.
The Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit is open Saturdays from 12pm to 6pm or by appointment. Groups and classes are welcome. CAID is located in the Woodbridge Historic District at 5141 Rosa Parks Blvd, (two blocks north of Warren Avenue, two blocks south of the I-94 expressway, three blocks west of Trumbull Blvd.) Admission to the exhibition is free and free on street parking is available.
For further details, contact the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit:
5141 Rosa Parks Boulevard
Detroit, Michigan 48208
313.899.CAID
info@thecaid.org
www.thecaid.org
Peter Schjeldahl wrote (NEW YORKER magazine, Dec 25 - Jan 1, 2007 issue, page 148):
"In contemporary art, this is the decade of the fair, as the nineties were the decade of the biennial. Collectors, with piles of money, have displaced curators, with institutional clout, as arbiters of how new art becomes known and rated, and therefore of what it can mean: less and less, after qualifying as the platonic consumer good."
The entire two-page article is well worth reading, and archving, for any aspiring working artist.
I might add to his comment that "Educators" are ALSO well along in the process of displacing curators in museums; some of which have either eliminated curatorial positions entirely (as at the Norman Rockwell), or have subjugated curators to the whims and fads of socially engineered so-called "Education" in selection and presentation of exhibitions (as at the Brooklyn Museum.)
If what the author says is true, and I believe it is largely true, then artists need to aim their marketing approaches at Collectors with "piles of money" and at the dealers who service them.
> AUTOMATION '07
Exhibition runs January 6 through January 20, 2007
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 6, 2007 6PM - 10PM
From the birthplace of the automobile, and in concurrence with the 2007 North America International Auto Show, the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit (CAID) presents Automation '07, the show that takes a look at the big idea that really got the Motor City rolling.
"Our material environment, aesthetics, and culture are dominated by the output of automation", says Exhibition Coordinator, Sambuddha Saha. "For the last century, systems of economic production and consumption have been underpinned by the ability to manufacture repeatable products in marketable volumes to predictable standards of quality. Abstraction, repetition, aggregation, encapsulation, order, and mass are some of the underlying principles on which modern work, leisure, society, and environment are organized and managed".
As the dominant modes of economic production and industrial organization mutate, adapt, and evolve, we search for our place in the new order of things. CAID has challenged the artistic community to pause, reflect on, recast, and reinvent the technologies that were once taken for granted. CAID invites the people of Detroit and its vast motor hinterland to join them in a skeptical celebration of the automated life.
Automation opens to the public on January 6 and runs through January 20 and will feature the work of Andrew Thompson, Oak Park, Michigan; Brandon Vickerd, Toronto, Ontario; Charles Fairbanks & Adrienne Vetter, Ann Arbor, Michigan; David Bowen, Deluth, Minnesota; Deva Eveland, Chicago, Illinois; Erin Swanson, Indianapolis, Indiana; Frank Pahl, Wyandotte, Michigan; Katharine Liesen, Detroit, Michigan; Melissa Machnee, Canton, Michigan; Mike Richison, Oak Park, Michigan; Moshe Quinn, San Francisco, California; Ryan Buyssens, Tawas City, Michigan; Tectonic Industries, St Paul, Minnesota; Teresa Petersen, Detroit, Michigan; and Tyler Bohm, Columbus, Ohio.
An opening reception to meet the artists will be held on January 6 from 6PM to 10PM. The reception is free and open to the public.
The Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit is open Saturdays from 12pm to 6pm or by appointment. Groups and classes are welcome. CAID is located in the Woodbridge Historic District at 5141 Rosa Parks Blvd, (two blocks north of Warren Avenue, two blocks south of the I-94 expressway, three blocks west of Trumbull Blvd.) Admission to the exhibition is free and free on street parking is available.
For further details, contact the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit:
5141 Rosa Parks Boulevard
Detroit, Michigan 48208
313.899.CAID
info@thecaid.org
www.thecaid.org
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Volume 7 Number 1 January 2007
> MISSOURI ARTS COUNCIL
MAC welcomes notifications about artist opportunities, conferences/workshops, and arts-related job postings for MACnotes. Please send submissions to Keiko C. Ishida at least two months in advance of the opportunity or registration deadline and workshop date. Submissions will be published if space allows and may be edited. If you have any feedback on MACnotes, please contact Keiko C. Ishida at toll free 866/407-4752, 314/340-6845, or keiko.ishida@ded.mo.gov.
Missouri Arts Council, a division of the Department of Economic Development, annually awards approximately $2 million in grants to 400 Missouri organizations for their art activities. As public leader, partner, and catalyst, MAC is dedicated to broadening the appreciation and availability of the arts in the state, and fostering the diversity, vitality, and excellence of Missouri's communities, economy, and cultural heritage.
Missouri Arts Council | NEW ADDRESS: 815 Olive Street, Suite 16, St. Louis, MO 63101-1503
314/340-6845 | Toll-Free: 866/407-4752 | TDD 800/735-2966 | Fax 314/340-7215 | www.missouriartscouncil.org
MAC welcomes notifications about artist opportunities, conferences/workshops, and arts-related job postings for MACnotes. Please send submissions to Keiko C. Ishida at least two months in advance of the opportunity or registration deadline and workshop date. Submissions will be published if space allows and may be edited. If you have any feedback on MACnotes, please contact Keiko C. Ishida at toll free 866/407-4752, 314/340-6845, or keiko.ishida@ded.mo.gov.
Missouri Arts Council, a division of the Department of Economic Development, annually awards approximately $2 million in grants to 400 Missouri organizations for their art activities. As public leader, partner, and catalyst, MAC is dedicated to broadening the appreciation and availability of the arts in the state, and fostering the diversity, vitality, and excellence of Missouri's communities, economy, and cultural heritage.
Missouri Arts Council | NEW ADDRESS: 815 Olive Street, Suite 16, St. Louis, MO 63101-1503
314/340-6845 | Toll-Free: 866/407-4752 | TDD 800/735-2966 | Fax 314/340-7215 | www.missouriartscouncil.org
Sunday, December 31, 2006
December 2006 Page 22
> LEGENDARY ART DEALER PASSES
Allan Stone is gone. Of all the dealers I met or came to know, he was, without doubt, the finest in every sense. His legacy will continue to unfold in coming decades.
-------------
From: artnet.com Magazine
ALLAN STONE, 1932-2006
by Oriane Stender
When Allan Stone died at 74 on Dec. 15, 2006, the art world lost a passionate, funny and big-hearted collector, as well as an art dealer with a discerning eye and a long-standing enthusiasm for the work of emerging artists. I know this from personal experience. Allan was the first person to buy my own work, about 10 years ago, purchasing not one but six pieces of mine -- he liked to get in on the ground floor and buy in volume! The support, encouragement and validation that I got from that first sale to a man who was a serious art-world collector have stayed with me to this day.
Many other young artists got their first break thanks to Allan Stone. He was instrumental in the early career of Eva Hesse, showing her drawings in the U.S. for the first time in 1963, and was an early supporter and collector of the work of Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Joseph Cornell and John Graham, among others. Allan’s tastes were famously eclectic and wide-ranging. An acknowledged expert on Abstract Expressionism, he also gave Wayne Thiebaud and Richard Estes their first New York shows and represented them for many years.
A grandson of Sam Klein (of the now-defunct landmark Union Square department store "S. Klein’s on the Square"), Allan was a collector who entered the gallery business to support his collecting habit. In addition to modern and contemporary art, he was a voracious collector of African, tribal and folk art. Many knew him as a maverick dealer with an unorthodox but unerring eye, but I remember Allan as a warm, down-to-earth, unpretentious and generous man who lived large and had large appetites. He loved playing tennis, meeting interesting people, telling a good story, hearing a good joke, making large informal dinners with friends and family, and seeking out sweets of all kinds.
He was not ill before he died in his sleep last week. On the contrary, he had just returned from Miami, where his gallery participated in Art Basel Miami Beach, full of energy and optimism for the future. He is survived by his wife Clare; daughters Allison, Jeremy, Claudia, Heather, Jessie and Olympia; brother Richard and sister Marilyn Siegel; and many friends in New York, San Francisco and Maine and around the world. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him.
ORIANE STENDER is a Brooklyn-based artist and writer.
Allan Stone is gone. Of all the dealers I met or came to know, he was, without doubt, the finest in every sense. His legacy will continue to unfold in coming decades.
-------------
From: artnet.com Magazine
ALLAN STONE, 1932-2006
by Oriane Stender
When Allan Stone died at 74 on Dec. 15, 2006, the art world lost a passionate, funny and big-hearted collector, as well as an art dealer with a discerning eye and a long-standing enthusiasm for the work of emerging artists. I know this from personal experience. Allan was the first person to buy my own work, about 10 years ago, purchasing not one but six pieces of mine -- he liked to get in on the ground floor and buy in volume! The support, encouragement and validation that I got from that first sale to a man who was a serious art-world collector have stayed with me to this day.
Many other young artists got their first break thanks to Allan Stone. He was instrumental in the early career of Eva Hesse, showing her drawings in the U.S. for the first time in 1963, and was an early supporter and collector of the work of Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Joseph Cornell and John Graham, among others. Allan’s tastes were famously eclectic and wide-ranging. An acknowledged expert on Abstract Expressionism, he also gave Wayne Thiebaud and Richard Estes their first New York shows and represented them for many years.
A grandson of Sam Klein (of the now-defunct landmark Union Square department store "S. Klein’s on the Square"), Allan was a collector who entered the gallery business to support his collecting habit. In addition to modern and contemporary art, he was a voracious collector of African, tribal and folk art. Many knew him as a maverick dealer with an unorthodox but unerring eye, but I remember Allan as a warm, down-to-earth, unpretentious and generous man who lived large and had large appetites. He loved playing tennis, meeting interesting people, telling a good story, hearing a good joke, making large informal dinners with friends and family, and seeking out sweets of all kinds.
He was not ill before he died in his sleep last week. On the contrary, he had just returned from Miami, where his gallery participated in Art Basel Miami Beach, full of energy and optimism for the future. He is survived by his wife Clare; daughters Allison, Jeremy, Claudia, Heather, Jessie and Olympia; brother Richard and sister Marilyn Siegel; and many friends in New York, San Francisco and Maine and around the world. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him.
ORIANE STENDER is a Brooklyn-based artist and writer.
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