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Collaborative activist art: A case study
Hanes, Jay Michael, Ph.D.
The Ohio State University, 1994
Copyright ©1995 by Hanes, Jay Michael. AH ri^ ts reserved.
UMI 300 N. Zeeb Rd. Ann Arbor, MI 48106
COLLABORATIVE ACTIVIST ART: A CASE STUDY
DISSERTATION
Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate
School of The Ohio State University
By
Jay Michael Hanes, B.F.A., M.S.
*****
The Ohio State University
1994
Dissertation Committee: Approved by
D.H. Krug
M.J. Parsons
P.L. Stuhr Department of Art Education DEDICATION ro Michael Hawk Weisman and all of the children of present and future societies.
I want to be with people who submerge in the task, who go into the field to harvest and work in a row and pass the bags along, who stand in the line and haul in their places, who are not parlor generals and field deserters but move in a common rhythm when the food must come in or the fire be put out.
from the poem To he o f use. Marge Piercy ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I extend sincere appreciation to Dr. Patricia Stuhr for her guidance and suggestions throughout this research. Thanks go to the other members of my advisoiy committee, Drs. Donald Krug and Michael Parsons, for their insights and comments. Gratitude is also expressed to Drs. Marilyn Johnston, Lindsay Jones, and John Moe for their assistance and patience during the general examination process. The influence and encouragement from Drs. Maijorie Schiller and Tom Anderson is highly regarded. Furthermore, 1 am grateful to the members of ACME who shared their time and narratives, especially Leni Anderson, Jim Beoddy, Meg Galipault, Scott Galloway, David Greene, John Groeber, Faye Herskovitz, Mike Kehlmeier, Lori M^Cargish, Tamela J. Murphy, Lori Peacock, Paul Volker, Joanne Zeigler, Goblinhood, and the Martian Provisional Government. To my family, I offer sincere thanks for your acceptance and understanding. To Eleanor Weisman, my partner, proofreader, and co-parent of our child, I offer deepest appreciation for the love, support, and input you have provided throughout the entire process. In the spirit of my dissertation topic, all drafts of this project were printed on 100% recycled paper with 50% post-consumer fiber as an ecological statement. Additionally, the typeface and leading were chosen to further conserve on paper.
lU VITA
Decembers, 1957 ...... Bom—Columbus, Ohio
1980 ...... B.F.A., Illustration and Advertisir . Design, The Columbus College of Art and Design, Columbus, Ohio
1980-1988 ...... Commercial Artist, Pensacola, Florida
1988-1991 ...... Art Educator, Gulf Breeze High School, Pensacola, Florida
1991 ...... M.S., Art Education, Florida State University 1991 -Present ...... Graduate Tcaching Associate, Department of Art Education, The Ohio State University
PUBLICATIONS
Hanes, J.M. & Schiller, M. (1994). Collaborating with cooperating teachers in preservice art education. Studies in Art Education, 4(35), 218-227.
Hanes, J.M. (1992). From Mayan to post-modern: A collaboration in clay. School Arts, 93(3), 18-20.
Hanes, J.M. (1991 ). Acceptance o f multicultural art content in a secondary art program. Unpublished master's thesis project, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL.
FIELDS OF STUDY
Major Field: Art Education
IV TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...... in
VITA...... iv
LIST OF nOURES ...... vii
CHAPTER PAGE
I. RECOGNIZING COLLABORATIVE ACTIVIST ART...... I
The Research Context ...... 1 Three Contemporary Examples ...... 8
II. FORMING AN UNDERSTANDING OF COLLABORATIVE ACTIVIST ART FROM RELATED LITERATURE...... 15
A General Description of Collaborative Activist A rt ...... 15 Understanding Art, Activism, and Collaboration ...... 19 Understanding Collaborative Activist Art: A Synthesis ...... 36
III. THE EXAMINATION OF A LOCAL CASE EXAMPLE...... 39
Research Theory and Method ...... 39 Research Process ...... 44
IV. INTERPRETIVE DESCRIPTION OF THE ACME ART COMPANY 48
Columbus, Ohio and the Short North Gallery District ...... 48 ACME and its Membership ...... 53 The Identity and Activity of ACME ...... 62
V. CONCLUDING ANALYSIS OF ACME AND COLLABORATIVE ACTIVIST A RT...... 70
An Assessment of ACME as Collaborative Activist Art ...... 71 The Significance of the Study ...... 79 Suggestions for Future Research ...... 80 APPENDICES
A. Historical Listing of Artist Collaboration ...... 83 B. ACME Documents ...... 89 C. Interview Materials ...... 97 D. Goblinhood’s Letter to George Bush ...... 138
LIST OF REFERENCES...... 140
VI LIST OF FIGURES nOURES PAGE
1. A Profile of Alternative Arts in Action. Paul Volker’s description of ACME presented in the form of a flyer for public information. This document was received July 16, 19% ...... 90
2. Friday Night Meetings.. .A General Outline. Paul Volker’s description of a c m e ’s planning meetings presented in the form of a flyer for public information. This document was received July 16, 1993...... 93
3. ACME Poster A. I discovered this poster on July 6,1993 in Hopkins Hall at The Ohio State University. It encourages interested artists to participate in the early stages of an artistic movement ...... 95
4. ACME Poster B. I discovered this poster on July 6, 1993 in Hopkins Hall at The Ohio State University. It calls for artists to participate in a cultural coup d’etat meeting in an alternative arts space ...... 95
5. ACME Poster C. I discovered this poster on July 6, 1993 in Hopkins Hall at The Ohio State University. It invites artists to participate in change ...... 96
6. ACME Poster D. I discovered this poster on July 6, 1993 in Hopkins Hall at The Ohio State University. It calls serious artists to participate actively in collaboration ...... 96
7. Letter to the Board of Trustees. I presented this letter on August 19, 1993 to the ACME Board of Trustees formerly stating my research intentions ...... 98
8. Questioning Strategy. This outline presents my approach for asking questions for interviews. It corresponds with the transcripts ...... 99
9. Goblinhood’s Letter to George Bush. I procured a copy of this letter on June 16, 1994 in a postresearch interview with Jim Bec^dy. The original letter was mailed to President George Bush, and copies were sent to several major news agencies including Time, CBS, NBC, and ABC...... 139
vn Chapter I RECOGNIZING COLLABORATIVE ACTIVIST ART
The Research Context Background to the Study Today we live in a global social environment. According to Bellah, Madsen, Sullivan, Swidler, and Tipton (1985) modernization has emphasized success and individualism and has fostered fragmentation and alienation. They maintain that in many past generations community involvement was necessary and desirable for solving problems and improving living conditions. They believe that this is important for society today. Many social and political movements demonstrate this need for community action (e.g., recycling centers, disaster relief, blood drives, community shelters, etc.). Some cultural production results from this need. The NAMES Quilt, a national quilting project to remember American AIDS victims, emphasizes the need for AIDS research. It is an example of cultural production that concerns social problems and criticizes established policies. Gablik (1991) addressed this issue, calling upon contemporaiy art to respond to the demand for socially responsible art. She stated: Much of our present practice is blind or counterproductive because it rests on assumptions that make us philosophical and ethical cripples. The dominant modes of thinking condition us to think of art as specialized objects, created not for moral or practical reasons, but to be contemplated and enjoyed, for the sake of formal pleasure. Autonomy, however, condemns art to social impotence. The question of whether or not art will ever change the world is not a relevant question any more: the world is changing already in inescapable ways. We can no longer deny the evidence at hand. The need to transform the egocentric vision that is encoded in our entire world view is the crucial task that lies ahead for our culture. The issue is whether art will rise to the occasion and make itself useful to all that is going on. (p. 141)
1 In this dissertation, I intend to identify some examples of cultural production and name the genre collaborative activist art. Through these examples, I define the words that constitute this nomenclature and strive to contribute to Gablik’s call for action. This study is about social change and group art. Throughout the history of the United States, groups have publicly expressed their shared social and political concerns. Often these expressions have been recognized as social or political protests and have been recorded as elements of United States history. Usually these historical examples have not been discussed as art. More recently, contemporaiy examples are beginning to surface publicly as artistic expressions because of the intent of the producers. For example, Tallman (1991), an art critic, compared one contemporary group, the Guerrilla Girls, to the activities of Paul Revere and other early American revolutionaries. Implied in her critical assessment is the idea that two United States traditions, social protest and dissident art, converge into a genre of cultural production. Tallman recognized Paul Revere’s skills as a silversmith and designer, while pursuing “rabble rousing graphics, midnight rides, and disguises” (p. 22). Revere probably did not realize that he began an American tradition of social and political protest. An objective of this study is to present my understanding of collaborative activist art and to give a persuasive account of it from related literature. The examples 1 provide are based on multiple perspectives and examine contemporary local art forms. The study is an extended discussion. It demonstrates a need for the recognition of this genre and its utility in discourse and practice. In this study, 1 present my word choice and a rationale for the nomenclature of the genre. 1 discuss my perspective on a contemporary organization and the wish of its membership for social change. The case study serves as an exploration into the use of collaborative activist art, its nomenclature, and its application for understanding the ACME Art Company in Columbus, OH. Preparation for Discourse on Collaborative Activist Art Many perspectives could help to conceptualize collaborative activist art. Primarily, 1 was interested in discussions related to the three terms art, activism, and collaboration. Scholarly writings that included and emphasized these three terms as one object for discussion do not exist. Many critical reviews of group art have surfaced since 1970. Some recent and helpful editorials on political art (Heartney, 1992; Bolton, 1991) and activist art (Solnit, 1992; Kuspit, 1991) have appeared as well. Passing references to this sort of expression appear in the written discussions of a few authors in art related fields (Trend, 1992; Jacobs & Heller, 1992; Dubin, 1992; Lippard, 1991; O’Brien & Little, 1990; Raven, 1988). However, none of these authors have directly addressed collaborative activist art as a genre of cultural production, much less as a topic. Thus, I relied mainly on art related fields, supporting my positions with sociological literature. It was important for my discussion of art as a mechanism for social reform to recognize the influence of feminism in general. Raven (1988) examined work by artists in the 1970s and 1980s who were inspired by feminism. She discussed how feminist art often contributes to the publicizing and popularization of social concems, including multiculturalism, collaboration, and alternative forms of artistic expression. Other marginalized populations have been very visible in group expression since the 1960s. Dubin (1992) wrote about homosexual activities; and Lippard (1991) described the group endeavors of various ethnic groups, such as: African Americans, American Indians, Asian Americans, and Hispanics. I have included examples from various perspectives in this study to examine the relationship of art, activism, and social reform. Danto (1986) discussed changes in artworld practices. Danto described a trend in contemporary art that collaborative activist art partially represents. He referred to this artistic trend as disturbational art. He used word play to create the term disturbational to describe art wherein disturbing images are used by the artists to lessen their frustration with societal problems. Disturbational art serves as a diversion of artists’ emotions into art. It is a self-serving art much as masturbation is a self-serving sex act. Both are frustration reducing acts, intended to disturb an audience. For the most part, society is protected from the disturbance created by the artworld, according to Danto (1986). Activist art, whether collaborative or not, often has disturbational qualities. It usually transpires in a public forum, generally not within the protective domain of an institution. It serves to challenge the power and perceptions held by the social institutions that it confronts, often including the artworld itself. Authors Kahn and Neumaier (1985), O’Brien and Little (1990), and Dubin (1992) addressed activist art in contexts unique to each study. Their contributions were helpful in refining the parameters of the term activist in collaborative activist art. Linking the practice of activism to collaborative group behaviors is helpful for mutual understanding. Both are relatively new territories to Danto’s artworld, and the use of activism and collaboration have disturbing potential to institutional practices and standards. Since the Renaissance, emphasis has been placed on the autonomy of authorship in Western society. The artist, as individual, has become the standard for excellence (Wolff, 1984). However, references to artist collaborations in the Art Index since 1970 (see Appendix A) when the category first appeared, include: theatrical performance, artist and architect teams for commissioned public art, partnerships, teams of workers under a central figure, and more important to this study, groups who have assumed a collective identity. This suggests the existence of group art is being acknowledged and appreciated. Trend (1992), Dubin (1992), Gablik (1991), Lippard (1991), and O’Brien and Little (1990) have all mentioned the rise of collaborative artistic activity at least in a cursoiy way. Matthews (1992) noted that the rise in “collaborative, cross-disciplinaiy, and socially-interactive work” (p. 17) is a reaction to public art that is merely the placement of physical objects in public spaces. I have located dozens of critical reviews in “high” art, connoisseur-type, or mainstream magazines that have reviewed the work of specific artist groups. However, I have found few discussions, appearing in related literature, of groups that are unrecognized within the artworld, such as abortion clinic protesters who graphically express their views or a group of Vietnam veterans who assert their visibility on a street comer. Local and less publicized examples necessitate a new discourse, a claim also made by Matthews. I feel that it is important to acknowledge local unpublicized group expression as art and the collective group as artists. Research Questions I agree with Matthews (1992), an art historian, that a nomenclature is necessary in order to assist critical discourse concerning the variety of cultural production presented in this study. Typically in the literature, socially responsible group art is referred to not by name but by characteristics. Matthews stated: Finding a critical dialogue to facilitate the development of this alternative public work has proven a central challenge. Being process and not product-oriented, which criteria are useful in judging the success or failure of a piece? Critics of this public art find themselves paralyzed by their own specialized training, which theorizes about objects in space and the dynamics of public reception. Like the artists, such critics must turn to other disciplines for a language to better express a collaborative, temporal process, (p. 17) Whereas, Gablik (1991) called for more art that makes social statements; Matthews maintained that, if this particular genre is to be recognized and understood, it needs to be a part of the vocabulary of artists, critics, historians, educators, cultural theorists, and others. The existence of this artistic activity necessitates its discussion. To restate the preceding material more concisely, Gablik contended there is a need for art to be socially responsible. Matthews called for ways to engage in critical discourse concerning such art. My research intends to answer these two questions: (a) Is “collaborative activist art” a suitable nomenclature for socially concerned group art?, and (b) What is the relationship between the subject of this case study, ACME, and collaborative activist art? The first question is addressed by the collection and presentation of related ideas. These ideas are intended to support the appropriateness of the nomenclature for the genre. Chapter II provides a background from related literature to facilitate the discussion of collaborative activist art as a name for socially concerned group expression. I discuss various perspectives that are useful for understanding the terms art, activism, and collaboration. The chapter concludes with a synthesis of the terms to form the nomenclature collaborative activist art, which I have accorded to cultural production that contains a socially critical or informative message and that is created by a group. The second question seeks to explore the relationship between a situation in a case study and a theoretical construct from related literature. Chapter III explains the methods incorporated in this study to satisfy the second question. The investigation of this question is intended to illuminate understandings about the nomenclature and the local case. Chapter IV contains an interpretive description of the case study of ACME. In Chapter V, I assess the label collaborative activist art for its usefulness as a defining term, based upon my experience with it in the study of ACME. The results of this study are intended to aid in the discourse about the study of group art that is produced for the purpose of informing or criticizing society. The Purpose With this research I seek to provide a nomenclature for socially critical group art. I do this by providing a detailed account of the ascribed characteristics of three terms that make up the nomenclature. The secondary aim of my research is to show how the nomenclature and its characteristics can be used in discourse and study of art in education. This is done through a case study of ACME. The literature review assists in identifying, defining, and establishing the terms art, activism, and collaboration. I conclude by synthesizing the meaning of the terms to provide an understanding of collaborative activist art for discursive use and creative practice. Prior to the review of literature, a description of three contemporary examples serves to clarify the characteristics of collaborative activist art. My interests and preconceptions about socially concerned group art and my discontent with the artworld, society, and their interface attracted me to the study of this type of cultural production. My antiauthoritarian attitude, belief in the realization of democracy, and interest in minority expressions all contribute to the manifestation of this study. With these motivations, I intend to bring socially concerned group expression to an academic level of discourse for art education and related fields by providing a nomenclature for it and by detailing characteristics that I attribute to that type of cultural production. The Procedure The design for this study is influenced by Marshall and Rossman (1989). The research follows the evolution of an idea through inquiiy. The ideas sketched in this chapter are given form in the following chapter. The subsequent chapters expand the purpose of forming the idea through applying it to a case study. I strive to make sense of the case in my own terms (Denzin, 1989). Thus, the study reflects my own feelings, which influence my perspective and observations (Kleinman & Copp, 1993), and my writing strategy (Richardson, 1990). This study incorporates an eclectic mix of research techniques to satisfy the needs of the case study (Stake, 1988; Wolcott, 1988). Data for this study was collected through observations and interviews. The interviewing techniques for listening and speaking with people are borrowed from ethnography (Reinhauz, 1992; Spradley, 1980). Interpretation of the case as an object of expressive culture is influenced by Prown (1982) and Gadamer (1977). This case study is not an ethnography because I am not interested in constructing an insider perspective. It is my intention to find out how the case example fits the nomenclature of collaborative activist art. Prior to defining the terms art, activism, and collaboration, I investigated examples of creative group expressions that exhibit socially critical qualities. I focused on contemporaiy examples of this expressive genre. Examples from various parts of the United States were found in critical reviews of group artwork, in newspaper accounts, and from phone interviews. Three particular examples are presented, summarizing the intent of each group. These descriptive examples are useful to illuminate characteristics of collaborative activist art, recognize group relatedness, and illustrate the variety of issues and intentions that can be delt with in this type of art. The review of related literature reflects upon the characteristics of each example. Data for the case study was collected from observations of ACME over a six-month period and from personal interviews with members of ACME. This material covers the group of participants, its organization, and its environment. I describe and interpret the identity and activity of the group, presenting information that is useful to determine their practice as collaborative activist artists. The presentation of the data includes aesthetic as well as sociological perspectives. The group of participants are members of the ACME Art Company, a volunteer supported, nonprofit alternative arts organization serving central Ohio. It opened in 1986 and is located near downtown Columbus in an urban district that is undergoing gentrificadon. The members collectively operate routine daily and weekly activities, as well as calendar events, integrating image and performance. Most of ACME’s energy is channeled into presenting 12 month-long visual arts exhibitions, each visited by several hundred people. “Exhibitions frequently address important contemporary social issues so that through the arts the public is given the opportunity to reflect on creative solutions to many of today’s problems’’ (see Figure 1 in Appendix B). However, some of their efforts venture into making statements outside of the gallery space and into a more public venue. This is the area that is most important to this study. Data analysis of the case study compares collaborative activist art, the definition of which was determined by me through literature, with the socially concerned art of ACME. The process of comparison includes defining and discussing the individual terms of collaborative activist art, as well as discussing how my definition of collaborative activist art as a nomenclature for socially concerned group art applies to ACME. The nomenclature of collaborative activist art, with its accorded characteristics, is used to critically assess a c m e ’s practice in the production of socially concerned group art. It is to be hoped that this nomenclature is potentially useful for similar practice in and discourse on other art from this genre. The Significance Giving a name to an expressive genre that is discussed previously only by its characteristics is significant in itself. This study employs literary sources in Chapter III to develop the nomenclature, collaborative activist art. I assume that critical discourse about, as well as use and practice of collaborative activist art, has the potential to promote positive social reform if attended to in a careful manner. Demonstrating the usefulness of the nomenclature with its direct application to the use and practice of the genre increases the significance of the study. The case study of ACME presented in Chapter IV provides curricular content. ACME and other examples of collaborative activist art are appropriate for study in art education. This study uses content examples to suggest that there is a need to investigate collaborative activist art as a pedagogical strategy for group expression. Without attention to socially concerned group expression, this genre could be neglected in art education and related discourse. 8
The application of the nomenclature to a local example is accomplished through the assessment of ACME in Chapter V. Although any case study is limited, that is generalizations cannot be placed on a universe of examples, this study applies the nomenclature to ACME as a model for future discourse. Thus, significance of the study is also revealed through application of the label collaborative activist art to the case example. The examination of ACME as collaborative activist art serves two purposes: to assess ACME as representative of the genre and to further the understanding of the genre as a whole.
Three Contemporary Examples I have selected the following examples to represent certain aspects of collaborative activist art to inform this study. As I see it, there are no perfect examples of collaborative activist art. This nomenclature serves as an ideal. The examples exhibit both process and product, thus stabilizing any one aspect of them into a moment or space distorts the examples. Each of these examples exhibit attributes that are useful for discussion developed in the next chapter. These attributes inform understandings concerning modes of artistic expression, qualities of activism, and levels of collaboration. Each example represents a collective feeling of oppression, the development of group identity and activity, the need to protest or educate, and the use of symbolism in expression. These are all characteristics of collaborative activist art. Paper Tiger TV Higgins (1991), Jones (1991), Raney (1991), Boddy (1990), Halleck (1987, 1985), Vogel (1982), Armstrong (1981), Boyle ( 1989), and Tanka (undated) contribute to the following description and interpretation of Paper Tiger TV, a video production collective based in New York City. Their product is an independently produced, public access television program that offers critical interpretations of mass media and popular culture. The series is low-budget and handmade, without high-tech gadgets and special effects. Tanka (undated) stated that their goal is “to communicate modem critical theoiy through a popular and stubbornly non-critical medium.” Paper Tiger TV was founded in 1981 to produce a half-hour, prime-time program on Manhattan’s cable channel. The production staff, referred to as the Tigers, have made over 200 shows, which are made available across the countiy through Deep Dish TV, a satellite affiliate. Oftentimes the shows are produced live with new crew members and without run- throughs. Usually they meet for a short planning session in a coffee shop, then run to the studio where “we have only thirty minutes to hang the set, test the mikes, adjust the lights, cue up the tape for the breaks, put the graphic cards in order, reassure and cue our guest and maybe, just maybe, have a quick run-through of the opening transition” (Halleck, 1985, p. 39). This excitement undoubtedly adds to the appeal and enthusiasm of Paper Tiger TV to its crew members. The organizational structure is loose and nonhierarchical. Collaboration is a common word in their vocabulary. Few original Tigers work with the collective because membership is constantly changing. Most of the members hold full-time, high-pressure jobs in the media industry. There is no pay to work with Paper Tiger TV. Most television is made with authoritarian, hierarchical structure, but not Paper Tiger TV. According to Halleck (1985), the aim of Paper Tiger TV is to achieve empowerment through “unity and strength while maintaining maximum participation, imagination and humanism” (p. 40). Frequently, Paper Tiger TV produces and offers a critical reading of a particular publication. In each production, they intend to “provide an accumulative view of the culture industry as a whole” (Halleck, 1985, p. 38). Their content has included Noam Chomsky reading The New York Times or Joan Broaderman reading The National Enquirer, offering critical reviews, making implicit some of the assumptions held by the communications industry, and giving some economic and historical perspective—media deconstruction. Each program begins with the phrase: “It’s 8:30. Do you know where your brains are?” It is a stock slogan that serves several purposes, but primarily it serves to call viewers to exercise a high level of critical consciousness. Brightly painted sets with a colorful, Sunday-comic section look and a homespun quality are used to prevent intimidation and alienation. This look serves two purposes: to show others how easily and inexpensively TV shows can be produced and to draw in the viewers. Devices often used include wide-angle shots to provide an awareness of the people who produce the show and hand-lettered or cut-and-pasted charts and graphics rather than high-tech electronic effects. The use of materials and tools, such as markers and scissors, gives an affordable, handmade look to the program. The graphics are held in front of the camera so that the fingers of the hands that are holding them show. At the end of the program, along with the credits, the entire production budget, which usually ranges under $150, is presented to the audience. The purpose is to “demystify the process of live television and to prove that making programs isn’t all that prohibitively expensive” (Halleck, 1985, p. 38). Many of the methods used by Paper Tiger TV are accessible to schools and community groups. 10
The grassroots-video movement began in the early 1970s with the commercial release of portapaks, portable video equipment, and public access cable channels, mandated by Federal Communication Commission ruling. It created a mode of presentation classifiable as guerrilla television or video activism (Armstrong, 1981). The movement utilized the video media to bring people together without sending didactic messages. A problem still remaining with this form of video activism is that the medium has a limited audience because of standards established by commercial television. Further limitations to video activism result from the power of commercial TV and potential changes in cable regulations to limit or eliminate public access channels in most communities. As guerrilla television, it appeals to young people (especially today as many U.S. homes have camcorders) “because they were retribalized by TV” (p. 73). Electronic media provides similar conditions for changes in culture as those provided by movable type in post- Renaissance Europe. The exhibition space for Paper Tiger TV is generally the home television set However, this group has had curated exhibits in formal artworld centers across the U.S. In 1991, the Wexner Center of Columbus, OH, featured such an exhibit. Paper Tiger TV recruited local participation. The effort to maintain a Columbus chapter of Paper Tiger TV did not succeed longer than a few months. Other exhibits included one at the Whitney Museum of American Art and another at Toronto’s Power Plant. The character of these exhibits reflected the manner of Paper Tiger programming: handmade, homey, and accessible to audiences. Jones (1991) explained, “we are trying to break down the whole museum mystique” (p. 17). In my view. Paper Tiger TV represents a challenge to the definition of art I think it is safe to say that the products of electronic media, such as commercial television programming, are not commonly considered art in most circles of art discourse. Paper Tiger TV is presented here because television oftentimes is classified as popular culture. However, there are elements of Paper Tiger TV that imply that it also can be classified as fine art and folk art These elements include retrospective exhibitions at major galleries in North America and the handmade quality that is often associated with folk art. Having a knowledge of classifications is important for understanding collaborative activist art because this kind of practice challenges confining and imposed art labels. Paper Tiger TV emphasizes collaborative organization and an activist agenda, resulting in the use of advanced media in a low tech manner to express criticism of contemporary mass media. 11
ACT UP/Gran Fury Contributors to the following descriptive interpretation of ACT UP and Gran Fury include Milligan (personal communication, January 18, 1993), Meir (personal communication, January 26, 1993), Gallagher ( 1993), Meyer (1992), Trend (1992), Dubin (1992), and Crimp (1990, 1989). The first protest of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) occurred in New York City in March 1987. Since then, ACT UP has seen a rapid rise and fall of autonomous branches across the U.S. and internationally. Gallagher (1993), a University of California Berkeley sociologist, posited that all kinds of social reform movements tend to splinter into administrative organizations or fade because the participants feel a “victorious” satisfaction or “the pull of private life” (p. 57). In personal interviews with me Milligan and Mier, two members of the Columbus, Ohio affiliate, gave those reasons for the decline and dissolution of the local chapter. The organizational structure of ACT UP is nationally decentralized. ACT UP is a single topic group, which focuses on AIDS, that collectively formed as local communities unified nationally. Collectively, the membership felt disaffected and used controversial images to dramatize their cause. For example, they used the American flag, a mainstream sacred symbol, in a way that appeared to many as an act of desecration (Dubin, 1992). In a decentralized structure there is no command position that provides for “serendipitous and occasional” responses to soothe or appease the political climate (Gallagher, 1993, p. 57). Dubin (1992) described Gran Fury, a group of 11 artists, as “the graphic arts affiliate of ACT UP,” and stated “their work incorporates essential information, accusations of official malfeasance, condemnations of apathy and discrimination, and self-affirmation” (p. 220). In 1987 they had their first exhibit. Let the Record Show, at the New Museum of Contemporaiy Art in lower Manhattan. It was not until afterward that they assumed their group name, under which they continue to present controversial art. Images also associated with the ACT UP movement were produced by other collaboratives as well, such as, DIVA-TV and Testing the Limits. It appears that ACT UP works in full support of Gran Fury. When controversial public works in the form of graphic commercial signage were being installed in Chicago, ACT UP was quick to demonstrate the perceived discrimination to homosexual views. ACT UP’s form of street rallies are described as “melding a 60s style and sensibility with a 90s savvy” (Dubin, 1992, p. 256). Street activism is not the only form of cultural expression used effectively by ACT UP. Some instances have brought together action groups, who have overlapping agendas for cultural protest, an effective forum 12
exploited by ACT UP. GIAAD (the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) and Queer Nation joined ACT UP to devise aphone zap. They urged protesters to jam the telephone lines during Public Broadcasting Service affiliate KCET's annual fund raising drive because of the station’s decision to not air a documentary video that was critical of the Catholic Church and its policy on the distribution of safe sex information. Jamming the lines of communication, either by telephone or FAX, proved to be a successful device for the organization. Additional tactics include visual modes of presentation: “posters, videos, T-shirts, and buttons, collectively reproduced ephemera of little material value, [that] effectively refuse the economy of high-art exchange” (Meyer, 1992, p. 64). Now that there are fewer activists participating in the ACT UP movement the membership is “boiled down to the hard core” (Gallager, 1992, p. 58). It appears to have diminished on the U.S. coasts, but to be flourishing in areas of the midwest. Furthermore, activities that were angry street protests modeled after those of the civil rights and liberation movements evolved into outreach programs, even though some members believe that direct action is the most effective form of expression. It is possible that ACT UP organized the most visible civil rights movement in the 1980s and redefined the notion of activism. Refusing to be marginalized by the AIDS crisis, ACT UP and other homosexual groups organized massive events, rallies, and demonstrations with a unique creative flare to alert the public, particularly government officials who seemed to be indifferent about the crisis, that AIDS is a disease that affects everyone. Phone zapping that halted businesses discriminating against Gays, theatrical street protests that stopped traffic, clever slogans and creative graphics that focused attention on AIDS, as well as other innovations were elements of the ACT UP strategy and part of their signature. Through the process, many who felt victimized appear to have become empowered. ACT UP represents a kind of activism that is important to this study. Guerrilla Girls The following descriptive interpretation of the Guerrilla Girls represents ideas from Calhoon (1991), Tallman (1991), Kelly (1991), McCann (1991), Shortal (1991), Cohn (1990), Schor (1990), Link (1988), Lougherty (1987), and Tanney (1987). What began in New York City in 1984 as a reaction by a group of women to the fact that only a small number of women were included in the Museum of Modem Art’s reopening show, Imernational Survey o f Recent Painting and Sculpture (Lougherty, 1987), has grown to include the expansion of chapters or cells in many major U.S. cities (Cohn, 1990). In an interview, one member revealed that the Guerrilla Girls are not just disgruntled women 13 visual artists of a low calibre. Instead, the organization includes many widely acclaimed female artists, musicians, dancers, critics, and art historians (Link, 1988). It appears that the number of women who are members of the nationwide organization Guerrilla Girls is undeterminable because of this group’s strong emphasis on political solidarity strengthened through anonymity. Devices that the Guerrilla Girls use for interviews and public appearances include appropriated names from dead women artists (e.g., Frida, Georgia, and Louise) and costumes consisting of gorilla masks, mini-skirts, shocking-pink nail-polish, and bunches of bananas. The costumes are openly described as a way to maintain strong anonymity, express solidarity, protect individual identity, and provide more power to effect social change. Schor ( 1990) selected a quote from Virginia Woolf in A Room o f One’s Own (1957) to demonstrate the importance of anonymity to this feminist art movement: ‘indeed, I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman” (Schor, 1990, p. 125). To reinforce the importance of solidarity through anonymity, she added: “If anonymity reflects the tradition of feminine accomplishment, or the pressure to choose between anger and self-repression, there may be a significant difference between enforced and chosen anonymity” (p. 125). Their published address, a post office box, and their telephone receptionist, an answering machine, also maintain their anonymity. The Guerrilla Girls represent a variety of feminist issues in their art. They claim to be “The Consciousness of the Artworld”—a phrase that is the tag line to their logo, which is clearly displayed on all of their posters. They represent artists who have been marginalized by the white male dominated artworld, especially women and those of ethnic distinction. One representative of the Guerrilla Girls revealed that the movement wishes to remain activist and not engage in rhetoric (Link, 1988). She explained that the Guerrilla Girls are “always looking for the common ground, we are looking for all things that tie us together, because there are an awful lot of women out there” (p. 133). Lougherty ( 1987) contrasted the activist group with Wilhelmina Cole Holladay, a wealthy Washington woman who began collecting women’s artwork 20 years before opening a museum in 1987 but refused including any Guerrilla Girl art because it was “too controversial” (p. 61). It appears that there are at least two views within feminist artworld on the promotion of women’s art. The Guerilla Girls use mass media methods mainly and extensively as their standard mode of expression. These methods are another way to promote anonymity and effect social change. Their activities include poster campaigns, magazine advertisements. 14 news interviews in costume with Vogue, Playboy, Mother Jones, Esquire, and CBS-TV’s Night Watch. They also have participated in a kind of nonviolent terrorism through massive mailings to museums and galleries, sticker attacks in public places, and by crashing private openings of male artists and leaving literature in women’s restrooms. Obviously, these practices and places are not traditional kinds of expression and exhibition spaces to the artworld. One critic suggested, "Think of these social sites that describe an arc of discontent as it rises out of alienation and into collective action” (Kelly, 1991, p. 1). Tallman (1991) described the posters as being “funny, mean, shocking, cajoling, and almost always clever^’ and having “the studiedly undesigned look of the 1970s conceptual art: black on white and set in the most generic of typefaces, Helvetica” (p. 22). She adds, “The posters were rude.... They embarrassed People.... In other words, they worked” (p. 21). The printed material usually challenges the issue of gender inequality in the artworld, using advertising tactics and statistical data (e.g., charts, graphs, scores, grades, amounts, lists, names, and numbers) that depersonalize their message, again reinforcing their anonymity. Some of their posters have been exhibited as visual art in recent retrospectives: in Indianapolis, Indiana, at the Herron Gallery (Calhoon, 1992) and San Rafael, California, at the Falkirk Cultural Center (Kelly, 1991). Considering all of the contemporary groups that I have investigated, I see the Guerrilla Girls as the most successful at collaboration. Anonymity, autonomy, and solidarity are arguable as aspects of artistic collaboration. Through the devices that they have chosen to maintain anonymity (e.g., costumes and faceless and nameless mass media representation) they have created a mystique. There is no visible leadership. A collective ideology appears to drive these women to action. Autonomy is demonstrated through their collective voice. The Guerrilla Girls are important to this study because of the artworld/counter- artworld dichotomy that exists in the duality of being an outsider and insider, a quality that is also presented in Paper Tiger TV. Many members of the Guerrilla Girls are esteemed members of the artworld, which, as members of the Guerrilla Girls, they criticize for undemocratic policies. They stage guerrilla attacks or events that in many ways are similar to ACT UP and could be labeled as activist In the next chapter, I explore the meaning and complexity of the terms art, activism, and collaboration after a look at collaborative activist art in general. Chapter II FORMING AN UNDERSTANDING OF COLLABORATIVE ACTIVIST ART FROM RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter details the nomenclature of collaborative activist art, which was assigned as a label for socially concerned group art. Collaborative activist art is described generally in the first section. The second section examines the terms art, activism, and collaboration from which I derive the nomenclature. Because the nomenclature is descriptive of the genre, I use the adjective forms of the nouns collaboration and activism. The literature for this discussion comes from the fields of art histoiy, anthropology, ethnology, aesthetics, art criticism, literary criticism, folklore, cultural studies, education, political science, and sociology. In the first section, the description draws on supporting literature that recognizes multiple perspectives, art as a mechanism for social change, contributions of feminist thought, and disturbing or at least challenging images. The examples of this type of cultural production investigated exhibit activist qualities and collaborative tendencies. In general, the purpose of this chapter is to provide information about collaborative activist art by exploring the terms art, activism, and collaboration.
A General Description of Collaborative Activist Art In my review of literature on social change and group art in contemporary society, 1 found several authors who write about art and politics and have made passing references to group expressions: O’Brien and Little (1990), Lippard (1991), Jacobs and Heller (1992), Dubin (1992), Raven (1988), Trend (1992), and Perr (1988). The following discussion represents the views of each of these authors on ideas and expressions that 1 recognize to be examples of collaborative activist art. In a collection of short essays from various sources, O’Brien and Little (1990) presented several examples of group expressions that exemplify collaborative activist art. However, many group expressions of this type do not receive critical reviews in artworld
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magazines such as Art in America or High Performance. Although some of the projects are initiated by individual artists, I found many examples of group expressions originate exterior to artworld movements. The diversity of these projects is wide and includes community murals in New York City and protest poster campaigns in Mexico City. Other more recognized examples, like the work of Tim Rollins and KGS (Kids of Survival), show another side of socially concerned group art and emphasize the need for social change. Whereas a mural project or a poster campaign is used mainly to inform and educate externally, Rollins and KGS activities are used to educate internally. KGS activities emphasize the process and the relationships that are formed by the participants. The works produced by Rollins and KGS are often not overtly political in terms of obviously radical imagery. The symbolism of the various “scarlet letters,” for example, is often too personal to be universally understandable. Rather it is their making of the art that is radical, that serves to overcome the silencing and numbing of illiteracy and cultural invisibility. (Kaplan, in G’Brien & Little, 1990, p. 120) In their writings, G’Brien and Little considered collaboration as a democratic process whereby marginalized groups become public and how this democratic process can have educational effects for the group participants. Using the same reasonong, the process or the production of a group’s statement has educational potential external to the group. Lippard, a writer, an activist, and cofounder of PADD (Political Art Documentation/Distribution), discussed certain group activities in the late 1970s and early 1980s as “multicultural participation” (Lippard, 1991, p. 161). In my estimation, these activities were primary in the recent development of socially concerned group art. Gne such group, CoLab (Collaborative Projects), organized “parasite” shows in nonart spaces, typically on the Lower East Side of New York City. Lippard described CoLab as an “anarchic artists’ collective...[that provided] marvelously sleazy public art.... as Reaganism began to undermine support for the poor, and high-art institutions became enmired in retrograde neoclassicism, postexpressionism, and other warmed-over modernist relics” (pp. 160-161). Lippard concluded that “in the early ’80s, collaboration itself became a political statement, an effective way of attacking the conventional notion of rugged individual genius and of breaking down barriers” (p. 166). Lippard (1991) presented the work and activities of CoLab as typical of Reagan era art, that is as cultural production in response to the politics of that time. I recognize the CoLab exhibitions held in appropriated abandoned real estate to be statements that intended to challenge mainstream aesthetics and sensibilities. She suggested that collaborative 17
participation is an aesthetic political statement that challenges modernist ideologies and deconstructs social, political, and artistic boundaries. Though an elitist artworld perspective exists, Lippard positsed that there are credible artistic expressions that stand outside of artworld traditions. The expressions that she praised include the work and activities of CoLab and appear to represent collaborative group processes found in events such as squatter shows and poster attacks. Jacobs and Heller (1992) published a collection of protest posters from the 1980s with introductory comments that inform this study. Jacobs (1992) presented a brief history on the effect of protest posters. Heller (1992) discussed the guerrilla act of postering. He proposed that postering in the 1980s was a reference to standard themes found in the 1960s, such as peace, the environment, and social justice. According to Heller the best poster graphics are a fusion of artistic intent and design: “The posters don’t look like they were done to express the views of a client, but rather to express the viewpoint of the creator” (p. 12). Protest poster campaigns as collaborative activist art often are group initiated and challenge authority. The creation of the poster also appears to be a democratic expressive process that does not appeal to stylistic trends motivated by a collector’s market. Heller quoted one Gran Fury member on the simplicity of getting started in making public expressions, “If you’re angry enough and have a Xerox and five or six friends who feel the same way, you’d be surprised how far you can go with that” (p. 14). Dubin (1992) analyzed controversial art at length. He captured the dynamics of the disputes surrounding such art and explored the idea of censorship in the 1980s. Many of the examples that Dubin presented are challenging in contradictory ways: the images are shocking, either graphically or ideologically; and the attempt to censor such images is challenging to the freedom of expression. Two particular examples of challenging art, which Dubin discussed, are addressed as collaborative works. One example is ACT UP, and the other is Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party: A Symbol o f our Heritage ( 1980). The latter is assessed by Dubin as epitomizing the challenge to “some of the long-standing constraints of the artworld and the world at large” (p. 128). The Dinner Party was the result of the contributions of over 400 workers. Dubin described it as drawing from “counter-cultural ideology, and presaged later collaborative artistic projects.... a celebration of women’s history, sexuality, and achievement” (p. 129). A large controversy, which developed into a stand-off, surrounded the installation of the work. The piece, directed by Chicago, was included in a proposal to renovate the University of the District of Columbia’s Carnegie Libraiy into a multicultural arts center. 18
She felt that the meaning of the work was misinterpreted as obscene. Chicago supported the striking students in favor of its installation by stating, “It is a work of art aimed at promoting empowerment and a monument to those who have struggled for freedom” (Dubin, 1992, p. 131). The Dinner Party is an example of collaborative art that was used to make a feminist political statement. Raven (1988), an art historian, examined work by artists in the 1970s and 1980s who have been inspired by feminist thought. She discussed women artists who have chosen to utilize media and forms of expression that are different from Western artworld traditions, as well as “genres developed against the background of social ideologies infused in an art which wanted to effect, inspire, and educate to action as well as please” (p. xvii). Collaborative processes appear to fall into these nontraditional forms of Western artistic expression. Raven’s research recognized the work of Mariam Schapiro and Judy Chicago—two founders of the Feminist Studio Workshop and the Women’s Building. These two people helped shape the beginnings of the feminist art movement. For my study, I recognize some influences from various feminist art movements related to social concerns, collaboration, and different forms of cultural expression. Relative to formal educational practices. Trend (1992) advised that students of culture require conscientious teachers and that teaching and learning activities should reflect aspects of collaborative activist art. He purported how teachers and artists should work together as pedagogical “cultural workers” (p. 9). According to Trend, people in related positions “can encourage this positive articulation of civic voice” (p. 4). He recommended that these intellectuals carefully consider their role within social institutions that serve to perpetuate the status quo. He stated, “All too often artists, writers, or teachers cast themselves as experts to whom others should look for answers, inspiration, and insight” (p. 4). He also contended that it is the responsibility of cultural workers to encourage an attitude of scrutiny in others. Gablik’s (1991) opinions appear to mesh with those of Trend as he called for proactive and responsible cultural production. Cultural workers engage in either textual, aural, visual representations, or possibly combinations of these creative processes. I believe that the intention of cultural work is, in part, the mobilization of knowledge with the desire to reduce oppressive conditions in people’s lives and that as this is the principal of collaborative activist art, it should be introduced in the classroom. Trend’s (1992) ideas in Cultural Pedagogy drew upon Perr’s (1988) approach to satisfying and transforming collective processes. In itself, Perr’s approach asks the conventional mission in art education to consider the importance of socializing students into 19 roles of work and consumption based on a rigid system of rules and rewards. As Perr explained, “Participatoiy activity of benefit to the community is not considered a primaiy objective. And for all of the rhetoric about educating the young to be thoughtful citizens who care for their fellow beings, private gain over public good is recurrently the message received” (p. 2). Instead, according to Perr, an effort toward social change through group process depends upon “the collective process of nonindividualized production and a dialogue with the audience” (Trend, 1992, p. 154). In my view, the use and practice of participatory democracy toward social change is central to collaborative activist art and important to this study. The foregoing section describes collaborative activist art in a general way. It provides a general overview of a particular kind of cultural production. It is presented before discussing art, activism, and collaboration as individual terms. As the literature revealed, the following salient points are characteristic of collaborative activist art. It is educative, informative, and identifies the importance of internal and external learning processes. Many of the groups who use and practice collaborative activist art feel marginalized. By making their views public they are multicultural participants in social change. Collaboration, as a method of art making can be a political statement promoting empowerment and freedom. Most of these forms of cultural production concern issues such as peace, the environment, and social justice. The main objectives of collaborative activist art are educational and include activities intended to challenge authority, mobilize knowledge, and reduce oppression in people’s lives. Often collaborative activist art includes images and ideas that demand attention, process group thinking, and open dialogue with an audience.
Understanding Art, Activism, and Collaboration The rest of this chapter serves to clarify the use of the words art, activism, and collaboration as aspects of collaborative activist art. Exploration of these individual terms informs this study. In Chapter I, specific examples were chosen to illuminate each term. One term is discussed with each example: Paper Tiger TV and art, ACT UP/Gran Fury and activism, and the Guerrilla Girls and collaboration. However, the terms are not mutually exclusive to the examples, and an understanding of collaborative activist art results from a synthesis of the terms. Often meaning derived from the imagery, activity, and ideology in a cultural product or performance influences its fit as an example of collaborative activist art. In this study, I value the intent of the group over the product. 20
Paper Tiger TV and Art In this chapter, I use Paper Tiger TV as an example of an activist collective that is critical of mass media. I explore the group’s work as an example to discuss the definition of art I chose for this study. The group challenges common understandings of art by blurring distinctions between popular culture, folk art, and high art. These challenges are evident in the choice of media, the handmade quality of the work, and the retrospective exhibitions. Television, an advanced form of technology, is used similarly to earlier forms of technology, much like a paintbrush: it is a tool used to create a picture or image, convey an idea, and evoke a response. It is also often considered a popular culture medium. When television is represented in galleries, it might be acceptable as “high” art. Hence, from my view, communications media participates in a cultural myth. The myth is the elitist way the artworld holds and perpetuates the presentation of cultural production. The mix of advanced technology (television) with a home-spun, low technology (paper and markers) is a fusion of media, as well as a fusion of between popular culture and folk art. Hybridization of visual art media with communication technology could be described as intermedial. This describes the programs produced by Paper Tiger TV. These cultural productions are expressions of contemporary urban folk art. The relationship between art and culture complicated by the fusion of ideas requires information about art-culture systems. Art-culture svstems: Meanings and values. Accepting a broad definition of art is important for the study of collaborative activist art. This kind of cultural production often challenges commonly held ideas about the classification of objects as art It makes defining art a difficult intellectual exercise. Novitz ( 1992) asserted that the socially constructed boundaries between art and nonart are conventional. He perceived art as an integral part of cultural systems, where art is common and cannot be separated from everyday life. He argued that an art is a more or less integrated body of skills. These skills are sometimes used to produce artifacts, some of which are regarded as works of fine art on account of theories, values and beliefs that prevail in our society at this time.... They will vary from culture to culture from period to period within a culture, so that there is no one thing that a work of fine art absolutely must embody that makes it a work of fine art, and there are no special sorts of skills that the fine arts have to employ in order to be fine arts. (pp. 15-16) 21
In addition. Price (1989) discussed the interpretation of non-Westem cultural objects in Western museums. She maintains that Western “high” art attitudes of connoisseurship condescendingly pervade the artworld. These attitudes reflect Western theories, values, and beliefs about art and promote an elite sensibility concerning expressive objects. Elitist attitudes increase the complexity in studying an expressive form such as collaborative activist art. They further contribute to the need to examine art-culture systems. In the field of cultural studies, Williams (1983) explored the word culture entomologicaly from its Latin root through its meanings in the major European languages. He stated that culture is one of the most complicated words in the English language. His definition includes the relationship between material and symbolic production. He stated that the word culture often involves “claims to superior knowledge (cf. the noun intellectual), refinement (culchah) and distinctions between ‘high’ art (culture) and popular art and entertainment,” connotations that some view with hostility (p. 92). Williams (1993) defined culture in a democratic sense. He recognized how culture is ordinary. He explained; Every human society has its own shape, its own purposes, its own meanings. Every human society expresses these in institutions, and in arts and learning.... [a] culture has two aspects: the known meanings and directions, which are offered and tested. These are the ordinaiy processes of human societies and human minds, and we see through them the nature of culture: that it is always both traditional and creative; that it is both the most ordinary and common meanings and the finest individual meanings. We use the word culture in these two senses: to mean a whole way of life—the common meanings; to mean the arts and learning—the special processes of discovery and creative effort, (p. 6) Williams’ ( 1993) understanding of the word culture is formed from four related fields: archeology and cultural anthropology, where culture is studied as material production; and histoiy and cultural studies, where culture is viewed as a complex system related to other things, such as interpretation. Clifford (1988,1991), an anthropologist, provided an understanding of the relationship of art and culture as parts of systems. Art-culture systems form around the meaning associated with material production and cultural objects, and a society’s values and identity. The idea of an art-culture system is implied in Clifford’s (1991) discussion of four Northwest Coast museums’ presentations of local Indian art. In these exhibitions, Clifford claimed there is meaning in the way that one culture views and presents the art 22
from another culture. It reveals what the first culture values in art. In other words, it is important for the study of cultural production to be aware of what specific cultures recognize as art. This study accepts the meanings associated with cultural production and cultural values in many forms of human expression as important to use and practice of art. Art and human expression: Connecting use and practice. Accepting culture as ordinary (Williams, 1983,1993) requires an examination of the most common elements of human expression. These are represented in the production of traditional folk culture and popular culture. Glassie (1968), a folklorist, presented both as being similar to the art of the everyday. He distinguished differences between folk culture, popular culture, and academic culture. “Material folk culture is composed of objects produced out of a nonpopular tradition in proximity to popular culture” (Glassie, 1968, p. 6). Hske (1992) suggested that it is difficult to “separate culture from social and economic conditions of the everyday” (p. 154). He implied that popular culture is revealing of the immediate historical and social setting of oppressive situations. 1 suggest that studying contemporary forms of art as popular culture or art of the everyday also reveals a relationship between use and practice of cultural production. The power of popular culture is clarified by Fiske (1989). He described it as being progressive and optimistic and having the ability to resist dominant ideology because it presents the possibility of social change. Fiske cited DeCerteau and suggested that the power of popular culture is demonstrated through “guerrilla tactics [that] challenge the powerful openly” (p. 19). The challenge that comes from popular culture is in a form that changes society. According to Fiske, “change can only come from below: the interests of those with power are best served by maintaining the status quo” (p. 19). Collaborative activist art often resembles guerrilla attacks in use and practice. 1 recognize that collaborative activist art is influenced by popular culture. “Instead of concentrating on the omnipresent, insidious practices of the dominant ideology, [popular culture] attempts to understand the everyday resistances and evasions that make that ideology work so hard and insistently to maintain itself and its values” (pp. 20-21). In other words, popular culture challenges the identity of dominant culture institutions that work to maintain and perpetuate these identities. The power of cultural production is revealed in symbolic acts or the practices of symbol making. Collaborative activist art produced by groups incorporates or uses symbolism in its expressions. Danto (1989), an aesthetician, posited that the nature of art depends on the use of symbolism. He compared two tribal cultures, the Basket Folk and 23
the Pot People, who both make baskets and pottery. To the Basket Folk, a basket is a metaphor for their world. It is an embodiment for everything that is important to this tribe. Basketmakers are highly revered in this society. They imitate the creation of the universe through weaving grasses. To this tribe, a pot is only considered a utilitarian object, although it is carefully crafted and decorated. On the other hand, to the Pot People the opposite is true: the pot is a metaphor for their world, and the basket is utilitarian. Danto asserted that the most important factor found in all human expression is that which symbolizes the world view of the producers. Symbol forming is integral to the declaration of cultural products as art. For collaborative activist artists, the symbol as the object of expression brings to the activity a confluence of identity and belief in the future. Values and meaning are learned from exploring how human groups identify themselves through verbal communication and extenuating visual clues. Dissanayake (1991) examined objects of human design as subtle visual communication. She considered that symbols are important to decode from cultural production. Interested in the idea of art, she relied on the artifact in ethnologic terms. From her view, art making is an inherent universal characteristic of the human species. This wide perspective allows an appreciation and understanding that does not limit the art making process to the achievements of only an elite few. Rather, it is one that is fundamental and characteristic of our species, no different than other “normal and necessary behavior of human beings.... like talking, exercising, playing, working, socializing, learning, loving, and nurturing” (p. 26). In other words, art making is value laden and a meaningful form of symbolic communication, which reveals cultural identity. The variety of perspectives represented from folklore, popular culture, aesthetics, and ethnology share unique and related views on cultural production. Examining both the uses and practices associated with cultural production enhances the understanding of an object’s meaning and the cultural values it represents. In these pages, it is suggested that within common culture guerrilla expressions exist and undermine dominant ideology and the status quo. I believe that collaborative activist art can be useful to progressively promote positive social change and that its practice or production is educational and informative. Art and controversv. Collaborative activist art is frequently concerned or associated with controversy. It could be considered as an art of controversy, where controversy connotes ideological conflicts. I suggest that there are many ways or modes of expression concerning the art of controversy. Previously, I implied that collaborative activist art might 24
be thought of as guerrilla art. Other expressive modes for this genre include political art, activist art, anti-art, and public art. In many ways, these modes are closely related. The rest of this section clarifies these distinctions according to selected literature. Controversy is the meeting of conflicting views. Conflicting views are often based on ideological differences. I return to Williams (1983) to understand ideology. He described ideology as being akin to a belief system or a disposition. Hske (1982) listed Williams’ three main uses of the word ideology: 1. A system of beliefs characteristic of a particular class or group. 2. A system of illusory beliefs—false ideas or false consciousness—which can be contrasted with true or scientific knowledge. 3. The general process of the production of meanings and ideas, (p. 165) These uses have similar elements but different foci of meanings. Each implies that ideology is socially constructed and not universally true. The first use focuses on ways that individuals’ attitudes are patterned into social constructions. The second use is similar to the first but differs by focusing on the dichotomy established between belief and scientific knowledge. Fiske described the third as encompassing the previous two uses. It is a wider use of ideology that describes and emphasizes the social production of meanings. Williams contended that a sensible person relies on experience or develops a philosophy rather than establishes a belief in ideology. Eagleton (1991) presented a range of useful meanings for ideology and claimed that there is not one single adequate definition for the word. However, he reached this conclusion: ideology aims to disclose something of the relation between an utterance and its material conditions of possibility, when those conditions of possibility are viewed in the light of certain power struggles central to the reproduction (or also, for some theories, contestation) of a whole form of social life. (p. 223) Eagleton described the use of the word ideology as a form of shorthand to categorize, under one heading, a variety of different things that underlie actions. Discourse about ideology reveals the relationship between language and situations, particularly regarding the aspect of hegemony. I use ideology, in this study, to bring an awareness to the conditions relative to tensions between different world views. The social production of meanings and the contentions that oftentimes result between groups and individuals is central to collaborative 25
activist art. Most examples of collaborative activist art are expressions that attempt to contest oppressive material or social conditions. Often collaborative activist art expressions are formed from ideological movements in open public arenas contesting a dominant ideology. Thus, collaborative activist art is almost always political. Storr, curator at the Museum of Modem Art, stated in an interview; “Good public art doesn’t address a stereotypical person, it addresses conflicts inherent in given definitions of the social reality—conflicts among, but also within, individuals and groups” (Heartney, 1992, p. 16). This statement by Storr implies that the presence of internal and external world views and the production of successful political public art depends upon recognizing the tension between views. Morales (1990), “a Jewish Puerto Rican, parent, artist, and organizer” (p. 16), had this to say about labelling art as political: “As it applies to art, ‘political’ is a clear ‘no trespass’ sign forbidding access to whatever the ruling elite does not wish people to think about” (p. 18). In other words, labeling art political often prevents artists from representing a world view that is different from dominant ideology. Once a work is labeled political it may fall prey to many forms of censorship. Several contexts for this study of collaborative activist art are reflected by the debate over funding controversial art and by the recent political climate in the United States. From the 1980s rose “the conservative myth of an integrated republic, a single political identity shared by all Americans,” claimed artist Bolton (1991, p. 25). He suggested that when producing art with a political message, one must attempt to do the following: articulate and negotiate competing agendas for the balance of power, bring diverse communities together, and build organizations and social movements from below without hierarchy. In short, Bolton called for the development and intensification of democratic cultural activity. Oftentimes political art is presented in an activist form. Sholette (1990) made the distinction between two kinds of political art: theorist and activist. He proposed that political art theorists work in a specialist domain. Sholette described theoiy as an elitist enterprise, whereas he predetermined political art activism to be a conspiracy in nonelitist and almost revolutionary endeavors. In an analysis of activist art, Kuspit (1991) claimed that it is moralistic. He advised that activist artists, whether individually or collectively, consider moral righteousness as more important than aesthetic intention. He backs his opinion up with this statement; “The activist argument is that if art is not explicitly in the moral opposition, it finds itself naively in the service of the immoral status quo” (p. 21). 26
Activist art, to Kuspit, is about “oppositionality in general and opposition to the aesthetic in particular,” identifying it inherently as “anti-art” (p. 24). Solnit (1992) discussed the rise of political art that actively reclaims public space, especially on the West Coast She implied that there are two kinds of activist artists who do not make a distinction between art making and activism and who are interested in public spaces: activists who “have recognized the power of visual imagery and symbolic representation” and artists who have become “disillusioned with the margins usually allotted political art within the fine-art exhibition spaces” (p. 24). Solnit described the expressions as challenging “to public art through official channels, to political art in private spaces, [and] to the dreary unimaginativeness of much traditional Leftist activity” (p. 24). Similarly, Matthews (1992) reported on a symposium. Mapping the Terrain (1991), organized by performance artist Suzanne Lacy, that in part focused on redefining public art for contemporary times. Matthews concluded by stating that a future political public art “is about groups of people in action” reclaiming public space from economic, architectural, and bureaucratic constriction. An understanding of action is important for this study and is addressed at the end of my discussion on activism. Art and the nomenclature. A summary of the previously discussed material reveals much about the use of art\n collaborative activist art. As an art-culture system. Paper Tiger TV is an example that represents ideas about: values and meaning in cultural production, cultural production use and practice, and conflicting world views. Additionally, Paper Tiger TV challenges the definition of art by blurring distinctions between popular culture, folk culture, and “high” or academic culture in content and form. It has tendencies toward guerrilla art, political art, activist art, and anti-art in a public space. It presents these tendencies in an openly self-critical, politically charged, and nonacademically trained art forum, tendencies that challenge the commonly held and culturally biased notions of art. Clifford (1988) constructed an art-culture system that acknowledges distinctions between masterpiece, artifact, authentic, and unauthentic cultural production. It is a binaiy system that implies a hegemonic structure. In this matrix, he included anti-art expressions as unauthentic masterpieces, new and uncommon objects of nonculture. An analysis of anti-art is applicable to the early work of Paper Tiger TV. Since then, their productions have become appreciated by an elitist audience, evidenced through representation in an art museum. This has elevated it to the status of “authentic masterpieces” (p. 224). However, the collective and craftlike qualities associated with Paper Tiger TV suggest that these expressions could be considered artifacts according to Clifford. I think it is difficult to 27 assign a judgement of masterpiece or artifact, art or not art, according to theoretical restrictions to Paper Tiger TV or any example of collaborative activist art. This exercise presents the problems inherent in a codified theoretical system such as Clifford’s. The idea to explore the relationship between art and culture as a system is a good one. However, Clifford limits his understanding to one system rather than art-culture systems. I recognize the value of his contribution for understanding the relationship between artistic production and cultural values, important for accepting everyday life, including anti-art, as art. I also value accepting a wide definition of art for the nomenclature in order to include multiple kinds of cultural production for context study. ACT UP and Activism Returning to ACT UP as an example of socially concerned group expression is useful for understanding the term activism. ACT UP was mentioned in an editorial on the AIDS epidemic by Utne ( 1994) as having "‘redefined the whole notion of activism during the 1980s” (p. 62). ACT UP, the name of the movement, connotes persuasion toward social change through activism. Utne presented ACT UP as a large, national, decentralized, and controversial social movement, comparable to the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Interests in issues related to AIDS and homosexuality brought thousands out to demonstrate their agitation about discrimination and ignorance. Group demonstrations and expressions included; angry street protests, outreach programs, poster campaigns, and forms of direct action. Activism and social change. A common goal for activists is significant social change. I recognize that activism is often the result of a group’s concern and desire for change within the institutions that collectively comprise society. Bowers, Ochs, and Jensen (1993) defined social change as: any change, written or unwritten, in the way society regulates itself. A change may be substantive (higher wages for members of a union) or procedural (a collective bargaining agreement for members of a union). Change may affect the use of power or the distribution of that power; may affect one group, many groups, or all groups in a culture; may be political, religious, economic, or all of these things. Change may require enactment of legislation or repeal of legislation and may call for bigger government, smaller government, or no government. All of these issues are matters of ideology, (p. 5) The authors discussed the word significant as a discernable level of social change. I think that it is important to distinguish between substantive and procedural forms of social 28
change or administrative concerns, as well as recognizing different levels of significance, as the authors did. However, this definition from Bowers et al. omits changes in popular perception as a form of social change. I see the demand for civil rights from African Americans, Gays, and other minorities as a demand for the majority to change their perception and treatment of them. In my opinion, these groups desire social changes that concern human interaction rather than social change effected by legislative policy. I think Moore (1968) might consider perceptual change as part of social change. He provided this definition of social change that touches on the scale, the duration, and the frequency of change: Social change is the significant alteration of social structures (that is, of patterns of social action and interaction), including consequences and manifestations of such structures embodied in norms (rules of conduct), values, and cultural products and symbols, (p. 366) On social change, Moore commented that change “is as characteristic of [hu]man’s life in organized systems as is orderly persistence” (p. 365). He posited that change is unavoidable and is integrated into biological cycles and systems as well as social organization. Also, he described the paradox between the existence of social change and the way the sciences emphasize “orderly interdependence and static continuity” (p. 365). Bowers et al. ( 1993) focused on power and its distribution for social regulation and its effect concerning ideological differences; whereas Moore (1968) emphasized patterns and rules of behavior, including the objects that represent a group’s ideology. Bowers et al. framed the idea of social change within the study of agitation and control that relates to activism as a form of cultural expression. Moore’s discussion is a clarification the idea of social change concerning systems of relationships. Both definitions have contributed to my understanding of social change and activism. Kinds of social change. There appear to be two approaches to implement social change. One involves coercion, harassment, and sometimes violence. The other approach invites healthy social change through education that increases awareness, evokes a response for action, and informs to expand a knowledge base. The latter approach is certainly more positive. I use the term healthy to describe this type of social action because it includes as its basis expressions that evoke participatory democracy; it is action that contributes to the well-being of society. Collaborative activist art is comparable to other healthy movements for social change in the United States. Progressive education, the Civil Rights movement, and 29
multicultural education all have certain elements that resemble social change movements that depended upon participatory democracy for sucess and continuation. Examples of civil disobedience from the Civil Rights movement, such as lunch-counter sit-ins, closely relate to collaborative activist art because the activities were symbolic and educational. Additionally, certain forms of multicultural education to implement curricula that encourage social change through increasing awareness of diverse perspectives and direct action. In particular, I draw attention to education that is multicultural and social reconstructionist. Sleeter and Grant (1987) presented the goals of this educational approach as: helping students gain a better understanding of the causes of oppression and inequality and ways in which these social problems might be eliminated;... changing... teaching practices in ways that will make their classrooms more democratic;... [and encouraging] students... to use power for collective betterment, rather than learning mainly obedience, (p. 435) In effect, collaborative activist art as an approach to encourage social change through participatory democracy reflects many of the goals of social reconstructionists. Forms of activism. Activism is defined in the American Heritage Dictionary as behavior “based on militant action.” The word militant cormo\&s a fight for one’s cause and implies an aggressive zeal or an enthusiasm for the endeavor. Terrorism, revolution, civil disobedience, law-abiding demonstrations and rallies, and conscientious objection are forms of activism. However, these forms of activism range in expression or kinds of social change. The dictionary does not provide a comprehensive definition of activism. I have chosen ACT UP to represent one redefinition of activism. They were described as having a flair for peaceful, public demonstrations over moral issues. Two elements of activism, that I recognize as important to collaborative activist art and which ACT UP employed, are nonviolent expression and public display. Activist expressions can vary in form (Perry, 1984). For example, some Vietnam War protesters filed conscientious objections to participating in acts of war. Others publicly burned draft-cards to demonstrate their opposition through illegal acts. I see committing violent or terrorist activity, as an expression against the war, as contradictory to the purpose. Civil disobedience protesters aim to change legislative policies. They openly violate civil laws (Perry, 1984; Bay 1968). Important to this study are the common factors between collaborative activist art and civil disobedience; both are public expressions and both are nonviolent. 30
There are three reasons that I am using civil disobedience over law-abiding demonstrations and rallies as a basis for discussion. First, acts of civil disobedience are intended to be nonviolent and public. Second, more information exists on defining civil disobedience (Perry, 1984; Bay, 1968) than activism as demonstrations or rallies. Rnally, many of the examples, that I find interesting, are not ordinary law-abiding demonstrations and rallies (e.g., blocking traffic, defacement of billboards, or poster attacks). Perry defined civil disobedience in two ways: For some people, civil disobedience refers to dangerous episodes of moralistic defiance of the public order and circumvention of the political process. For others, it is a traditional way of asserting the rights of conscience and defending the interests of minorities, and thus it is essential to reform within the bounds of constitutional government, (p. 210) Bay defined civil disobedience as: any act or process of public defiance of a law or policy enforced by established governmental authorities, insofar as the action is premeditated, understood by the actoifs) to be illegal or of contested legality, carried out and persisted in for limited public ends and by way of carefully chosen and limited means, (p. 473) A comprehensive look at these definitions reveals specific elements of civil disobedience that I find significant to collaborative activist art: public violation and defiance of the law, ways around the formal political process, the bolstering of minority positions, demands for social reform, and premeditation in behavior and choice of expression. Both of these definitions emphasize the need to eliminate political discrimination. For collaborative activist art, perhaps these definitions could be expanded to include the need to eliminate social and cultural discrimination as well. Action, ideologv. and voice. Activism in favor of social change is an ideological call to action. The root word of activism is action. Both contain the word act, which comes from the Latin actus meaning *‘to drive, to do.” Thus, it is helpful in analyzing social reform movements to examine a group’s activity. To define action, Stewart, Smith and Denton (1989) discussed the difference between it and motion. They described action as the human production of symbols, and motion as an operation of nature. They stated “our social behavior is grounded in symbolism. Symbolic forms influence conduct because motives arise in human communication” (p. 138). It appears that both art and activism involve the production of symbols as human communication. The word activism 31
includes connotations of motivation, effort, and purpose. All are important to collaborative activist art. Activism could be summarized as the practice of ideologically motivated action for social change. It involves groups of people, as agitators, who perceive a need for reform and express these views externally or publicly. Bowers et al. (1993) presented this process of social change as a social phenomena called agitation and control. They stated: Agitation exists when (1) people outside the normal decision-making establishment (2) advocate significant social change and (3) encounter a degree of resistance within the means of persuasion. Control refers to the response of the decision making establishment to agitation, (p. 4) This passage is a description of the interaction between agitators and establishments. I accept this definition of agitation to describe activist behaviors for this study. Furthermore, Bowers et al. posited that the examination of a particular instance of agitation requires an understanding of ideology. They described two kinds of agitation based on ideological identification: one “occurs when the agitators accept the value system of the establishment but dispute the distribution of benefits or power within that value system.... [the other] occurs when the agitators dispute the value system itself’ (p. 7). Collaborative activist artists work within these forms of agitation. As agitators, artist-activists challenge the establishment through ideologically identifiable imagery. They voice collective world views externally. An examination of Wertsch (1991) is useful for understanding the process of ideologically motivated action. In ideological conflict, a collective of agitators will hold an internal world view. Analyzing public group expressions requires understanding their process in the development of their idea or the activity that precedes extemalization. The developmental process of a group expression is shaped internally. Action includes the internal development or process as well as the extemalization or product. How the extemalization is received by an audience can also become part of or an extension to the process. This is what Wertsch (1991) called dialogicality. In Wertsch’s theory of dialogicality, utterances refer to the voice or voices of the speaker and others. Wertsch claimed that prior to an external expression there are intemal utterances or dialogues within the mind prior to extemal expression. Wertsch’s (1991) ideas about communication processes are important for understanding action relative to activism in collaborative activist art. I think that it is arguable that within a collective there is a group mind. The process of intemal utterances 32 prior to forming an extemal expression may be applicable to analyzing group process. Although Wertsch’s work seems to be within the field of human psychology, he claimed it to be a sociocultural approach to mind. His writings recognize and emphasize the relationship between accounting for human mental processes and their “cultural, historical, and institutional settings” (p. 6). A sociocultural approach to recognizing intemal and extemal aspects of dialogic processes is important for understanding action because it is the preparation for activism. Activism and the nomenclature. I can only surmise what intemal utterances are generated before an ACT UP event. An interview would only reveal a surface understanding, in Wertsch’s (1991) sense. A participant of ACT UP would know the subtleties and intricacies of their own intemal dialogic process. I believe that Wertsch would agree that it is difficult to analyze intemal utterances from an extemal viewpoint. Wertsch called attention to action as an important object for study. I also view action as integral to practice. In the case of ACT UP, the base of action is part of their name, and activism was a significant part of their extemal expression. ACT UP actively sought and fought for significant social change. Their expressions were very public, including blocking city streets and jamming phone lines of a public TV station, and bordered on civil disobedience. Their actions expressed their world view. These demonstrators, who represented a cultural group, perceived a need for equal treatment under the law and in social interaction. Their actions resulted from the existence of discriminatory attitude against homosexuals as a cultural group. In other words, ACT UP became a noticeable civil rights movement of a group who refused to be marginalized by concepts and problems associated with AIDS. The movement fashioned an innovative style of activism as practice that was unique to ACT UP, and that led to empowerment through solidarity. Ultimately, the movement did meet resistance, and even if complete satisfaction was not achieved, a tremendous national network developed for other less publicly challenging work to take place. The word activism applies to ACT UP because of their willful acts of defiance and resistance. Guerrilla Girls and Collaboration In my opinion, the Guerrilla Girls exemplify the idea of collaboration. Raven (1988) discussed collaboration as a feminist political endeavor. The Guerrilla Girls is a group of female artists who are disgruntled by attitudes in the contemporaiy artworld that they perceive as chauvinistic (Schor, 1990). They developed and used clever devices, which have become emblematic of the Guerrilla Girls, to maintain their anonymity, assert 33 their autonomy, and strengthen their solidarity. They express through a collective voice a consistent and strong ideology that appears to lead them into action. It is interesting to examine the Guerrilla Girls relative to their use of collaboration. In this final section. I discuss a sociological perspective on art as collective action and the relationship of art to the social sciences. However, first I provide an understanding of collaboration and its related terms. Understanding collaboration and related terms. In my opinion, the modem world is sadly individualized and in need of collaborative models for learning. The opening of this study cited Bellah et al. (1985), who recognized that the American tradition of freedom for the individual has led to isolation and fragmentation. Current trends in art education encourage cooperative learning strategies (Hurowitz, 1994; Houser, 1991) and collaboration between educational institutions and its leaders (Hanes & Schiller, 1994; McGowan & Powell, 1990; Clark, 1988). These developments imply that it is important to understand the meaning of collaboration and its use in group art processes. Often the word collaboration is used loosely to describe group work. Using slave labor to build an enormous tomb for the Pharaoh was not collaboration. Sometimes works are presented and discussed as collaboration, when other words (e.g., cooperatives, consortiums, networks, and partnerships) would be more accurate labels for them (Clark, 1988). In most cases, the structure of the organization determines the degree of collaboration. If a group clearly has a leader, it may not necessarily be a collaboration. Appley and Winder (1977) discussed the definition of collaboration and implications for the world of work. After presenting their ideas about the need for solutions to growing environmental problems, they defined collaboration as a value system that is open to new solutions. They posited that old hegemonic structures foisted through competition interfere with the development of collaboration for an improved future. Appley and Winder viewed the process of collaboration as one that starts with an individual’s perception of work as personally meaningful. They also discussed “new organizational forms, skills, and planning that flow from acceptance of and implementation of the collaborative value system” (p. 280). Appley and Winder presented collaboration as a relational system in which: 1) individuals in a group share mutual aspirations and a common conceptual framework; 2) the interactions among individuals are characterized by ‘justice as fairness’; and 3) these aspirations and conceptualizations are characterized by each individuals’ consciousness of his/her motives toward the other; by caring or 34
concern for the other; and by commitment to work with the other over time provided that this commitment is a matter of choice, (p. 281) The authors emphasized and discussed the establishment of shared aspirations and conceptualizations and the key words: consciousness, caring, commitment, and choice, as necessary components for effective collaboration. They implied, and I concur, that truly collaborative processing models or actions call for group participants to make a conscious shift from egocentric competition to group cooperation in order to facilitate growth toward global awareness. Choosing to make the shift in consciousness, necessary to promote and develop global health, requires both caring and commitment. In my opinion, a collaboration is made up of ideologically like-minded people. Oftentimes, members of a collective do not share an ideal within a group paradigm, and the group’s activities are not collaborative. Because of this, I think that it is important to briefly mention other forms of collective endeavor for assessing collaborative activist art. Clark (1988) provided a simplified understanding of terms relating to but not synonymous with collaboration, including cooperation, partnership, consortium, and network. Cooperation seems to be the most closely related word to collaboration, but Clark made the distinction that cooperation is a process of reaching mutual agreement for satisfying different individual needs rather than a group need as in true collaboration. He described partnership or consortium as relationships between dissimilar parties: whereas partnership is a parring of people or organizations, a consortium includes more than two parties. Clark defined a network as a relationship formed by individuals of similar interest. Networks can serve a variety of purposes and frequently are antiestablishment. In general, collaborations intend to produce change or resist it, as evidenced in all of the aforementioned groups. Collective action, social science, and art. Becker (1974,1986), a sociologist, provided a perspective that is helpful for understanding how art has a social character, just as knowledge and cultural products have a social base. He surmised that all action is collective and the production of art is no exception. To Becker, the collective action of art includes all of the participants (e.g., the paint maker, the canvas producer, the painter, the curator, and the audience) in the production of cultural objects. Collectivity comes in the form of implied mutual agreement which he described as conventions within the artworld. Artistic conventions make it possible for work to be produced; and when they are challenged, they can be revised within the social system of the artworld. Thus, the production of art is a social process of collective action, as the participants within these art- culture systems are cooperating with each other in order to satisfy personal needs. The 35 production of art is less apt to be collaborative. For this study, I am interested in various kinds of group endeavor, but I am most interested in collectives that exhibit collaborative tendencies that challenge already existing conventions. One notable artist who challenges artworld conventions is Hans Haacke. Becker (1986) compared Haacke and his work to that of social scientists. “Haacke is mainly interested in the networks of relationships through which power is exercised in the artworld and in the social, economic, and political bases of that power” (p. 104). Becker said that Haacke explores systems through his art by using methods, which are comparatively crude but similar to those of social scientists. Power structures, often the foci of social science research are also the subject of much of his work. I theorize that working in collaboration is not only a political statement as described earlier, but also is a social experiment that, in part, can explore power structures and provide new solutions for human practice as well. Although Haacke’s work makes strong social statements, Haacke himself is not collaborating with others but participating in collective action as described by Becker. Other artists, like Joseph Beuys (7,000 Oaks, 1982) and Judy Chicago (The Dinner Party, 1980), have facilitated collaborative work but their names are attached to the production. These three artists might influence collaborative artwork that challenges social conventions within artworlds and other worlds. Collaboration and the nomenclature. Perhaps a better model for collaboration is the Guerrilla Girls collective. The Guerrilla Girls appear to be a strong collaborative effort from my outsider’s perspective. My assessment of the Guerrilla Girls’ work as collaborative action is based on their ability to cloak their intemal activities under an ideological identity. Thus, I contend that in this case their ideology leads them to action. Factors that contribute to this assessment include individual anonymity, political autonomy, and collective solidarity. However, it is difficult to know if the Guerrilla Girls operate collaboratively because there is not an obvious leader who takes credit for their actions. They do present a collaborative image, but it is hard to determine this from one image and through an outside investigation. I suspect that group size affects the ability to collaborate, that it is probably easier to collaborate with fewer individuals than many. The Guerrilla Girls are a large national organization. Their membership is undeterminable from outside and could perhaps be better described as a network. An accurate assessment of the organization would require an investigation of their intemal processes. The term collaborative as a part of the nomenclature collaborative activist art was chosen to describe a social and political ideal and a processing model or practice for 36
experimentation in social change. Becker (1974,1986) maintained that society operates within collective norms. Collaboration has been described with the aid of a feminist political group, however it is not limited to only feminist groups. I posit that collaboration as defined in the preceding section is typically not part of common consciousness and organizational activities. Furthermore, I see collaborative action as stemming from consensus rather than majority rule . I believe that it is difficult to achieve consensually based collaboration in a society accustomed to representative democratic processes. All group activity be it in the form of cooperatives, consortiums, networks, or partnerships is practice toward achieving true collaboration.
Understanding Collaborative Activist Art: A Synthesis In an effort to understand collaborative activist art, I have defined each of the terms that comprise the nomenclature and discussed relative examples. To conclude this chapter, I summarize and combine salient points from the preceding discussion of literature relating to collaborative activist art. The following summary presents degrees of collaboration, qualities of activism, and modes of expression as ways to discuss examples of socially concerned group art. My research of the individual terms provided me with a concise but flexible definition of collaborative activist art that emphasizes process. The following conclusion describes a mechanism for assessing certain attributes of The ACME Art Co. and provides a new content area, that is the use and practice of collaborative activist art, for discourse in art education and related fields. For this study, the term collaboration refers to shared actions based on ideological cohesion. I consider collaboration as an ideal; one that is achievable though not commonly practiced in contemporary society. As an ideal, it depends upon each group member exercising consciousness, caring, commitment, and choice (Appley & Winder; 1977). I described collaboration as a political statement and an experimental model for social change. Because true collaboration is unfamiliar to ordinary social interaction, I emphasize the need to assess the degree of its use for discourse on collaborative activist art. Degrees of collaborative activist art provide some flexibility to include many forms of collective endeavor for discussion without submitting an example to strident restrictions. Thus, an assessment of collective or group endeavor might be more accurately described as either a cooperation, consortium, network, partnership, for example without being excluded from the genre. Holding collaboration as an ideal gives participation and facilitation of group endeavor a range of possibilities suitable for growth in unique situations. 37
Oftentimes the term activism carries negative connotations, perhaps developed through its use in popular news media. Activist endeavor always serves to promote social change and develops into power struggles between agitators and the establishment (Bowers et al., 1993). Change is a natural occurrence and often challenges humanly constructed fortifications of elitist domination. Activists in the U.S. often exercise their Hrst Amendment rights. Challenges to establishment practices and policies—even if the sought after social change as social, political, and ecological betterment—may threaten establishment ideologies. 1 endorse activism in this study and intend to present it as a positive phenomenon and its use as an appropriate mechanism for change at least within a democratic nation such as the U.S. 1 present it as one of this nation’s founding principles and practices that has been and continues to be useful by marginalized groups to better conditions for themselves. I do not condone violent action or consider its use appropriate for activism or this artform. Furthermore, I maintain that the use of humor in activist expression is a viable means to communicate a concern in an effective and nonthreatening way. In collaborative activist art, activism is a positive, nonviolent force for social change. The term art is also broadly defined for this study. I defined it to include cultural production from everyday life. It represents not one set of values, but many. In other words, many modes of cultural production and expressive meaning comprise my understanding and use of the term art. My theoretical distinctions also include anti-art, just as some theories of physics recognize the coexistence of and mutual support between matter and antimatter. Thus, my definition of art is open to the relationship of cultural production to its social base, discussed as art-culture systems. These ideas suggest that the study of cultural objects recognizes and explores sociocultural contexts and related ideologies surrounding the object of study. The terms collaborative, activist, and art were chosen to form the nomenclature of collaborative activist art. They were selected for their individual meanings and for their relationship or correspondence to each other. For example, collaborative can be used to describe an activist statement; and, activism is a form of cultural expression. Each term inherently implies process as well as describes a product. Individually, each term also inherently possesses and presents ideology. For this study, I intend in part, to free cultural production from single ideological possession and transfer it to public domain. I choose to think of these terms independently as descriptive of models for use and practice. Together as collaborative activist art, I define the nomenclature as a process system for collective facilitation of participatory democratic social change through education and cultural 38 expression. In the next chapter, I describe my method of investigation for a case study of a local group and how I intend to assess their work as collaborative activist art based on my definition of the label. Chapter III THE EXAMINATION OF A LOCAL CASE EXAMPLE
I began the study of collaborative activist art with two research questions. In Chapter II, I answered the first question: “Is ‘collaborative activist art’ a suitable nomenclature for socially concerned group art?” There, I defined the terms that comprise the nomenclature that I designed to assess group expressions that challenge dominant ideology. This chapter explains the procedure that I implemented to assess a local case example of the genre. I discuss the details of how I answered the second research question: “What is the relationship between the subject of this case study, ACME, and collaborative activist art?” In the previous chapter, the circumstances and usage of the nomenclature were presented as a discussion of its terms and their synthesis into a definition. Now that I have named and defined an expressive genre of socially concerned group art, I intend to explain my process for finding a local group, describing the group and its environment, interpreting its identity and activities, and analyzing it as an example of collaborative activist art. The discussion of the examination of a local case example of collaborative activist art includes the theoretical underpinnings of my research method and the process of data collection, presentation, and analysis as it unfolded.
Research Theory and Method Examining the Expressive Genre The nomenclature collaborative activist art was created from an eclectic variety of perspectives, forming an subject for discourse. The application of this nomenclature to a local example creates a case study that further informs the genre. Unique objects and situations are best researched as case studies; each case study is also unique and requires research methods that are tailored to it (Wolcott, 1988). This rationale is the basis of the theory and method of my research.
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The process of examining a unique and elusive topic involved many decisions about research theory and method. These decisions often terminated in false starts and dead-end avenues. For my research, new beginnings and direction reconsiderations influenced the research methods chosen, provided insights on the topic, and shaped the genre that was discussed in the previous chapter. Doing the literature review was an important step in this study because it gave me insight into the terms I had chosen to form the nomenclature for the genre under investigation. To recapitulate, in the previous chapter I defined the nomenclature of collaborative activist art as a process system for collective facilitation of participatory democratic social change through education and cultural expression. Having settled on collaborative activist art as a nomenclature and a definition to use in discourse concerning it, I chose a local example to use for a case study. From the beginning of this study, I was well aware that the topic of collaborative activist art and subsequently most examples are potentially challenging to established socially constructed realities. Thus, I opened my study by acknowledging shifts in perceptions, awareness of other or new realities, and multiple perspectives in the current mutable era. ITiis is the basis for my reasoning to employ an eclectic mix of research techniques for this study. Through the research process, I recognized that collaborative activist artists are challenging belief systems. According to Anderson ( 1990) the current era is about world view conflict; ‘“not merely between beliefs, but conflict about belief itself’ (p. 3). It is his opinion that all ideas about human reality are social constructions. Concerning this study, the construction of the nomenclature collaborative activist art depended on two variables: my view and the activities of artists and their audiences. Anderson posits that often there is one ruling or dominant belief system. Central to that system is a balance of power that favors those who ascribe to the dominant ideology. Sometimes the dominant ideology is challenged and replaced by a new power. My point is that many of the contemporary groups in this study seem to find their ideological positions outside of the dominant belief. Part of my quest was to explore and interpret the relationship between groups critical of the status quo and the greater society. As scientific research, this study also presents a challenge because the research is about change, including changes in perceptions. The difficulties that I found in such an endeavor were the artificiality of constructing a name, the open-endedness of the nomenclature, and the impossibility of establishing change through its study—as a reminder. Chapter II emphasized the processing aspect of collaborative activist art over the 41
product of collective effort. Heisenberg, a nuclear physicist, recognized similar problems while studying particles in motion. Salz (1990) described Heisenberg’s discovery in a discussion on the “imbalance in the approaches to teaching and to learning” (p. 389). Basically, Heisenberg found that the identification of an electron for examination or its measurement knocks it out of orbit. He discovered that the precise position and momentum of an object in space cannot be known at the same time, noting “What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning” (Heisenberg in Salz, 1990, p. 392). This means two things for my study: (a) that my research into collaborative activist art must be a qualitative case study and (b) that my presence as a researcher changes the situation and that the presentation of my research on collaborative activist art to the field of art education changes the shape or direction of such a phenomenon. Qualitative Research This research follows the evolution of an idea through inquiry. My case study is an examination of a group in its environment and its relationship to the nomenclature that I have created. The methods I chose for this research are qualitative. This study emulates qualitative research methods described by Marshall and Rossman (1989) “as a means for better understanding complex social phenomen[a]” (p. 9). They also identified six traditional ways or domains of doing qualitative research, where inquiry is commonly practiced in natural settings rather than controlled ones. However, my study is different from the typical ways of doing qualitative research, described by Marshall and Rossman. Whereas my study did occur in a natural setting without the imposition of control or experimental measures, I did come to the case study with the specific intention of finding out how well a c m e ’s activities and identity fit my nomenclature of collaborative activist art. To achieve my intention, I tried to make sense of the research experience in my own terms (Denzin, 1989), incorporated my perspective in making observations (Kleinman & Copp, 1993), and strove to develop a writing strategy to translate my understanding to reach my audience (Richardson, 1990). These approaches bring attention to aspects in research that could be problematic in qualitative studies and that require awareness in order to avoid. The unique nature of the topic, the subject, and my experience can all be related to Heisenberg’s study of subatomic particles and suggest the need for me to follow these approaches for my study. A researcher’s perspective exists and cannot be ignored. To be able to see an electron, Heisenberg used gamma rays, which contained enough energy to alter the course 42
and position of his subject. With rays of lesser wavelength the activity of the electron would not have been altered but also the electron would not have been observable. It is important in research to note the conditions under which the subject was observed as sometimes the presence of the researcher affects the activity of the subject. Denzin (1989) implied the importance of recognizing the researcher’s perspective and complicated that idea further by including the perspective of the subject. Denzin addressed the importance of striving to recognize oneself and the others by including the many voices that comprise the narrative. In my case, the subject is a collection of informants. I attempted to represent their narrative by acknowledging the stories and experiences of my informants as well as my own. The theoretical framework of my method included ideas from Kleinman and Copp (1993) on recognizing one’s own emotions while doing fieldwork. They discussed several issues related to keeping fieldnotes and encouraged fieldworkers to observe and document their emotional responses to their studies, informants, and professional ideals. The authors recommended keeping a diaiy to record these experiences. I kept such a record throughout my fieldwork. It included thoughts about my data, ideas for writing, and insights about my observations. This material helped me understand my perspective on collaborative activist art as well the subject of the study. Being able to clearly present the study was a challenge for me. Richardson (1990) discussed the theoretical issues linked to contemporary writing. Her monograph addressed theoretical and methodological problems of using language in constructing reality and provided linguistic devices for writing and an understanding of narrative. She established a position that “challenges claims to a singular, correct style for doing and presenting research and rejects the Enlightenment’s faith in progress through education and rationality” (p. II). Furthermore, she contended that the problem of research is not in devising better ways to construct social realities; it is in writing up the research, emphasizing careful attention to authorship while admonishing the practice of presenting oneself as an authority. Throughout the writing of this research, I have tried to make my writing accessible to a wide audience. Case Studv and Research Methods Stake (1988) described case study methods as means for presenting a situation with its personal and social complexity. It does not tell the complete story. A case study “is a study of a ‘bounded system,’ emphasizing the unity and wholeness of that system, but confining the attention to those aspects that are relevant to the research problem at the time” 43
(p. 258). Thus in a case study, the researcher describes the boundaries of a system and the issues relating to the system, usually based on observations and interviews. Stake also noted that it is common for authors of case studies to discover patterns of meaning for their analysis. Issues of validity (Stake, 1988) and generalizability (Donmoyer, 1990; Reinhauz, 1992) depend on the use of the findings. “A case study is valid to the reader to whom it gives an accurate and useful representation of the bounded system” (Stake, 1988, p. 263). In other words, observing and reporting are unique to each perspective. Reinhauz might agree, having stated: “social science’s emphasis on generalizations has obscured phenomena important to particular groups” (p. 174). On generalizability in a case study, Donmoyer said that “the role of the research is not primarily to find the correct interpretation.... The purpose of research is simply to expand the range of interpretations available to the research consumer” (1990, p. 194). The importance of the case study then depends partly on the interest and interpretation of the reader. Stake (1988) claimed “that the case study does not guarantee that the reader will have an equal share in the interpretation, but it is common for responsibility to be shared between case study researcher and reader” (p. 262). Thus, the interpretation of a case study, as well as cultural production, is subjective. Because both cultural production and case studies have inherent meaning, they are open to a variety of interpretations. My work not only involved the meaning found in the subject of the study, but also the interpretation of the genre collaborative activist art. In this study, 1 was both witness to and interpreter of the subject of the study and the relationship between artist and audience. 1 looked at the subject of the study, its makers, and its perceivers. Included in the study are my biases, which are integral to the accounting process of creating the nomenclature collaborative activist art. Thus, my perspective is a hermeneutic one. Hermeneutics is the process of giving translation, meaning, interpretation, or explanation (Gadamer, 1977). My awareness of the hermeneutics surrounding the cultural production of collaborative activist art is important for my presentation of the research. To help form my understanding of the phenomenon, 1 have defined collaborative activist art according to related literature. 1 then formed a case study based on the bounded system described by collaborative activist art The data collected is the result of a variety of research techniques (Stake, 1988; Wolcott, 1988), mainly observation and interviews, which are often considered ethnographic methods (Reinhauz, 1992; Spradley, 1979, 4 4
1980). The procedure of this application involved limited participant observation (Wolcott, 1988). However, my case study was not an ethnography, because I was not interested in representing an insider’s perspective as an end result. My pursuit thus became an examination of a local case study as an example of collaborative activist art, a nomenclature not created by my subjects but by myself.
Research Process Finding ACME as a Subject for Studv At the beginning of the study, I selected a dozen different contemporary groups that closely satisfied the nomenclature for analysis. I made numerous telephone inquiries and searched literature listed in the Art Index. In the latter, I discovered that a trend in “collaborative” art had been developing since 1970 and had reached its peak between November 1990 and October 1991, according to the number of listings (see Appendix A). Three of these descriptive analyses are represented in the first chapter. In this process, I found several groups in the state of Ohio including: TODT, a Cincinnati group known only by these letters; the Green Quilt Project, a Wooster based network of quilters; and former members of ACT UP Columbus. At that point, I considered comparing three groups. During this process of selecting subjects, I had not discovered a local group for investigation. I wanted to emphasize in my study the qualities of collaborative activist art that I discussed in the literature review. I was certain that in most major metropolitan areas and many rural communities this type of activity occurred at an appreciable frequency. I was inclined to think that certain social and political circumstances were required for collaborative activist art to surface. Soon after I began the quest to find potential subjects for this study, 1 discovered some posters (see Figures 3,4, 5, & 6 in Appendix B) calling for “activists” to “collaborate” with other “artists.” My dilemma was solved; and I then resolved to go to the next, and actually the first, ACME Friday Night Meeting scheduled for July 9, 1993. The subject, ACME Art Company, is a volunteer supported and Board of Trustees governed, nonprofit alternative arts organization serving central Ohio. It opened in 1986 and is located near downtown Columbus in an urban district that is undergoing gentrification. The members collectively operate routine daily and weekly activities as well as calendar events through a variety of mechanisms, artfully using image and performance. 45
Their interests lie in developing the organization through increased “democratization” as well as exhibiting their democratic process to the local arts community. ACME is both a gallery space in the popular Short North arts district and a collective of artists and nonartists interested in “new and experimental art forms” (see Figure 1 in Appendix B). Per year, the galleiy features 12 month-long visual arts exhibitions, each visited by several hundred people. “Exhibitions frequently address important contemporaiy social issues so that through the arts the public is given the opportunity to reflect on creative solutions to many of today’s problems” (see figure 1 in Appendix B). In addition to displays in three exhibition spaces, ACME features locally, nationally, and internationally known performance artists on many Friday evenings, 9:00 PM to midnight, in the downstairs area of the building known as Cafe Ashtray. Data Collection Following my initial attendance at ACME’s meeting, my data collection spanned a six-month time frame. It included observations and informal interviews made at the functions I attended as well as private formal, taped interviews made in late August and early September of 1993. My data included: notes of meetings, fieldnotes, research journal entries, ACME generated documents, and formal interview transcripts. My interview process was informed by Spradley (1979) as was my observation technique (1980). The observations that I made were collected from a variety of functions. Every Friday evening at 6:30 PM were general membership meetings to accomplish three things: 1. To be a means for participants to communicate and work together to share ideas concerning alternative arts and events, to discuss what alternative art means for Columbus, and to plan and do great things. 2. To look at ways ACME Art Co. can be utilized in order to make the things people want to do actually happen, and to allow participants the opportunity to get involved in the whole operation of ACME. 3. To transfer the operation of ACME from its present structure, to one which is more collective in nature, (see figure 2 in Appendix B) I also attended monthly Board of Trustees meetings. As I said, my participation with ACME was limited. At these meetings, I assumed the role of detached observer. At other events, I limited my participation to helpful support personnel or “volunteer” (aka, “activist” or “activator”). I did not want to willfully influence the direction of ACME. These other events that I participated in as a volunteer included some of the monthly 46
Galleiy Hop nights, preparation for the monthly gallery exhibitions, and the Annual ACME Auction. One other event that I observed was the ACME Holy Moly Retreat on September 25 and 26, 1993. It was an invitation only event that included the board, management, and a select few to set the agenda for ACME’s future. The formal interview process began with announcing my intentions formally at a Board of Trustees meeting with a letter (see Hgure 7 in Appendix C) It was received favorably, in fact the director remarked that my interest in ACME would bolster ACME’s credibility in applying for grants. Shortly afterward, I selected people to interview from the collection of members that I regularly saw at ACME. Appointments were scheduled over coffee or a beer at Short North establishments near ACME. They were given a consent form to sign, and the interview, taken conversationally, covered the items from the list of questions I developed in an Interview Strategy (see Figure 8 in Appendix C). I transcribed the interviews to have as resource materials (see Appendix C). Data Presentation I present my findings in Chapter IV. I give an interpretative description of ACME based on the material I collected, representing the views of my informants from my observations and interviews. I attempt to provide an accurate account or boundary of ACME as a social system to contextualize the case study framed within the theory that 1 discussed in this chapter and to examine the relative issues. The data is presented in four parts; the first three are mainly descriptive. In the first part, I give an account of the environment surrounding ACME, or its setting. I include physical and socioeconomic information on the city of Columbus and the surrounding neighborhood, the Short North, where ACME is situated. This information was derived from sources such as the Columbus Chamber of Commerce, the U.S. census, the Short North Business Association, some informal interviews with bystanders, and my observations. The second part describes a typical Short North Gallery Hop night in Columbus, OH. I intend for this portion to establish a scenario. It is based on observations from several Gallery Hop events fused into one report. The third part describes the physical attributes of the ACME galleiy, short accounts of informants, and a brief history of the organization. The fourth part provides a summaiy of the first three sections, focusing on the identity and activity of ACME. It is more interpretive than the first part, although it is still mainly descriptive. Because individual and collective ideology and action are important to the nomenclature collaborative activist art, I selected aspects of identity and activity as 47 patterns of meaning to represent ACME’s world view and work. In this part, I synthesize the responses from the informants into a representative identity of ACME, describe the structure of ACME, discuss how some people identify with ACME, and detail some activities and events organized by ACME. I close Chapter IV by recognizing the interface between ACME and society. This is accomplished with the presentation of two events that most closely emulate collaborative activist art. Data Analvsis Chapter V contains my final analysis of ACME as an example of collaborative activist art and draws conclusions about this case study. As a major part of the final chapter, I examine the theoretical issues and patterns of meaning to assess ACME as an example of collaborative activist art. The assessment process includes a discussion of how useful the individual terms collaboration, activism, and art were for examining ACME. This process is also a critical look at the nomenclature collaborative activist art. Part of this study’s significance is revealed through this systematic application of the nomenclature to a specific group. This study’s significance is also represented in the examination of ACME as collaborative activist art. This is an example that provides a model for investigating other socially concerned group expressions for future research. In addition, I address the limitations of my study in this section. To complete this chapter and the case study, I discuss the implications of my research for the field of art education and suggest related topics for future research. Chapter IV INTERPRETIVE DESCRIPTION OF THE ACME ART COMPANY
Columbus, Ohio and the Short North Gallery District Columbus. Ohio Columbus is the capital of Ohio. It is located near the geographical center of the state and is easily accessible from surrounding communities and other major metropolitan areas. Based on the 1990 census, the estimated population of the Columbus metropolitan area totals 944,744. It is the home for several major insurance companies, banks, and light industiy. “High technology has transformed Columbus from a traditional rust belt manufacturing city into an energetic and dynamic center of the computer software business” (Ford, 1991, p. 153). There are many cultural facilities providing entertainment and educational opportunities. The downtown sports a variety of glass and steel skyscrapers, retail spaces, a newly completed convention center, and the state capitol. The city was formed near the meeting of the Scioto and Olentangy Rivers. As in most Midwest cities, it was planned according to a grid system. The Columbus area is widespread with nearly half of the community’s population living in surrounding suburbs and townships. Many of the professionals in the area live in particular suburbs and work in service agencies such as the state government, private corporations, and higher education. More than 30% of employed persons are classified as either administrative, executive, managerial, or professional speciality (United States Department of the Census, 1990). Companies wanting to test-market new products or services often rely on Columbus because it is considered to be an average United States city. Being the largest city within 100 miles, Columbus draws upon the smaller agricultural communities within the state for young people interested in upward social mobility. The metropolitan area has no natural or confining geographical barriers, and the landscape is flat. Population growth continues, as the surrounding cornfields (formerly woodlands) are usurped for suburban sprawl.
48 49
There is a major university and six other four-year colleges, with approximately 20,000 faculty and 80,000 students citywide, indicating a high educational level among the population (Ford, 1991). According to the 1990 United States Census, 10% of the population is enrolled in college. The community is 81% white and 16% black. Of persons 25 years and over, 81% have high school degrees or higher; 28% have at least a bachelor’s degree. Of those who have attained at least a bachelor’s degree 91% are white and 6% are black. According to the census, the average per capita income is $14,907. For whites, it is $16356; for blacks, it is $9,257. The income bracket with the most whites is $35,000 to $50,(XX), that with the most blacks is $15,000 to $25,000. These figures indicate wide economic inequities. The contemporary arts are well-represented in the local media. There are two PBS affiliate radio stations. WOSU is sponsored by The Ohio State University (OSU). Its programming is classical. This station claims to represent the “fine arts” for the area. The other station WCBE is sponsored by the Columbus Board of Education. They market the station and its programming as “your true alternative.” The alternative station plays an eclectic variety of music: world beat, R & B, jazz, progressive rock, bluegrass, and more. As part of its daily programming, WCBE lists arts events on the air. 1 consider that it is an arts alternative to the classical station and fine arts cultural activities. There are several free alternative newspapers available around Columbus that list arts events. A glance at these sources of information would indicate that there are more “alternative arts” experiences available to the public than “fine arts” ones. It also appears that the alternative arts represent a wider or more typically multicultural audience than the fine arts audience. I was bom and raised in a Columbus suburb. As soon as I received a BFA from the Columbus College of Art and Design, I left for an environment that offered me temperate conditions and natural beauty, that is, Pensacola, FL, a Gulf Coast beach community. 1 came back after being away for 11 years to attend graduate school at OSU. Upon returning I chose to live in an urban neighborhood, about a mile north of campus. In my travels around town and from living in a district unlike the suburban environment in which I grew up and close to the fringe of low income neighborhoods, I am able to witness the discrepancies between cultures that are exacerbated by economic privilege. I consider economic disparity as a major contribution to the social “dis ease ” in many metropolitan areas in the U.S. demographically close to Columbus. Just south of OSU is the Short North, the area that provided the environment and the subject for this local case study. 50
The Short North Gallery District The central north-south axis of Columbus is High Street. Between the center of town where the state capitol is located and about three miles north on High Street where OSU is situated is an area called the Short North. It is a community of business and residential buildings that has been in the process of gentrification for nearly 15 years. Many of the remaining structures along High Street predate the tum-of-the-century. A newly built convention center borders the south end of the Short North and ties this business district with the downtown and its hotels and shops. Between OSU and the Short North is an area of unoccupied storefronts, used furniture stores, burlesque halls, and seedy bars. On the east and west sides of the Short North are two slightly different neighborhoods. Both have pockets of deteriorating homes and apartment buildings. West of High Street is the Victorian Village. As the name implies, the homes are Victorian style structures, some quite elaborate, many recently restored, and all are high priced real estate. To the east is Italian Village. Its architecture is quite plain and ambience slightly rough. The homes there are principally two-family dwellings, row houses, and apartment buildings. The Short North is considered the gallery district of Columbus. There are about 15 art galleries in the district, featuring many different kinds of artwork and decorative objects for the home. Its mile long or so stretch of High Street is also noted for its capricious variety of restaurants, bars, speciality food shops, boutiques, and furniture stores. The businesses generally cater to a somewhat affluent clientele, many of whom live in the Victorian Village and suburban neighborhoods. Yet, in the Short North, there are still vestiges of a time before its economically motivated renewal. Several reminders of the urban places that were left behind during the 1950s migration to the suburbs include bumed-out buildings, sleazy bars, and short-order diners. Within the High Street quarter of the Short North there are approximately 220 businesses. They provide a range in goods and services including: restaurants, bars, galleries, new and antique furniture stores, speciality retail shops, and business offices. Approximately 100 businesses, including ACME, belong to the Short North Business Association (SNBA), an organization dedicated to commercial promotion of the district. The association was founded in 1981. The businesses in the area primarily serve the local Short North community and the adjacent suburbs. Many of the patrons of the Short North often stop to visit while commuting to downtown from their suburban homes. 51
A Typical Gallery Hop Night The following narrative is a composite of observations from several Gallery Hop nights and a personal interview with Clive Ricksecker (personal communication, September, 8 1993), Executive Director of the SNBA. The Gallery Hop was begun in 1984 by two Short North gallery owners and three retailers who chose the first Saturday of each month as the official Hop time and coordinated their exhibit openings and hours. Their hopes were to increase business and “make art fun and accessible to typical people” (Ricksecker). The first event reported a ten-fold increase in traffic. A year later, the name Gallery Hop was coined; and through media coverage, the district noticed another ten-fold increase. Depending on the time of year, the Gallery Hop continues to bring approximately two to twelve thousand people to the Short North each month. The Gallery Hop is reported as the second most heavily attended visual arts event in Columbus, receiving more attendance than the museum, the symphony, or the opera. ACME is one of the galleries that participates in the monthly event. They report having close to 700 visitors during that night alone compared to the estimated 300 visitors during the rest of the month. According to Ricksecker (personal communication, September 8, 1993), “ACME is out there taking a risk and challenges people. They are loose cannoned, unpredictable, on the edge, and kind of irreverent at times.” He added: that ACME is one of the galleries that defines the Short North area; it is critically important to making the district interesting and the Gallery Hop a complete experience. From an image standpoint, ACME is an anchor business; it helps define the district, giving it more depth. And clearly if ACME was not here, the district would be a lesser place. Ricksecker’s perspective of ACME is a useful and important one. It is important because it is socially positive, declaring that the ACME gallery is a main attraction enriching the Gallery Hop because its audience is challenged by the exhibitions and activities. His perceptions are economically based; he recognizes ACME as a unique attraction that helps sell the area to tourists and businesses. At about 8:15 PM on a “Hop” night, traffic is heavy on High Street and parking close-by is difficult. The weather is pleasant this Saturday evening. While walking to ACME I see a thick crowd of people going in and out of galleries, restaurants, bars, and retail shops. Most of these people appear to have traveled from the suburbs and some from adjacent counties. Many of them are white, middle-class folks driving shiny cars and wearing trendy clothes for a night out on the town. A stroll through the galleries with 52
another couple to walk off a heavy pasta dinner including wine and appetizers, seems like a good idea. “Maybe we’ll find something for the space in the den.” Others out tonight are some young students with unusual hair, young couples with babies in strollers, a few grandparents, and several university intellectuals. Also in attendance is a sampling from the eclectic variety of the area residents, including gays, a bald-headed couple wearing leather dog-collars and chains, a few transvestites, several winos, and a variety of economically challenged individuals watching people party. City cops stroll or drive by, keeping a disinterested eye on the event. Ambient street noise and different forms of music clash in the night air. I arrive at ACME as the crowd thickens. Cars are tightly parallel parked, lining High Street in this block. There are two tables in front of the galleiy. One is set up with ACME T-shirts for sale and literature describing the gallery. It is attended by two ACME volunteers. They also have a Polaroid camera to make tourist carnival snapshots for a dollar. The customers stand behind one of two large cartoon boards with face-sized holes cut out; they have a choice one of Edvard Munch’s The Scream ( 1893) and the other Grant Wood’s American Gothic (1930). At the other table sits a man in costume giving a tarot reading from handpainted cards and chain-smoking hand-rolled cigarets. The reader is a member of ACME. In costume, he is Goblinhood, the sort-of-ACME-mascot. His costume consists of a red smoking jacket that has tarot cards painted on it and a black hood with a spider painted on the face. Close to these tables, there are many people queued at the door for entry. A few other member/volunteers are trying to collect one dollar donations for entry. As a nonprofit gallery ACME cannot charge admission. The attendants are a bit pushy, perhaps rude to some of those wanting to enter. They explain that this is a nonprofit gallery that depends on donations to keep its doors open, that ACME is like public radio or TV. If someone is offended they are told that they do not have to pay one dollar to enter. The attendant expresses that he would rather the well-dressed couple see the exhibit than pay the dollar. I find it interesting that some students have dollars ready-in-hand as they approach the door. A crowd of about 50 people is present inside ACME. Many are chatting in front of the artwork. Some of the visitors have been hanging out for a while. Others, like the well- dressed couple, walk the perimeter of the exhibition space. I do not think that they will find something for their den here. A band of young local musicians provide live music tonight. The atmosphere is smoky. A few people are drinking Carling Black Label beer 53
from long-necked bottles. The beer drinkers are both ACME members and artists who are exhibiting this month. They socialize while watching their art. I tour the gallery and am intrigued by the installation concerning American public schools and their practices. One area in the display has 64 apple halves nailed to the wall in a polka-dot pattern within three implied squares, stacked vertically. The symbol of the apple on the teacher’s desk has been used for new meaning about disciplined order. After about 30 minutes in ACME viewing the exhibit and people watching, I head to the comer for a café latté and dessert to round out my evening at the Hop.
ACME and its Membership I discovered from my observations that an analogy for ACME is an iceberg. About one-tenth of the iceberg is visible. The rest is underwater rendering it unobservable to the unassisted eye. The one-tenth of ACME and its activities that are easily observable is that it is an art gallery. That fact is discovered at first glance. ACME and the Physical Environment There is an eclectic variety of galleries in the Short North. One could visit galleries with exhibits ranging from imported ethnic handmade items, art prints and picture frames, speciality contemporary fine art media, and collectable antique art objects. The bulk of the galleries are spread across five city blocks. ACME is centrally located in this concentrated area of the Short North. Across from ACME, on the east side of High Street, is a federally sponsored senior citizen high-rise apartment building. Two doors south of ACME is a very popular and trendy 24-hour coffee house. Next door is a short order grill, often visited by low-income older men who appear to be dmnk. The vacant location immediately north of ACME was formerly a bar and grill. Beyond to the north, the other businesses include: an eclectic boutique, a junk-fumiture store, a Coney Island sandwich shop, an art print and custom picture-frame shop, a Mediterranean imported foods deli, a hair salon, and a contemporary fine art gallery. ACME is a deep and narrow, fully glassed, storefront space. A centered door leads directly into the main gallery. As one enters, on the left, is a small retail counter displaying ACME T-shirts, underwear cheaply stenciled with the ACME logo, a basket of 250 rubber severed “Van Gogh ears,” photocopy-made stickers including one stating “Fuck Censorship,” and various handcrafted items. Sometimes music is playing (either of the PBS radio stations, perhaps a John Coltrane tape, or contemporary rock), and cigarette smoke lingers in the air. Often, directly in the immediate center or sometimes to the right 54 side, is a counter with literature pertaining to ACME and the current exhibit. During their daytime business hours, there may be one or two individuals attending to the gallery and/or visiting. In the evening or after the professional workday, several people may be there hanging out, meeting on official business, or participating in the preparation of future activities. ACME advertises three exhibition spaces (i.e., the Main Gallery, the Spotlight Gallery, and the Bathroom Galleiy) and a performance space in the basement. The Main Gallery space spans the entire length of the building. It has bare brick walls halfway back; beyond, the walls are white painted plaster. The ceilings are quite high; and the floors are wood, painted grey. Usually, the work of three artists is displayed in this space. Halfway back and on south wall of the Main Gallery is the Spotlight Gallery. Approximately 6’ by 10’, it is a small space that generally features Columbus area artists. The space leads to the basement. At the back of the Main Galleiy is a small office and the Bathroom Gallery. This space is a small bathroom with standard amenities that also serves as an installation site. All of the exhibits are changed monthly. The ACME Art Company is a nonprofit organization. To maintain such status, it is required by law to be governed by a board with officers. ACME operates under a Board of Trustees. There are many other levels of participation within the ACME community as well, including: advisors, a paid staff of two, various volunteers, a membership, visitors, and invited artists. Thus, the ACME community affects a wide range of people, where the breakdown of constituents can be thought of as a series of concentric circles of influence. Typically each month, the work of five different visual artists is exhibited in the gallery spaces. A committee, which includes the executive director, screens and selects the featured artists. Usually the Main Gallery shows the work of three national artists. The Spotlight and Bathroom Galleries feature regional and local artists. National and regional artists are rarely involved with ACME except as invited exhibitors. Usually the local exhibitors are a part of the ACME community; some are quite active in the organization. ACME serves its artists mainly to exhibit their work, not as a sales opportunity. ACME claims to have several hundred visitors each month. They are drawn to the gallery in many ways. Casual visitors wander in during the gallery hours. Some individuals who are conscious of the Columbus art scene and who may receive advanced notice of the exhibit through \heArtmag, a monthly publication produced and mailed by ACME, make special plans to see the art displayed in the gallery. Many more visitors from the central Ohio area come to ACME for the Friday night performances at Cafe Ashtray. 55
But most of the visitors come during the first Saturday evening of each month to the Gallery Hop. A Historv of ACME In 1986 the Jeff Tabor Gallery was opened “in a wonderful block of storefronts on Fourth and High that were burned down by a crack dealer about six years ago” (Ricksecker, personal communication, September, 8 1993). Jeff Tabor was the founder and owner of the galleiy that was soon to become the ACME Art Co. It represented alternative visual art for the central Ohio region. Because it was operated by an individual, the early gallery was described to be more progressive than ACME is in recent times. It was remarked to me that much of the artwork exhibited by Tabor was “raw.” One show included art by prisoners, another graphic representations of penises. The latter was concurrent with the controversial Mapplethorpe exhibit in Cincinnati, OH. Tabor eventually made the gallery a nonprofit organization, mainly because the exhibited work would not sell. After the fire, Tabor and the volunteer membership relocated the gallery to 737 North High Street, several blocks south of the former location in the heart of the Short North. They named the new gallery ACME. The name was appropriated from the Warner Brothers Road Runner cartoon. In the cartoon. Wily Coyote would buy mail-order products from a fictitious company called ACME to aid in the capture of the Road Runner. The name ACME was chosen for the new gallery to present a generic impression. For a while, I interpreted the name ACME to have dicdonaiy connotations of apex or pinnacle. At the time of this research, there were no original members still affiliated with ACME. The Active Members Formal interviews were made with 13 informants. They were selected after several weeks of observation and informal interviews. These people appeared to be the most active participants in ACME at the time of this study. This core group of individuals were largely composed of several board members (including the president and vice president), the paid staff (i.e., the executive director and the assistant director), and a few active volunteers and artist members. The only common attribute apparent to this group is an interest in art, social, and political issues. This core group appeared to represent typical casual participants demographically. Of the informants, the age spread covered 26 to 42-years-old. The average age was 34. There was a fairly even representation of both genders, six women and seven men. Of the 13, there was one African American. Of the whites, one reported to be an ethnic Jew; and 56 two referred to themselves as being of Appalachian descent. At the time of the interviewing, only one of the informants was married; one was divorced; one was living in a homosexual relationship; two of the informants declared their intentions to become married to each other; the rest were single. Although three of the informants were bom outside of Ohio, all of them spent a significant part of their childhood in or near Columbus, OH. Background information suggests that all the informants were raised in middle-class families. Most of the informants mentioned being raised faithful to one religion or another, but have dropped their relationship with their family church since adulthood. One stated a continued affiliation with Catholicism. Two informants mentioned their affiliation with different Buddhist sects. A few expressed having spiritual lives not related to any particular creed, and one was practicing in the occult The informants represented a variety of occupations. About half considered themselves serious artists. Perhaps out of modesty, most of the other half thought of themselves only as patrons or supporters of the arts. Of the seven artists, only two have BFA degrees; none had higher degrees. All of the artists depend upon another source of financial support, including: odd jobs, govemment assistance, living with parents, and part-time employment with ACME. The other nonartist informant occupations include: private consulting, legal practice, banking, journalism, and sales. However, all of the informants had strong interests in a variety of contemporary art forms and had developed interests in the arts while they were young. Only a few of the informants expressed their membership and participation in other organizations when asked, who also happened to be nonartists. The preceding few paragraphs help to determine the identity of the community of ACME by listing elements that are common to most or at least many of the participants. The following paragraphs present individual characteristics of each informant. The informants are presented alphabetically. Many characteristics of the individuals are reflected in the nature of ACME. Leni Anderson (personal communication, September 17,1993) is an artist, who at the time of the interview was not well. He was literally a starving artist. I bought him dinner the evening of the interview. He is a performance artist who sees ACME as a group that has the potential to help develop his career. I had known Leni for a while before beginning this research project. He was an informant for a group research project investigating the tattoo as creative expression. At that time, he had seven tattoos. A year 57
later, a few days before the interview for this research, he acquired one more. Leni is a young, serious man who served for several years in the army. He joined the reserves for the Gulf War, an experience soured him on the military. Jim Beoddy (personal communication, September 9, 1993) is a painter, a poet, and a performance artist. He was in character as Goblinhood when I interviewed him at ACME. Goblinhood is a persona that Jim exhibits when he is in the Galleiy and by command performance. The galleiy gives Goblinhood a place to exist. Goblinhood is a character that figuratively stepped out from one of Jim’s paintings in 1982. This character has evolved from earlier characters developed by Jim. Thus, Jim considers Goblinhood to be a work of art. Being in character requires Jim to wear his handmade costume, which includes a black-hooded mask with a spider painted on the face and a smoking jacket painted with scenes from the Martian Tarot, another of his creations. In Jim’s mind, Goblinhood is the Martian Ambassador to Earth. The character was partially inspired by David Bowie’s (1972) album Zlggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Beoddy explained, “As far as the planet Earth is concerned they have separate agendas: Beoddy looks at it as a human [would]; Goblinhood looks at it from the viewpoint of a Martian.” Goblinhood performs tarot readings from his hand-painted cards three nights a week and at the Gallery Hop. Meg Galipault (personal communication, September 15,1993) is the president of the Board of Trustees. Her education in public relations and background in business management has enabled her to become a consultant in corporate sponsorship. She is also a writer and has a book on how to attract corporate sponsorship in press. Eventually she would like to write and publish fiction. “I don’t want to spend my life, like my parents did, stuffing all of their creative instincts down to make a buck.” Meg finds that her creative activities are helpful in processing her childhood. “I always knew that was not me, that 1 don’t belong in a corporation.... So a couple months ago, 1 finally made a decision that 1 don’t have to, that I need to follow my own creative aspirations.” Meg is a bit of a maverick who is tiying to organize ACME in a business sense into a new level of operational efficiency. Scott Galloway (personal communication, September 2, 1993), the vice president, is the youngest informant. He is a BFA recipient from Brown University. I am personally interested in the arts. 1 am an artist.... I work with photography and Xeroxes™, manipulating those with pastel crayons, watercolors, and pen and ink that has taken the form, in the past, of poster size images and three-dimensional 58
sculptures using Plexiglass.... Right now I’m working on a kind of book. Its a surreal short story that I wrote, concerning the violence done to angels by people who don’t believe in them. Scott is a quiet, reserved, and generous person, who seems to prefer remaining in the background but is a committed, fully active participant. David Greene (personal communication, August 31, 1993) is an artist member and a volunteer at ACME. He was awarded volunteer of the month for September 1993 by the board and staff. David started college at the Ohio University branch campus in Zanesville, taking a few art courses. He ended up becoming interested in communications, radio, and TV because he liked music and “was a frustrated musician.” After graduation David worked in a small radio station, a record shop, and then came to Columbus. He got a job doing hand lettering on “knick-knacky” gift items. Then David took a job at a nightclub as a bouncer, working his way toward becoming entertainment director and head disc jockey. He met his wife there; “she was an artist also, a writer.” All along he kept drawing in a sketchbook and did a few paintings. Soon after, he was “forced” to take a job as a traveling salesman, then a job as a hotel and restaurant bar and supply salesman, followed by being a mortgage broker. His marriage ended in a divorce, after which David took a vacation, quit his job, and became a “hippie-beatnick-punk-rocker-artsy-boy because that was what I always wanted to do anyway, and I had no reason not to.” He does various odd jobs while making art. John Groeber (personal communication, September 20, 1993) serves on the Board of Trustees. ACME found him through a professional service pool. John went to parochial school. He received an undergraduate degree in economics and a graduate degree in law at OSU. His interest in art stems from grade school. He likes to draw and paint as a hobbyist. John worked at an accounting firm for a few years until the spring of this year. He described it as “big, corporate, bureaucratic, stab-you-in-the-back sort of place.” With an associate, he formed a practice that primarily focuses on nonprofit agencies and businesses, as a way to help people. His values include being “a good family person; that’s important.” John and his wife are Catholic, intending to raise their newborn daughter Catholic, as well. “I think that it’s important to have a religion. I don’t necessarily care that it’s one religion or another. We have a spiritual life, I guess. We believe in afterlife; that sort of thing.” About visual expression, John somewhat disagrees with how objects are determined art at the ACME gallery. 59
at ACME, if it makes any kind of expression it’s art.... I don’t buy that at all.... I tend to think that some point that the expression has to take on some creativity within the person’s own abilities.... If it’s something that I can do without any effort, I don’t think it’s art, because I don’t think of myself as a person that is talented enough to to do what 1 consider art. He thinks that there should be “some kind of parameter” for the use of public funds for art. Faye Herskovitz (personal communication, September 20,1993) has worked with Bank One for 14 years. She also serves on the ACME Board of Trustees. Her maternal grandparents left Russia during the revolution. She and her mother were both bom in Columbus. Her father was bom in Czechoslovakia, immigrating to the U.S. on July 3, 1949 after surviving the concentration camps of the Holocaust. “I can’t understand how other people can treat other people as if they were below them, especially coming from the background that I do. You know, my father was persecuted solely because he was Jewish.” Faye is interested in photography. She has produced photo essays on her father’s experience of the Holocaust and on death at a funeral home. She is currently working on a series of local artists’ portraits in their own environments. Faye likes to be around artists because they are inspiring to her. She loves photography, which goes back to her seventh birthday when she wanted and received a camera. Mike Kehlmeier (personal communication, September 9,1993) is a Board of Tmstees member and assists ACME with public relations. Like his mother, he is a joumalist. Mike’s family has been in Columbus for generations. He grew up in a white, “suburban lower-middle class” family. Mike was raised as a Lutheran. His parents still go to the same church. He has a good relationship with his them, despite rejecting religion. He confided, “I don’t belong to a church, or anything. God is a stupid concept.” He is the youngest of three brothers. All of them were homosexuals. “There’s two queers in the family. Well, two-and-a-half...[one] used to be but he found God.” Politically, Mike is “an extreme liberal. Radical-liberal, I like to think of myself as.” Before ACME, Mike participated in the Columbus AIDS Task Force, ACT UP, and Queer Nation. He said, “That’s how I got involved with ACME... the only radical organization, period, in Columbus.” Mike’s interest in art spans into other genres. “I have really a lot of ideas; but, I haven’t put them on paper, yet.... I see myself as an artist, kind of as an emerging artist because I haven’t done anything yet... mainly, performance and writing.” He included his work, writing, as art. 60
Lori McCargish (personal communication, September 8,1993) has been the Executive Director of ACME for over three years. She has a BFA in photography from Ohio State University, which includes two years of dance training. Aside from her responsibilities at ACME she does free-lance photography. Lori is very interested in women’s and other social issues. She explained: I’m pretty interested in dance, photography, and social issues. I’ve been involved in a national abortion rights action league, NOW, and I also belong to women’s photography forum.... I like to include women as much as possible into our exhibition schedule. Being a women artist myself I’ve realized women aren’t getting as many opportunities as men. So, I try to keep the door open for women, for opportunities for exhibition, for organizations to participate at the gallery. Lori has been a strong force behind growth of ACME. About her work, she stated. I’ll tell y a. I’ve reached a point at the gallery where the last three years I’ve been basically buried and tied to my desk. And I’m trying to break out from all that now because things are starting to come a little easier. The administration is beginning to run a little more smoothly and there’s a little more help. Lori stated her goals for the year “to get out more” and to promote ACME to potential corporate sponsors. Tamela J. Murphy (personal communication, September 15,1993) is an attorney. Her current work requires her to “apply her own interest in music and the arts as a specialized field where they need help.” She has represented local rock-and-roll bands on CD projects, which has gained her some recognition on the east and west coasts. She is from a small town in southeast Ohio. She described her background this way: dominantly an area where women were women and men were men; and, women are back-seat. I’m the only female attorney from that area.... My being in a profession was a major influence in my life to be an independent, self-sufficient female.... The attitude is that they take offense to what I’ve accomplished for myself.... I would be more accepted if I was more like them.... When I was living there, I felt like the outsider, I felt odd in my environment. I didn’t fit in. Tamela graduated from a state university where she said she became even more open- minded by being exposed to different cultures and more removed from her background. Lori Peacock (personal communication, September 14,1993) has a BA in political science and geography from Miami University. She currently sells Electronic Commerce software with Sterling Software and has for over five years. Lori considers herself a 61 patron of the arts but not an artist. However, Lori is very interested in giving her extra time to causes that are important to her. “I volunteer for lots of different organizations.” Two Sundays per month, Lori goes to a local animal shelter to clean cages to do other animal care tasks. She has worked in the past with AIDS Service Connection and ACT UP in Columbus. Before moving she worked with a volunteer effort against the war in El Salvador. At school she volunteered for political campaigns. She has also tutored people as a volunteer. As a recovering alcoholic, Lori has been involved with ALANON and AA. “I’m not religious; 1 don’t believe in God per se, but I am spiritual. AA has helped me with that.” Lori is an animal rights activist and also a vegetarian. Paul Volker (personal communication, September 1,1993) at the time of the study was Assistant Director of ACME. His father was an artist and high school art teacher. His mother worked in the medical field as a hospital administrator, educator, and surgical consultant. Although both of his parents were academically inclined, Paul claims to have been a troublemaker and never received a high school diploma. When he was in ninth grade he began to study the readings of Chairman Mao Tse Tung and also read Marx, Lenin, and Stalin during high school. At 18 he enrolled in continuing education at OSU, attending mostly art and film-making courses for three years. At the age of 19 or 20 he began to produce free-lance commercial art, continues to do so, and has taken many other jobs: public library, food service, and retail work. He worked on the Columbus Free Press for six years and created a cartoon called Hero Dog for the paper. In the years following, Paul was art director for the newspaper Overthrow, an international radical-left journal published in New York by the Yippies. Prior to working at ACME, Paul worked for six months as cook in a Tibetan monastery in Woodstock, NY and studied with a Tibetan temple painter. He is very interested in grassroot political activity. Joanne Zeigler (personal communication, September 20, 1993) was bom and raised in Columbus in “a typical suburban” family and graduated from Eastmore High School. She advanced her studies where she could take a heavy load of art courses. She participated in a transfer program in the Columbus Public Schools, which provided her the opportunity to take a half day at another building to study commercial art. Hans Reichenbach instructed the course and influenced her greatly. Joanne started studying at OSU in the summer of 1969. She became frustrated and angry at the the National Guard policing the campus and quit early. A friend invited her to visit him in Morocco for four months, and she was influenced by the culture there. Afterwards she returned to the U.S., got married (to the wrong person), and bore a son. She was very interested in participating 62
in the rock-and-roll industry. However, she began to work for Ohio Bell, which she continued for 18 years. She is a practicing Buddhist, learning to have compassion for all living things. Joanne’s spiritual beliefs and Chinese herbs helped her to overcome cancer. She lost her job with the phone company over her beliefs for which she felt was persecuted. Her art interests include Celtic music and puppetry, and she is organizing a traveling circus. Although each of these individuals is unique, there are commonalties within the group and features about ACME that have attracted them to work and socialize together. These attractions surface in the discussion on ACME’s identity. They are important for understanding ACME and for assessing its success as an example of collaborative activist art.
The Identity and Activity of ACME The Identity of ACME My understanding about the collective ideology of ACME was derived from interviews and observations. I discuss ACME’s identity in the following section according to the image of ACME that is presented to the community (external), the (organizational) structure of ACME, and the identification of individuals with ACME (internal). Included in this discussion is my interpretation of the group’s internal and external social values and the patterns of meaning that I see in ACME’s use of symbols and productive practices. Observations of visitors to ACME helped to create my interpretation of ACME’s identity. During one Hop, I encountered a university colleague who professed that ACME was her favorite place to visit. Many people enjoy what ACME offers enough to spend a significant amount of their Hop evenings there. Furthermore, some people eventually become members and/or active volunteers. However, many in the audience are challenged by the ACME identity to the point of repulsion. I do not consider this discrepancy of opinion to be simply a matter of taste. The differences are often ideological. The identity of ACME is presented in many ways. The most obvious are found in their printed material, the art exhibited, and the behavior of members and volunteer members. The word alternative often appears in their publicity. ACME’s mission statement from the code of regulations that was adopted November 17,1993 included the following: A. The organization shall strive to discover, encourage, and develop artists and the arts, with emphasis on emerging, experimental, and obscure artforms, including 63
interdisciplinary forms. Within such parameters, the organization shall not advocate any particular aesthetic, style, medium, or content B. The organization shall strive to educate and enhance the public’s consideration of, experience with, perception of, appreciation for, and demand for the arts, with emphasis on emerging, experimental and obscure artforms, including interdisciplinary artforms. In pursuit of this goal, the organization may present retrospective and analytical exhibitions, including comparative examples of separate or related movements, in order to encourage greater community dialogue concerning one or more movements. C. The organization shall operate and maintain a gallery open to the public for the display of artwork, including presentation of performance, multi-media and interdisciplinary art. Where so authorized by the artist or owner, and where appropriate to further the purposes of the organization, artwork may be sold to the public. On paper, these points from the mission statement define what might be considered alternative and emphasize ACME’s commitment to the public. It appears that accessibility to the public and external education are priorities. An understanding of alternative from these statements might include an open-ended or eclectic aesthetic for new and unfamiliar cultural production. The art exhibited that 1 observed met these standards, in my opinion. Often the artwork, visual and performance, presented socially or politically charged imagery. Although the images did not advocate any particular social or political content, as a collection the imagery represented views that could be challenging to adherents of dominant ideology either socially, politically, or aesthetically. Oftentimes the alternative aesthetic was reinforced in the behavior of the membership. Wearing black or unusual clothing, drinking beer, or being rude may drive away visitors and be perceived as cliquish and hypocritical to the mission. The word clique has been used to negatively to describe ACME by informants in interviews and during board meetings. Metaphorically, Goblinhood’s mask could represent their identity presenting a facade to hide behind. Presenting themselves as an alternative, establishes a dichotomy between ACME and those to whom they intend to be an alternative, presumably the establishment. However at the same time, the organization on paper strives to interface with the public in a positive way, presenting the ACME aesthetic in a conventional gallery manner. If most of their audience attends during the Hops, I think that ACME exhibits conflicting aims. How to interest 64
mainstream persons in alternative art without losing their alternative edge is probably a common problem for all collaborative activist artists. The organizational structure of ACME also appears to have inconsistencies. As an organization that wants to be collaborative, it ironically maintains a hegemonic structure. In other words, the organization is bound to adhere to an authoritarian structure of the kind they seem to reject or want to challenge, found in the status quo of the outside world. Necessity dictates that ACME have a corporate structure. It is a nonprofit organization, whose board members are legally bound to report their financial dealings to the Internal Revenue Service. In order to receive money from granting agencies, ACME must present itself in an acceptable or business-like manner. This could also be a problem for other collaborative activist artists. It is a challenge not only to adherents of establishment or status quo ideology to interface with an alternative world view, but also for the groups such as ACME to do the same in reverse. Until this point I have hesitated to use the word mainstream. However, while interviewing my informants I pointed out that the word alternative is frequently used in their printed material. I then asked what it meant and what is alternative about ACME. Largely, the response was that ACME was an “alternative” to “mainstream” values. This general statement seems to include beliefs about social, political, and aesthetic values. However, being an “alternative arts organization” could provide something with which all of the membership could identify, especially the active volunteers. I determined that identifying with ACME occurs through participation and reciprocation. Although there are recognized categories of participation within the organization, the spectrum of participation is individually based. There are two part-time paid staff, an executive director and an assistant director. As one might suspect, the executive position is a powerful one. The rest of the organization is built from membership. Membership is determined through contributions of money or time. Those who volunteer time automatically become members. The entire Board of Trustees is composed of volunteers. The board members appear to be the most active volunteers. However, volunteer turnover is high, mainly because of burnout, and board positions are short-lived. Volunteers have been referred to as “activators” and “activists.” Of the organization, I interviewed two staff, six board members, and five volunteer members. In general, it appears that each volunteer participates to satisfy individual and group defined needs. Each individual seems to have a particular strength or interest for which ACME provides the means of realization. These individual roles in many cases 65
become indispensable, thus according to my observation, giving the volunteers greater personal satisfaction or a rasion de être within the organization. The group defined needs are both substantive and procedural, and members volunteer out of necessity for any number of these tasks. I consider procedural activities to be the needs that meet short-term goals related to keeping the door open to the public. The substantive activities are also necessary for business, for example: public relations, outreach, artist services, and fund raising. These activities are more characteristic of the identity of ACME and important for discourse concerning collaborative activist art. ACME’s activities, discussed in the next section, define ACME to its audience. In a sense, this organization is not unlike many other more mainstream nonprofit organizations that also have some concern for public interest. In a way, ACME is a microcosm of much larger social institutions with high ideals. Reciprocation, or what ACME gives back to the participant, is unique to each individual. However, my analysis reveals patterns in meaning. One third of the informants seemed to be involved with ACME for mainly professional reasons, such as: networking with other artists, resume grooming, professional practice, and exercising power abilities. The other two thirds were fulfilling social needs. Of those participating for social reasons, more than half indicated that their involvement with ACME resonated with their belief in a collective ideal. One stated a motivation for participation was “to have an opportunity to interact with people and create situations where other people can enrich their lives through some kind of participatory activity.” The others expressed their need for acceptance or belonging to a group. This statement reflects that need: Well, I get the feeling of belonging to the community... an arts community. I want to feel part of it, and I do.... I’m the kind of person who always likes to have people around.... I want to be with people who I feel are similar to me and have similar views that I do. Another member’s view was similar. Her reason was “because people there accept me for who I am, and I don’t have to be anybody else, to say what I feel about things.” It seems that ACME provides its members a place or forum where they feel they belong. The Activitv of ACME Several activities are characteristic of ACME, such as routine activities and activist performance events. The former are procedural and substantive, necessary for doing business and developing and presenting a public image. In this concluding section, I describe these activities according to frequency: that is daily, weekly, monthly, and 66
annually. ACME’s performance events most closely resemble collaborative activist art A detailed analysis of these events follows in Chapter V. The activities that are more procedural are less interesting for me. Nonetheless, knowing what these are is helpful for understanding ACME. As stated earlier, ACME is a nonprofit galleiy and survives because of the activities closely related to doing business on a daily and weekly basis. The gallery is open from 1:00to 7 :0 0 PM,Wednesday through Saturday. The Gallery seemed to be the busiest in the evenings toward the end of the week because many of the volunteers work daily jobs. They might visit the gallery after work to do some volunteering or just hang out. The most traffic seems to occur on Friday evenings. This was the reason for establishing the 6:30 PM for the Friday Night Meetings. Often these meetings were used to orient new volunteers, organize events and activities, and discuss new ideas. Most of the attenders were heavy smokers. These meetings were held either in the gallery on folding chairs or in the basement on old overstuffed chairs and sofas. Often there was a distracting bustle of activity in the background with constant interruptions in preparation for Cafe Ashtray. Later in the evening at about 9:30 PMon many Fridays, ACME hosted a Cafe Ashtray event in the basement. The variety of events included live music and performance art, as well as special ACME productions such as Mike Kehlmeier’s Crucifixion of Goblinhood{\993) and Oscar Wilde’s The Importance o f Being Ernest: A Serious Comedy for Trivial People (1895).The events were mostly attended by younger audiences who brought their own alcoholic beverages. As the name might imply, the basement was quite smoky. Eventually, the Board of Trustees shut down Cafe Ashtray because it was an infringement on the fire code. On the third Thursday of each month, a board meeting was held. These were facilitated by the president and were always smoky, as well. The board meetings were very procedural, consisting of reports from committee chairs. By the third week of each month, the Artmag had usually been mailed. The Artmag is a monthly publication that features the monthly exhibit and carries some editorials. The mailings were usually evening long parties consisting of collating, stapling, and labeling 1500 issues. The other monthly activity is the Gallery Hop. Most of the last week of the month is oriented toward hanging the next show, preparing the gallery, and coordinating volunteers for the Hop. Annually, ACME holds an auction and a member show. These activities are largely fund-raising events. The auction is held at another location. It is intended to be fancy and impressive to folks who will spend large sums of money to collect local artwork in support 67
of ACME. The items auctioned are donated by the artists. The member show and sale is held in December at ACME It is called the Holidaze Extravaganza and features Goblinhood dressed as Santa at the Gallery Hop opening. Each year ACME participates in the Comfest, a community music and art festival in a nearby park. Other ongoing activities throughout the year include the variety of artist services that ACME provides and their co sponsoring of Days o f Creation, an artist-in-residency program for local schools. This concludes a description of the variety of routine activities of ACME. The description was provided to further the understanding of the nature and environment of the organization. Additionally, this background information puts the following description of two activist performances into perspective. Both of the events closely resemble collaborative activist art. One of the events, discussed at ACME during my research period, never actualized. However, I felt it was important to include it in this study because of its potential as collaborative activist art. The other occurred one year prior to my investigation. Its description is based on interviews from participants and video footage that I viewed. On April 22, 1992, Ameriflora opened in Columbus. It was a multimillion dollar international floral exhibition that was designed to draw tourists to Columbus, commemorating the quincenteniary of the “discovery of America.” The controversy surrounding quincenteniary celebrations also became part of Ameriflora. One of the issues over Ameriflora was presented from an American Indian perspective that Europeans did not “discover” America, they “invaded” it. Another but similar issue was voiced by the neighborhood constituents who lived in close proximity to Franklin Park, the site of Ameriflora. These neighbors, mostly poor African Americans, felt they were being discriminated against once again. They said that the park that they used daily was being usurped for wealthy white people’s leisure, pleasure, and profit. Furthermore, they thought their neighborhood would be exploited for parking and that the entry fee to the exposition would prohibit attendance by low-income neighbors. These complaints resulted in several groups loudly protesting the opening of Ameriflora. One of the opening events was a visit from President George Bush. A few weeks prior to Bush’s arrival, Goblinhood wrote a letter to Bush inviting him to attend the exorcism that Goblinhood would perform outside the gates of Ameriflora at 6:00 PM (see figure 9 in Appendix D). The exorcism was intended to rid Bush of the evil that had invaded his being. The exorcism was loosely coordinated with some members of ACME. Jim Beoddy told me that Goblinhood would perform the exorcism rain or shine. 68
At the appointed time of the exorcism, there were still some American Indian drum groups outside the gates of Ameriflora. Other protestors were there as well. These groups provided about 40 people to witness the exorcism. About a dozen ACME members arrived for support. They were coordinated by Lori M^Cargish who provided a case of broccoli. During the exorcism, the ACME members were shaking broccoli stalks like rattles and chanting, “Put broccoli back in the White House.” On accordion, another ACME member was playing a few refrains from Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells (1973), music that was used in the movie The Exorcist {\9n3). Some of the drummers already present joined the music making. The exorcism of George Bush, performed by Goblinhood, was a short event, lasting about three minutes. The chanting and music continued for another 30 minutes or so. The act of exorcism took place without Bush, but Goblinhood said in his letter that Bush would not need to be present for the magic to work. The process was a form of sympathetic magic. In order for the magic to succeed, it would need to be performed unchallenged. Goblinhood prepared for the event by making a painting, a declaration for the exorcism, that has now become a “relic.” On the back, was a caricature of Bush. It was copied from another ACME artwork, a package of “ACME Bushpuke!,” a little plastic bag of dried chicken noodle soup mix with a label depicting Bush vomiting. This art was inspired by a trip made by Bush to Japan prior to Ameriflora that appeared to Goblinhood to be similar to a scene out of the the Exorcist. To Goblinhood, the vomiting in front of a foreign ambassador was a sign of being possessed. As it was, Goblinhood drew the “Martian symbol for harmlessness” over the caricature of Bush and made incantations in his head. Use of the symbol was intended to render Bush harmless. Goblinhood said that the event was not politically motivated by Goblinhood, although he and his sidekick, the Amazing Suitcase Doll, were running for president that election year. Goblinhood was operating “on the assumption that Bush was a person trafficking with devils.” Shortly before the exorcism, Goblinhood almost backed out. He had seen some of the neighbors on TV news expressing their upset and felt that they did not need Goblinhood to make their situation worse. A similar sentiment surrounded the discussion at ACME about doing something to express discontent with the Ku Klux Klan, who were organizing a rally for October 23, 1993. This was the activist performance that did not take place. While 1 was at ACME, I overheard talk about its development. With great interest I listened, thinking that 1 would witness the process of collaborative activist art in the making or process through performance and its final product. I was disappointed that the 69 performance never occurred. In the next chapter, I discuss insights I gained about collaborative activist art from witnessing the formation though not the completion of an example collaborative activist art. The most tangible idea involved wearing rubber coneheads, made famous by Saturday Night Live’s skits featuring a family of aliens with large pointy heads. The conception of this anti-Klan performance would have several conehead wearers with signs saying: “Defend the rights of the inbred; Keep sex within the family; and. Outlaw education.” This rally was intended to show through parody that the Klan’s ideas about racial purity are absurd. A plan discussed at ACME was to extend Klan logic of racial purity to inbreeding and reveal the Klan’s hypocrisy. In the next chapter, I intend to evaluate and interpret these activities as collaborative activist art. As part of the assessment, the discussion includes insights about the use and practice of collaborative activist art. Ideas from this analysis are further discussed as implications for the field of art education and related fields. Suggestions for future research relative to collaborative activist art are also made. Chapter V CONCLUDING ANALYSIS OF ACME AND COLLABORATIVE ACTIVIST ART
This chapter shifts from looking at the identity and activity of ACME to a fuller evaluation and interpretation. It covers ACME and the two activist performance events that most closely resemble collaborative activist art. This concluding chapter also presents ideas about the significance of the study and implications it has for the field of art education and related fields with suggestions for future research. For this study I have found that it is important to place a value on the acceptance of diversity. As a researcher, I have tried to include many belief systems and perspectives. Still present is the problem of world view conflict or tension created by differences about systems of belief. Many of the voices wanting to be heard are those who feel that they are ideologically positioned outside of the dominant belief system. Thus, this study is based in the potential lessons concerning acceptance of multiple views and challenges to claims of a singular, correct way of thinking and believing. This study has increased my openness toward change and ambiguity. Change is a topic related to the idea of collaborative activist art and to this study. Collaborative activist artists work toward social change. Accepting that the research process for me has been one of change, demands that I acknowledge that this study is not the final word on the subject or this case study. To accept multiple views, I have found that one must learn how to be comfortable with ambiguity. Being comfortable with ambiguity includes having an awareness that few definitive answers exist These ideas about ambiguity challenge scientific rationalism as noted earlier by Heisenberg (in Salz, 1990). I emphasize change and ambiguity because in the end I have found that ACME succeeds as well as fails as an example of collaborative activist art in practice and use. Furthermore, I must reiterate that the purpose of this study was to assess certain activities of ACME according to the nomenclature, not to assess the organization as a gallery. As a place that exhibits and
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provides a public service they are a successful galleiy and an important part of the arts in Columbus, OH.
An Assessment of ACME as Collaborative Activist Art Collaborative activist art is used to promote social change. Its practice includes procedural and substantive action (Bowers, et al., 1993). To review, procedural action is necessaiy for group self-preservation and security. Substantive action promotes change as growth and development. The practice of substantive action tends toward significant social change. Significance of change is revealed in the advocated causes and the wide range of consequences. The determination of significance is in itself value-laden. Favoring social change is an assumption. I personally value social change but not as much as I advocate the preservation of the First Amendment right of the freedom of expression. For this study, the importance of the freedom of expression is that it creates a forum to include views that do advocate social change. Collaborative activist art makes use of the freedom of expression. Some Salient Points About ACME In preparation for the assessment, I intend to make a few general remarks about ACME and the two activist performance events that I described at the end of Chapter IV. I want to emphasize the distinction between the Gallery Hop as a typical event at ACME and the activist performances such as the exorcism of Bush and the Klan rally. The basic difference is found in the location of the activities: the first at the gallery, the other two outside the gallery. Other differences include intent or use of the performance. Both kinds of performance events are somewhat educational, however the Gallery Hop for ACME is self-promotional also. More importantly, I see that the events outside of the gallery have the public interest in mind. Even though the art exhibited at the gallery during a Hop may contain social commentary and often does, the event is a commercial enterprise. The activist performances were akin to social or political protest. This division between events at and away from the gallery corresponds with two the kinds of leadership domains that I observed at ACME. At ACME proper, there are two leaders that I want to recognize: Lori the Executive Director and Meg the President of the Board. They were official leaders and had some personal investment in ACME. As president, Meg was trying to help ACME realize its organizational potential as a nonprofit organization. Often, this was a problem that was in conflict with some ACME members’ philosophy. It appeared that growth toward recognizable and respectable official status 72
became a goal that seemed to conflict with some members pride in their alternative heritage. As for Lori, her interests were similar to that of Meg’s but different in that she, as the longest standing affiliate with ACME, somewhat considered the place to be her gallery. Lori represented ACME in an official sense more than anyone else and was recognized within the Columbus arts community. Both of these leaders are responsible for the procedural activities that attended to organizational change. I observed two interesting and unique personalities also who served as leaders and represented ACME’s ideological potential. Attending to the more substantive issues, both Paul and Goblinhood generated ideas for activist performances outside of the gallery. In actuality, these events were not official ACME activities, although they involved many of ACME’s members. I consider Paul to have been the ideological visionary for ACME at the time of this research. He wrote and designed the posters that attracted me to ACME as a research site. He generated the informative documents that represented ACME to the public. He also developed the idea for the Klan rally. I consider Goblinhood to be the spiritual leader for ACME. He was never seen at any official meetings. In fact, he made himself as scarce as the reclusive spider symbolically represented on his mask. He was usually only seen giving tarot readings, serving ACME as a volunteer, or hosting functions as ACME’s mascot. He was the obvious originator of the exorcism of Bush as this event was his idea. In his mind, he was called by another realm to perform this rite for an intergalactic purpose or need. I think that Goblinhood would agree with the opinions that I presented on freedom of expression as would many ACME members. He has taken an artistic stand against censorship on several occasions, epitomizing the idea of expressive freedom. Some of his work could be considered controversial. One exhibit that featured his work at an OSU branch campus gallery was closed immediately following negative public response. Goblinhood understands and perhaps tests the limits of censorship. In fact, he considered himself as a living work of art. In costume, he felt that he represented everything that disgusts people who are challenged by the “other.” Paul believed in the human potential that is realizable through collaboration more than most ACME members. In fact, he considered his personal mission at ACME to be the facilitation of the organization into a collective artistic movement. He became aware of the difficulty, if not impossibility, of this endeavor and left ACME before the end of my research period. 1 realized after he left that it was Paul’s efforts and ideology that attracted me to ACME for this study. It was his belief in the strength of collaboration as a political 73
vehicle that came across in the documents that represented ACME at that time. It became more evident over time that his ideals did not resonate within ACME. He also pointed out to me that ACME presented a “poverty mentality.” The board felt that they never had enough space, volunteers, and money to do the things that they considered necessary to stay in business. Paul’s interest in collaboration, polidcal activism, and art led him to the idea for the Klan performance. The activist performances were the most significant occurrences for this study, and Paul and Goblinhood clearly influenced these public spectacles. The exorcism of Bush was not an official ACME event like the Gallery Hop. However, the performance was well supported by ACME members. It was clearly Goblinhood’s work with the support of his friends who also shared a disgust of Bush and Ameriflora. Whether or not the people in support of Goblinhood as well as the other groups who organized protests against Ameriflora believed in the magic of exorcism is another matter. Everyone participating was there making a collective public statement. Having been to several Klan rallies, Paul told me that usually they result in shouting matches between the Klan and their opponents. Beyond the local proximity of the rally, the exchange of shouts is unintelligible. Paul noted that, when the Klan is outshouted by its angry opponents, the Klan does appears less hateful by comparison and scores a victory. On the day of the Klan rally in Columbus, there were several anti-Klan protests. Many ACME members attended the one that met the Klan on the State House lawn. The Klan used this opportunity once again as a media event. If Paul’s performance idea had been realized, it might have challenged the Klan’s ideology on a philosophical level rather than a visceral one because of its conceptual strength. It is possible that the coneheads might have had equal media time, thus providing an intellectual repartee rather than a barrage of gut level shouts. Some Salient Points About Collaborative Activist Art This section serves to return to a few points revealed in the literature review on collaborative activist art in general and to present some ideas on the success and failure of its use and practice. It appears that each example of collaborative activist art represents these characteristics: a collective feeling of oppression, the development of group identity and activity, the need to protest or educate, and the use of symbolism in expression. These characteristics exhibit a group’s shared ideology in the use and practice of collaborative activist art. Collaborative activist art is necessarily public. The interface between the 74 group’s expression and the audience occurs within a wide range of interactive participation. Thus, collaborative activist art is publicly interactive. Some historical antecedents to collaborative activist art were discussed in preceding chapters of this study. One account (Tallman, 1991) pointed to pre-American Revolutionary activities as precursors to this genre of cultural production. Others (Dubin, 1992; Jacobs & Heller, 1992; Lippard, 1991) mentioned more recent activities in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. In regards to these recent times, it is my opinion that the 1970s brought about an overdose of demonstration that had negative effects on the public and was potentially counterproductive to many causes. Most progressive art during the 1980s appeared to acknowledge a dislike of the Reagan-Bush era politics (Lippard, 1991). Anticipating a backlash to 1970s style demonstrations, many groups found innovative methods to press their point (Jacobs & Heller, 1992). As a result, I think that collaborative activist art improved through the 1980s. Groups began to use strong, symbolic imagery rather than shouting slogans and carrying signs as evident in the 1970s. In my mind, this difference found in the evolution of this genre of cultural production during the last two decades is helpful for assessing the success or failure of examples of collaborative activist art. A need for assessment results from the quest to improve upon past ways to voice a collective opinion. Thus, a critical tool is needed for the activists, artists, historians, cultural workers, and others who are interested in collaborative activism. I suggest that the individual terms art, activism, and collaboration serve as the basis of discourse. I also advise groups or interested individuals to consider the interactive potential of the production, wherein the group meets its audience. Perhaps there are more points to be considered for a discussion of collaborative activist art. The genre could be improved by considering collaborative activist art as: (1) a relational system involving group and individual consciousness, caring, commitment, and choice; (2) a vision of healthy social change; and, (3) a product that is conceptually strong and includes symbolic imagery, careful planning, and humorous devices. Each of these discussion points interrelate in an examination of collaborative activist art. The first discussion point emphasizes its collaborative aspect. It addresses the collaboration as a relational system within group work (Appley & Winder, 1977). This system encourages and facilitates the establishment of shared aspirations and conceptualizations. Discussion of collaborative endeavor can be based on individual and group behaviors in regard to consciousness, caring, commitment, and choice. 75
Social change is a goal of activist endeavor. A discussion of a group’s activist qualities must relate to their shared vision of social change. This discussion could explore the vision of social change that the group has for the future. Although subjective, I suggest that the vision be questioned according to a healthy global future for the planet and its inhabitants. This discussion parallels or overlaps that of collaboration where consciousness, caring, commitment, and choice are expanded to global awareness exterior to group or individual awareness. The discussion of the group’s artistic production ought to be based on conceptual merit or strength. I have found that the success or failure of the expression depends for the most part upon the use of symbolic imagery, careful planning, and humorous devices. The imagery must be readable for the audience. Simple recognizable and memorable symbols are helpful. Because collaborative activist art often has a performance component and sometimes requires individuals to enact different roles, careful planning is necessary. Planning usually involves rehearsals and contingency plans. Humorous devices are also helpful to communicate the messages. I believe that humor is antithetical to anger. If the vehicle for the message is anger, there is the potential to lose most of the audience. Humor has entertainment value and is found in devices such as absurdity, parody, satire, irony, and slapstick. Despite the woes, problems, and big issues addressed, the practice and use of collaborative activist art can result in fun for all participants and provide a convivial atmosphere for public discussion for public discussion of the immediate subject. The Assessment In this section, I assess certain ACME activities according to the terms of collaborative activist art I assess the nature of ACME in general as well as the two activist performance events. The discussion, based on degrees of collaboration, qualities of activism, and modes of expression, includes most of the points described in the previous section. When useful, I draw on the examples presented in Chapter I, that is. Guerrilla Girls, ACT UP, and Paper Tiger TV. Collaboration. At best, ACME presents itself as a loose collective that is hierarchically organized. Having evolved from a privately owned gallery to a nonprofit or privately controlled public organization, has diminished its collaborative potential. My conjecture is that had it begun with a group of artists with a shared ideology, ACME might better resemble a collaboration. ACME continuously battles cliquishness within the Short North and arts communities and struggles to remain nonprofit. They also have a problem with a high turnover of volunteers. Paul tried to encourage the organization to behave as a 76 collaboration or at least a collective. This effort failed perhaps because it was not formed as a collective initially. Paul’s position was that ACME needed to move more toward collectivity in order for its growth as a progressive organization. In order for ACME to work, Paul thought that it needed to become more democratic so that no single person controlled the power. I found his insights illuminating and agree with his evaluation. This evidence helps establish the degree of collaboration that ACME exhibits. Despite the shortcomings that I presented about ACME as a collaborative effort, the group does share mutual aspirations to some extent. Their common conceptual framework centers around the the existence of the gallery. The active members of ACME have a commitment to the organizational mission of providing the public with consciousness- raising artwork. However, ACME operates as a hierarchically structured organization. Personal power and hegemony is still important to key individuals and will continue to get in the way of collaboration for ACME. While comparing ACME with the Guerrilla Girls, I saw a similar commitment to a cause or mission. However, it is apparent that the Guerrilla Girls are more interested in breaking down organized structures than upholding them as appeared to be the case with ACME. The activist performance events affiliated with ACME are similar in structure to that of the galleiy. Both the events and the gallery were organized by one individual. It is hard to determine the outcome of the proposed Klan rally activity; but I suspect that if several people, instead of one, had shown up at the event wearing the same conehead costume, it would have been less evident who the leader was. In my mind, this occurrence would have exhibited more collaboration than any of the other ACME events or behaviors. Activism. With ACME, there was a loose collective ideology. Its ideology was based on being counter mainstream, or “alternative.” There was not one political position, but many, forming multiple perspectives within the organization. The only thing that kept them together was their “alternative” view; but it was not one alternative view, it was many and changed as the membership changed. It was hard to determine whether or not ACME had a collective vision of healthy social change. I witnessed a kind of care or concern often exhibited by the membership toward each other and a general desire for better society. However, I do not share some of ACME’s values. It cannot be said that an “alternative” vision of society is always a healthy one. As mentioned, a gathering of ACME members in any form included heavy smoking. I do not appreciate cigarette smoking, and my vision of a future society does not include cigarette use in public spaces. Nonetheless, most of the social and political statements that 77
were represented in the artwork exhibited at the gallery, such as visions of equality, education reform, and environmental issues, were ones that I tend to support. Some more conservative visitors might have objected to the vision presented at ACME. In contrast, ACT UP’s efforts were single focused. ACT UP was concerned with issues related to AIDS. ACME showed signs of support for AIDS intervention and continue to observe their A Day Without Art. ACME also supports many other causes. However, from my observations, presenting many positions exhibits a confusing vision with distracting issues. This multifocused vision of ACME’s is an advantage and disadvantage to the group’s activism. The events outside of the gallery seemed to succeed as activist endeavors. Goblinhood proposed that we imagine a world without George Bush as President of the United States. The conehead performance intended to push Klan logic to the conclusion that racial purity connotes inbreeding and ignorance. I personally found the motivations behind these two performance events to be ones of healthy social change. These expressions assumed that a healthy vision for society does not include forces that interfere with social health such as oppressive establishment politics or hate. It might be helpful for groups such as ACME to consider sorting through contemporary issues and define more clearly which ones to support. Furthermore, nonprofit status may continue to interfere with the organization’s focus because of outside influences. It may be useful for a group to develop a clear activist focus or mission to produce successful collaborative activist art. Art Presumably, many of the activities that take place at the ACME gallery could be considered art by most standards. The changing exhibits follow a format accepted by the mainstream artworld even if the subject matter challenges it. However, these activities do not necessarily fit the terms collaborative activist art. For the most part, I did not perceive daily activities at ACME as collaborative. ACME’s inability to collaborate lessened the effectiveness of its collective activist voice. In order to assess the two ACME performance events as art, I want to emphasize the distinction between ordinary, self-serving demonstrations and collaborative activist art. Both are cultural production, and therefore both are art. The quality of the art is diminished when it neglects the audience. Disturbational rallies or demonstrations are self-indulgent; the expression satisfies only the participants’ need to vent frustration. In this sense, collaborative activist art is different. I consider collaborative activist art necessarily to be an event produced with audience enlightenment in mind. The two performance events of ACME could be accepted as art from the standpoint of art as a cultural production. 78
Additionally, both events intend to interface with the audience either to inform or to shock, and to urge audience action toward positive social change. Therefore, I assess the two events outside of the gallery not as ordinary demonstrations but as collaborative activist art. Continuing with the idea that a strong concept includes audience awareness, rude behavior at the door of the gallery separates ACME from the audience. This separation prevents the collective voice from being heard. Better planning and appropriate humor may prevent altercations at the door. Of the two performance events, I believe the idea for the Klan rally to have had the potential for a stronger audience relationship than the exorcism. It is too bad that the proposed Klan event did not happen, because I believe it would have provided more insights for this discussion. Perhaps it too could have benefited from better planning and a collective interest. To ACME's credit, the content of the rally was conceived with a great sense of absurdity and humor. The imagery was very simple and accessible to most people because of the popularity of Saturday Night Live. The mysticism surrounding Goblinhood’s rite might have alienated some audience members, but 1 do not think that Goblinhood was performing as much for an audience as he was for his own satisfaction, a motive similar to that of disturbational artists. This event was successful because of its use of symbolic imagery knit to the reality of George Bush’s sensitive stomach and distaste for broccoli, common knowledge to followers of media current event coverage. 1 think that there are many similarities found in the performance events outside of ACME featured in this study and Paper Tiger TV. Foremost, the props used by both were simple, handmade, and accessible to anyone. Additionally, most of the members of ACME who consider themselves artists are nonacademically trained as such, much as the Paper Tiger staff are trained as technicians not as artists. All participated in meaningful artistic production. The performance events in either case were conceived and produced by individuals who consider themselves artists even though they are not academically trained. In conclusion, ACME and the events outside of the gallery are only fair examples of collaborative activist art. Although Paper Tiger TV, ACT UP, and the Guerrilla Girls may provide better examples of the genre, these examples are not standards. Each, including ACME and the two events that I presented for this study, provides an illuminating view of collaborative activist art. A few points remain concerning this assessment. First, the exorcism might be better described as street guerrilla theater or an absurdist demonstration than collaborative activist art. Both genres have overlapping characteristics. Additionally, the exorcism was not collaborative; it featured a single artist, in a way that is structurally 79 similar to events produced by artists such as Chicago, Haacke, and Beuys. Secondly, I think there is a problem concerning audience awareness. As collaborative activist art is interactive, much depends on the the producer-audiencc interface. Externally, ACME needed to present a healthy vision of realizable social potential. Internally, it had to address the serious administrative problems of a volunteer-staffed nonprofit organization. This tension between internal and external domains made it problematic for ACME to define its public image.
The Significance of the Study In this study, 1 have described and defined a genre of cultural production, presented contemporary examples, briefly noted its forerunners, and made an in-depth case study of a local example. The significance of the study is contained in each of these academic activities. Significance can be found primarily in the case study. It includes an interpretative description and analysis in effort to assess the local example as collaborati\ c activist art. The case study recognized an otherwise undocumented artist organization and its activities. It also provided a sample assessment of a situation for future academic discourse. Furthermore, this study illustrated the uscfuilness of the nomenclature of collaborative activist art. The process of providing a nomenclature for an observ able type of art—that is, defining its terms, asigning characteristics to it, and citing past and current examples of it—is evidence of its existence. The research method used in this study also has significance for the field of art education. It is a method that is potentially useful for others who provide infomiation about art. Students of art must be able to investigate and examine literary foundations of ideas and discourse vocabulary. Additionally, it is important for them to have a vocabulary to apply to specific examples. This study provides students with a method for analyzing their case studies with discourse parameters. In particular, students can learn about assessing collaborative activist art. ACME and other examples of collaborative activist art are appropriate content for study in art education. Students could construct other case studies to provide additional information about collaborative activist art. Significance is also found in the limitations of this study. It is reasonable to wonder why a study such as this one that focuses on the idea of collaboration does not show evidence of researcher collaboration. This dissertation cannot be a collaboration with another colleague. It is a solo effort because the institution of higher education does not accept group work for the achievement of advanced degrees. In some ways my w ork was 80
a collaboration with my informants, however I am the person who synthesized their ideas in this document. 1 tried to include various perspectives about the genre, but again these are viewed through my lenses. This research represents mainly my interpretation of what 1 collected and observed. Although 1 tried to incorporate many academic and artistic perspectives, it is still my work and vision. 1 do not want to claim exclusive rights to collaborative activist art. 1 want to invite and encourage others to study, practice, and use it to participate in healthy democratic social change.
Suggestions for Future Research The practice and use of collaborative activist art will determine the future of the genre. Other research depends on the discourse surrounding its practice and use. This study pro\'ides a framework for research based on past, present, and future examples of collaborative activist art. Types of future research include writing historical accounts of the genre, doing collaborative activist art, and assessing other groups and their productions for critical discourse. Citizens of the United States are fortunate that the Constitution allows, if not encourages, individuals and groups to express themselves freely. This situation provides unlimited potential for the practice and use of collaborative activist art. As it was suggested earlier in this study, collaborative activist art has a history in prc-Revoiutionary War examples, for instance, the Boston Tea Party. Other practices irom the 1*-/*’ century, such as women's quilting bees, slavery spirituals, and the Sioux Ghost Dance, are also historically significant to the genre. Reexamined these historical antecedents may provide other perspectives on the events and the genre. Actually doing collaborative activist art. that is finding an issue and forming a group, can be informative in many ways. Looking further into the process by studying its practice can provide insights into its use. The examination of practical applications leads to employing investigative methods such as those found in action research. Action research is often collaborative. Researchers work as a group to understand their practice in all phases including its planning and implementation. Action research has socially critical components and could be appropriate for the study of the practice of collaborative activist art. Engaging in the practice of collaborative activist art while conducting research on that practice could provide new insights on group process and actualization of the genre. Several other opportunities for research come to mind. Observing audience and media responses toward various collaborative activist art groups could lead to potentially 8 1
interesting studies about the genre. Looking at various groups and their productions also could provide a range of research studies. These subjects may be researched as case studies, such as this one. Results could be compared and bring new insights to this study as well. Another question for future research focusing on arts organizations similar to ACME is: How politically active can a nonprofit organization such as ACME become and still survive within establishment systems? 1 his question rises from the dualities that an organization such as ACME faces, fhesc dualities stem from having to compromise between socially constructed realities and internal convictions. Implications for the Field of Art Education Each term of the nomenclature collaborative activist art has implications for the field of art education. As discussed in Chapter 11. cooperative learning strategies, collaboration between institutions, and group art processes arc topical issues in educational scholarship. The art classroom might be an appropriate arena for group work. It is time for the field of art education to consider devaluing individual production and to explore collaborative models for teaching and learning. Equally relevant for the art education classroom is the use of activism. Social and political issues can be explored through the study of art. Students can be encouraged to look critically at social conventions and establishment practices that tend to disempower or discriminate against individuals or groups of people. I he study of activism can aid the exploration of critical thinking. Activism in the classroom could enable students to participate in their own learning environment, foster responsible decision making, and promote involvement in healthy social change. Thirdly, the field of art education can expand its use of the word art to include all kinds of cultural production. Studying cultural contexts and art could lead to more interdisciplinary applications of the art curriculum. Including a wide variety of expressive productions as appropriate art classroom subjects might make art education more relevant to contemporary students. In fact, the topic of collaborative activist art is itself a viable subject for art students. I started this study in an effort to name and describe a genre of cultural production that responds to the need for moral and socially practical art. In that process 1 investigated the terms art, activism, and collaboration with the intention to present my ideas about the practice and use of art in teaching and learning situations. I have show n that people can and do work in community to solve social problems and that cultural production is part of 82 that process. These ideas are particularly relevant for contemporary problems in our collective, global society. Cooperative problem solving can relieve or heal the fragmentation and alienation promulgated by modernist progress, which is based on success of the individual. After examining the nomenclature through related literature, 1 investigated a case study of a local organization. The concluding sections of this study have brought the research full circle by discussing the needs for future research on this topic and the implications for education through art. I have found that society shapes art and art shapes society. APPENDIX A HISTORICAL LISTING OF ARTIST COLLABORATIONS
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HISTORICAL LISTING OF ARTIST COLLABORATIONS
NOV 70 to OCT 71 NOV 71 to OCT 72 NOV 72 to OCT 73 APG Atelier A Aktual Ant farm APG Ant farm Atelier A Chapugnu Art and language Col Cronica, Equipo Cobra Contlnum group Evenstructure research group Creative playgrounds Dvijzenie GASP Cronica, Equipo Evenstructure researcti group Holloway White Alton Evenstructure research group Group of seven Los Angeles fine arts squad Fluxus Group taller de Montevedo 9999 sdudio Grand union Groupe de rectierctie de'art visuel Nord, Altier Gutai Groupe Y Optronic kinetics Los Angeles fine arts squad Gruppe Cronica Sculpture in the environment Malassis, Coopérative des Gruppo N Smart ducky Mass moving GruppoT Tarot, Grupo Movement Los Angeles fine arts squad Passo, El N.E. Tfiing Company Realidad, Equipo Nueva-generaciôn Sculpture in the environment Onyx Social arts workers Zero Supports/Surfaces Video Freex W.O.R.K.S. Welfare State Xylon Zebra group
NOV 73 to OCT 74 NOV 74 to OCT 75 NOV 75 to OCT 76 Antfarm Antfarm Antfarm Art and language CAP. Group Artist placement group Artes Guadalupanos de Aztlan Camden Town group Camden Town group Astiington group Direct vision Cavart Brigade Ramona Parra General idea Coum Cooperativa de los Malassis Made in Chicago Cronica, Equipo Cronica, Equipo Movimiemento. Equipo General idea Dvizhenie Nice style Intern, inst. of exp. printmaking Fluxus Noth & Hauer, Atelier Los Angeles fine arts squad Grand union O.B. Gruppo Malassis, Coopérative des Lalla 3 Public works, inc. N, Gruppo Los Angeles fine arts squad Realidad, Equipo Pool IVIatxJu mines Rhino Hom Progressive Künstler, Gruppe N.E. Ttiing Company Sculpture in the environment Recherche d'art vis.. Groupe de Nice style TRUthco Saturday evening girls Realidad, Equipo Trece, Grupo de los Situationists Rtiino Horn Universal limited art editions Vidéographe Sculpture In the environment Video Freex Zero, Gruppe Souris, La Vingt, Les Supports/Surfaces WORKS Syn. Gruppe Zebra group Systems group Video HIORBA Video Ring Vidéographe WORKS Zero 85
NOV 76 to OCT 77 NOV 77 to OCT 78 NOV 78 to OCT 79 Ant farm Ancients, The Ant farm Ararat Ant farm Cronica, Equipo Art and language Camden Town group Fluxus Blue rose Cavart Friends of the rag Camden Town group Cobra ktein St image co City arts workshop Coum Pajama Cobra Cronica, Equipo SITE, inc Cronica, Equipo Dvizhenie Support/surfaces Fluxus Feministo Grafisch gezelschap de luis, Utr. Fluxus N.E. Thing co General idea Public art workshop Gutai Quince, Grupo Manual ( E. Hill & S. Bloom) Seven, Group of Public art workshop Urban walls Reinder Werk Welfare state Site, inc Syn. Gruppe Theatre suspendu Ting theatre of mistakes
NOV 79 to OCT 80 NOV 80 to OCT 81 NOV 81 to OCT 82 Art and language Art and language Art and Language Artists-research-technology Bob and Bob Atelier Etcetera Blake Street Hawkeyes Cronica, Equipo Billedstofteater Britton brothers-Forebeard tant. Fashion Moda Bob and Bob Camden Town group Fluxus Colab Cronica, Equipo Fringe Research Disband Cronus General Idea Cronica, Equipo Eva sisters Group Material Fshion Moda Fluxus Gutai General Idea Hangers Hackney Flashers Collective Girl Artists Heresies collective Kukrynisky Group Material Hesitate and demonstrate LatxjratorioAmbiente Azione Hangers Kalarson Los Angeles Fine Arts Squad Kubach-Wilmsen-Team Kipper Kids Mabou Mines Manual Magazzini criminali Manual Midwest Coast Manual Plasticiens Normal Maatchbox purveyors Rubu Lee Phoenix SITE, inc SITE, inc Todt Snake theater Society of Thorburn's Astral Res. Wiener Werkstaette Soon 3 Zero, Gruppe Spur Studio Scarabee Untel Utopia Zebra group 86
NOV 82 to OCT 83 NOV 83 to OCT 84 NOV 84 to OCT 85 Abstraction-Création Ancients, The Bloomsbury Group And/Or Ant Farm Creation Company Ant Farm Antartica Eight Art and Language Art and Language Group Material Central Control Chromazone H/latx)u Mines Cobra Colab SITE, Inc. Cost us Equipo Crônica Todt Eight Equipo 57 En Avant Comme Avant Equipo Realidad Equipo Cronica Fabo Movimento Fluxus Fluxus Gamma General Idea General Idea Gruppe 33 Group Material Hesitate and Demonstrate Grupo Processo Pentagono Mummenschanz Grupo Suma Ridiculous Theatrical Company Gruppe 33 Seven, Group of Horses, Inc. SITE, Inc. Iris Video Collective Unit One Laser Affiliates Lubies Mabou Mines Manual Quadriga Rational Theatre Sans Titre NOV 86 to OCT 87 NOV 87 to OCT 88 Seven, Group of Art and Language Art and Language T.R. Uthco Atelier Etcetera Art Attack Bob and Bob BP Cultural Odyssey Cobra Endart Contraband NOV 85 to OCT 86 Fluxus Creation Company Ant Farm Fortuyn/O'Brien Fortuyn/O'Brien ASCO General Idea Friends of the Rag Bloomsbury Group Group Material General Idea Bob and Bob Guerilla Girb Goodbokj & Wood Culture Clash Hawaiian Music Group k/laterial Dans Design Independent Group Guerilla Girls En Avant Comme Avant Los Angeles Poverty Department Information Fiction Publicité’ Fluxus Mabou Mines Kipper Kids Group Material Media Arts Group Kwiekulik Groupe Emile Dubois Pepetian Logos-Duo Hesitate and Demonstrate Platypus Theatre Los Angeles Poverty Department Jord Circus Poyesis Genetica Manual La Fura dels Baus Psychic TV Mind's Eye Performance Ens. Margret Jenkins Dance Company SITE, Inc. Newsreel Nightfire Soon 3 Presence Panchounette SITE, Inc. Soundseen SITE, Inc. Situationists Squat Theatre Soon 3 Soon 3 Starn Twrins Starn Twins Starn Twrins Tango Planet Time & Space Limited Survival Research Laboratories Theatre of Yugen TODT Theater-in-Limbo TODT Victoria & Todd TODT Vaerkstedet Vaerst Wallace & Donohue Wiener Werkstaette Wallace & Donohue Watchface Wooster Group Zen 49 Wooster Group 87
NOV 88 to OCT 89 NOV 89 to OCT 90 NOV 90 to OCT 91 Ant Farm AfriCobra Art and Language Art and Language Antenna Theater Art" Art Attack Art and Language Blue Man Group Bob and Bob Art in Ruins Border Art Workshop Border Art Workstiop Blue Man Group Bread and Puppet Theater Cobra Border Art Workshop Chiarenza & Hauser Contraband Büro Berlin Cobra D.N.A. Center for Tapestry Arts (NY) Contraband Deadly Doris Cobra Dark Horses Earth Players Creation Company DNA Funart Eight D.N.A. Dumb Type Ellen Webb Dance Company Dance Brigade Elbows Akimbo Fluxus DEREVO (Theater company) Experiments in Art and Tech. Fortuyn/O’Brien Equipo Cronica Fluxus General Idea Fluxus Galerie du Mois Goat Island Fortuyn/O'Brien General Idea Godbold & Wood General Idea Gilbert and George Group Material Goat Island Gran Fury Heavy Manners Grey Group Material Hugo Largo Group Material Guerilla Girls Irwin Guerilla Girls Gutai Kasimir Passion Guzman Haha La La La Human Steps (Dance Co) Haha Hermanos Mayo Los Angeles Poverty Department Hittites High Risk Manual Independent Impossible Industrial Action Muteki-sha Dance Company Irwin Independent Group Night Letter Theater Italian American Theater Irwin Paul Dresher Ensemble Kumulus Jumpstart Psychic TV Lambs Eat Ivy Lambs Eat Ivy Roadside Theater Liz & Val Las Camadres SITE, Inc. Los Angeles Poverty Department Lookingglass Theater Company Situationists International Mabou Mines Los Angeles Poverty Department Squat Theatre Medhermeneutics Malashock Dance and Company Starn Twins Momix (Dance Company) Manual Station Opera House Necessary Angel Theater Ens. Moscow Contemporary Theater Survival Research Laboratories Nightletter Theater Neue Slowenische Kunst Theatre S. Ralph Ralph Paul Dresher Ensemble Theatre X Shrimps Pierre et Guiles TODT SITE, Inc. Presence Panchounette Torture Chorus Situationists International Pruit & Early Urban Bush Women Soon 3 Royal Chicano Air Force Wallace & Donohue Starn Twins Ruckus Watusi Wooster Group Theatre de la Jeune Lune Seymour Likely Zero Theatre S. Shaliko Company Tinklers SITE, Inc. Urban Bush Women Situationists International V\fallace & Donohue Split Britches Company Watchface Starn Twins Wooster Group Studio Azzurro Zaj Survival Research Laboratories Zero Systems Analysits, Inc. Theory Girls Time & Space Limited TODT Umo Ensemble V-Girls Wooster XSight Zero 88
NOV 91 to OCT 92 NOV 92 to OCT 93 Art and Language Art and Language Art in Ruins AXIS (Dance Company) Bank of Reality Bigert and Bergstrom Black Market International Bill T Jones/Arnie Zane & Co. Blue Man Group Cobra Border Art Workshop/ Fluxus Taller de Arte Fronterzio Fortuyn/O'Brien Brain Brothers Gekidan Shiki Cobra General Idea Critical Decor Gilbert and George Dancenoise Hermanos Mayo Dumb Type High Risk Elbows Akimbo Hittites Fluxus Holly's Comets Fortuyn/O'Brien Jumpstart General Idea Ladies of the Lake Gilbert and George Leone Macdonald Group Material Manual Guerilla Girls Medical Hermeneutucs Gutai Operation Hammer Haha Pilobolus Dance Company Hope Powers of Desire Independent Group Project Bandaloop Kerr & Malley REPO History La Fura dels Baus Seven, Group of Los Angeles Poverty Department SITE, Inc. Mobius Artist Group Soon 3 Osseus Labyrint Spiderwoman Theater Peppers Split Britches Company Porrx) Afro Homos Starn Twins Puritt & Early Survival Research Laboratories Ramsey Bird Theater Coprinus Recherché Tim Rollins + K.O.S. Ringside (Dance company) TODT ROON100 Wooster Group Rudy Perez Performance Ens. Seymour Likely SITE, Inc. Situationists International Soon 3 Theory Girls TODT Unit One Urtjan Bush Women Walker Moore Wallace & Donohue Zeta Collective APPENDIX B ACME DOCUMENTS
89 90
ACME ART CO. A PROFILE OF ALTERNATIVE ARTS IN ACTION
ACME ART CO. is a non-profit alternative arts organization serving the Central Ohio area. Since opening in 1986, ACME has become one of the most talked about and highly regarded arts organizations in Ohio and is the fastest growing arts organization in the city of Columbus. ACME ART CO. is located at 737 N. High St, in the popular Short North arts district. Nearly 1,000 people visit the ACME Gallery each month including 700 or more during the first Saturday of the month when each new exhibition opens. ACME features 12 fine arts exhibitions a year. The Gallery features three exhibition areas. The Main Gallery spans the entire length of the building. Adjacent to this is ACME'S Spotlight Gallery, and unique to ACME is the Bathroom Installation Gallery. A big attraction to visitors, ACME'S bathroom is transformed into a unique environment by a different installation artist every month. The variety of ACME's programming allows for a greater focus on emerging talent and its shows emphasise new and experimental art forms. Exhibits frequently address important contemporary social topics so that through the arts, the public is given the opportunity to reflect on creative solutions to many of todays issues. Exhibitions are selected by a programming committee involving people from ACME as well as guest curators from the arts community. The programming committee is open to anyone interested in bringing alternatives in the arts to Columbus. An annual call for entries is advertised through numerous outlets and arts publications across the country for the Main Gallery and each year the selection process involves reviewing thousands of slides from artists in the United States, as well as proposals from many international artists. Exhibits for the Spotlight and Bathroom galleries are selected throughout the year in order to allow for more timely and spontaneous shows, giving ACME the opportunity to seize sudden opportunities to exhibit exceptional works.
ACME ART CO. IS A SHOWCASE FOR PERFORMANCE
Throughout the year, locally and nationally known performance artists are featured at ACME. Music, theatre, poetry and multimedia arts are all part of the live events featured either in the gallery itself or at Cafe Ashtray, a weekly showcase for performers, Friday evenings from 9:00 to midnight in ACME'S downstairs area.
Figure 1. A Profile of Alternative Arts in Action. 91
COMMUNITY OUTREACH
ACME is not just a place to look at art, but is a center for active participation as well. A strong emphasis is put on community involvement. ACME ART CO. is involved in area youth programs, community events, and regularly helps coordinate special events in conjunction with groups such as public access television, AIDS awareness organizations and other groups which directly benefit the public. ACME has over 75 active volunteers ranging from high school students to business professionals and, of course, many artists. Our volunteers help with everything from gallery operation to outreach and publicity. ACME depends on volunteers not only for their help, but for their input and ideas. The gallery makes every attempt to structure our activities around their needs and interests and encourage each of them to develop their talents and skills through being involved in the arts. Volunteers automatically become members of ACME ART CO. ACME ART CO. publishes ARTMAG, a monthly preview guide to the exhibitions at ACME as well as other local Galleries. More than 2,000 copies are printed and over half are mailed to readers who request to be on the mailing list. ARTMAG features statements by the artists and photos of the work to be shown, plus interviews and news about other events and activities at ACME ART CO.
A GROWING ORGANIZATION
ACME is staffed by a director and an assistant director, and its activities are coordinated by a board of trustees and advisors who meet once a month to plan strategies for the organization's growth and development. The board operates through committees set up to address the different aspects of ACME'S role in the community. Board members are required to work on at least one committee. ACME also holds weekly meetings open to the public every Friday at 6:30. People interested in developing ACHE'S potential and utilizing its resources are encouraged to come and share their ideas and suggestions for new activies and events. 92
MAKING ENDS MEET
ACME ART CO. is a non-profit alternative arts organization. ACME receives funding from the Ohio Arts Council, Greater Columbus Arts Council, The Columbus Foundation, private donations, memberships, fund raising events and the sale of artwork and ACME promotional items. Many of the exhibitions at ACME are installations or otherwise not for sale. However, two yearly events, the Memership Show in May, and the Holidaze Extravaganza in December, are sales oriented and represent works by over 100 artists each. ACME also holds an art auction every year in July. ACME is a struggling organization and has become very creative at operating on an extremely tight budget. But in order to realize its full potential, greater financial support is needed. ACME invites businesses and individuals who are able, to make generous tax-deductible contributions in order to increase the level of programming, activity and community involvement in the arts that the people of Columbus expect and deserve. Donations of goods and services are also needed and are tax deductible as well. Find out how you can benefit as a sponsor of ACME ART CO. and support the arts in your community. Call ACME ART CO. 299-4003
A 93 ACME
FRIDAY NIGHT MEETINGS...A GENERAL OUTLINE
WELCOME t':' the Friday night meetings at ACME ART CO. It is the intention of these meetings to bring pecpie in and beyond the arts community together in order to acO'Omplish three things:
1. To be a means for partioipants to communicate and work together to share ideas concerning alternative arts and events, to discuss what alternative art means in Columbus, and to plan and do great things.
2. To look at ways ACME ART CO. can be utilized in order to make the things people want to do actually happen, and to allow participants the opportunity to get involved in the whole operation of ACME.
3. To transfer the operation of ACME from its present structure, to one which is more collective in nature.
To be a means for participants to commmunicate (etc.) refers to the fact that there are all kinds of people with great ideas and dreams but no central forum for those ideas to be expressed. You are encouraged to bring up topics which interest you.
Looking at ways to utilize ACME means getting involved and looking at ACME as YOUR place. You should feel encouraged to take charge of areas which interest you, and discuss ways you think we can all work to create alternative culture and important shows and events.
Transfering the operation of ACME means helping in the transition of the organization in order to make ACME everything it can be. This refers to getting involved in some of the already existing committees and helping out on events (such as Gallery Hop Night) now, so that ACME can perform even greater activities in the near future.
Imagine for a moment that there is no ACME in existence, and no alternative arts scene whatsoever in Columbus. Yet, there are those of us who feel a need to get something going, and we have all come together to discuss the situation.
Suddenly, we are given two boxes. One box contains all sorts of potential and resources including a gallery space, valuable contacts, office equipment, and lots of favorable press coverage and public interest & enthusiasm...instantly!
The other box contains already existing projects which need to be continued or completed, previously scheduled exhibitions, procedures for doing things which need to be revised, and a lot of redoing of the physical space itself.
Figure 2. Friday Night Meetings...A General Outline. 94
This, is essentially the situation here at ACME. On the one hand, ACME has been around for seven years, and on the other hand, it is just beginning. The groundwork has been laid to turn ACME into the most exciting alternative arts space in the state of Ohio.
ACME is now at the turning point, and we are trying to open up te as many interested people as possible. "We" is already becoming an obsolete term. "You" are what is happening now. ACME is here for you to mold and shape. It's a performance/instal1 at ion work IN PROGRESS.
A lot of creative brainstorming for the future is needed, but also needed is some effort now, to get things organized so that our future plans can be realized. Due to ACME'S recent growth spurt in the last six months, it has been hard to catch up on getting things in order, including very concrete things such as putting our rear storage space together. The staff and volunteer crew is working on some of these things, but your help would be apprec iated.
We live in a culture which emphasizes following orders rather than being creative. Arts funding, whether on the National Endowment level or in the school classroom, is always being cut back. The creative spirit is viewed as something expendable. People learn to consume rather than to create. Popular culture is promoted only to the extent that it is profitable. Even as artists ourselves, we have to un-learn some of these behavior patterns. ACME will only develop as an alternative resource if we empower ourselves to make the decisions, to create the alternatives, and assume direct, active involvement. There are artists organizations in a lot of cities across the country which are doing really important things, setting the course of art for the 21st century. We have the potential. We also have a lot of big obstacles because that potental is big. Our biggest obstacle, of course, is money. Second to that, is getting people involved. But if we have the people.,., the money will follow.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. Now, cut loose and we'll do what everyone says is impossible. And PLEASE HAVE FUN! 95
JUM PST QUIT ART DREAMING I ABOUT ARTISTS ' □ADA klEEDEb AND TO STAGE MOVE CULTURAL YOUR COUP LAZY D'ETAT BUTT ASAP INTO Wt-lAT GEAR. ARTISTS ARE NEEDED YOU TO WAITING CO FOR'??? LAB WE ARE OR WAITING ATE FOR YOU JOIN WE ARE IN OR NOT. GO WAITING WHINE FOR.YOU. SOME SHARPEN PLACE THE,EDGE ELSE.NEW CREATE A ARTIST NEV/ ENERGY ALTERNATIVE GROUP ARTS SPACE NOW IN S TIME NOW! THE \ MEETING EARLY \ EVERY FRIDAY STAGES FRIDAY OF MOVE 6 :3 0 - 7 :3 0 MENT. OR LONGER MEETING START A NEW EVERY ART .GALLERY FRIDAY IVE HAVE THE 6 :3 0 -7 :3 0 SPACE AND ACME ART CO. RESOURCES 737 N. HIGH ST ACTIVE 299-4003 COLLECTIVE 'WE ARE MEMBERS DEMANDING ENERGY YOUR ACME. ART CO. INPUT. 737 N. HIGH 2 9 9 -4 0 0 3
Figure 3. ACME Poster A. Figure 4. ACME Poster B. 96
WoULbN't IT ACTIVATE ËË CdoL IF someone e l s e THIS WOULD MAKE SUWiER! SOMETHING ARTIST HAPPEN? COLLABO THEY AREN'T. RATION ONLY YOU KNOW NEEDED TO . IVHAT YOU NEED. ARTISTS NEEDED SHARPEN TO WAKE UP THE EDGE. SLEEPING ACTIVIST ZOMBIES INPUT AND AND HOT HOT HOT ELECTROCUTE ENERGY NOW LAZY ALL-TALK- NO-ACTION FRIDAY NITES DEADBEATS. MEETING NOW IS THE ■ 6:30-7:30 TIME EVERYTHING WE HAVE THE IS CHANGING PLACE ■vxyv" NO MORE ACME ART WIMPY CO. BULLSHIT SAYS BORING MOVE YOUR PEOPLE BUTT NEED NOT OR APPLY... GET THE ALL TALK HELL OÜT. AND NO m ïs ACTION summer IS OVER. EVERYTHING YES, THIS IS GOING IS REAL. TO CHANGE. OVERTHROW JOIN US DEADBEAT FRIDAY MINDCRAP. NI TES TODAY! 5 :3 0 -7 :3 0 ACME 737 N. HIGH ART 299-4003 DON'T CO. WAIT 737 N. HIGH FOR 299-4003 PPDMTCCTOM
Figure 5. ACME Poster C. Figure 6. ACME Poster D. APPENDIX C INTERVIEW MATERIALS
97 98
Jay Hanes 40 West Tulanc Avenue Apartment C Columbus, OH 43202 (614)261-8674
August 19, 1993
The ACME Art Company 737 North High Street Columbus, OH 43215
Dear Associates of the ACME Art Company,
Many of you have recently seen me at your galleiy and participating in some of your functions as a volunteer. Some of you have not, perhaps. In any case, the purpose of this letter is to inform all of you who I am and what my intentions are with respect to my interests in ACME.
Currently, I am a doctoral student in the department of art education at The Ohio State University. 1 am in the process of collecting data for my dissertation, which involves ACME. My broad research interests revolve around the examination of collecti\ e artistic expressions, particular to social and political concerns. Specifically, I am interested in knowing about individual participation in and the collective activity of your organization, as well as how ACME is presented to the community.
For the past month, 1 have been making general observations and informal interviews, and situating myself in a working relationship with .several members of ACME in preparation for the next step in my research, that is, taking formal interv iews. 1 also want to take a few photographs in the gallerv and at functions, with permission of course. During the opening weeks of September 1993,1 would like to make appointments with several of you for one hour conversations to be audio taped as data for my project. This information will be useful for me to assess certain characteristics of ACME for my awareness and understandings of collaborative activist art and the field of art education.
Your acceptance, assistance, and participation in my project will be helpful and greatly appreciated. Please feel free to ask me any questions that you need or want for clarification of my intentions.
Respectfully,
Jav Hanes
Figtire 7. Letter to the Board of Trustees. 99
I. Personal identification: • Who are you? • Will you sign this consent form? • Do you prefer an alias for this study? • Name, age. family background (ethnicity, religious and political beliefs, economic status, etc.) education, art interests, former and present occupations, current political and religious tendencies, participation in other organizations (past and present), other...
II. The Identity of ACME • What is ACME? (Describe ACME: What is its purpose/role in the community?) • Is that/this the way ACME should operate according to you? • How is ACME structured organizationally?
III. Informant's Identification Within ACME • How do you fit into ACME? • How do you participate in ACME (past and present)? • Where do you fit into the structure of ACME? • Why do you participate? (What do you get from ACME?)
IV. ACME'S Identification Within Society • ACME is described in internally generated literature as "alternative. " What does this mean to you?
Figure 8. Questioning Strategy. 1 0 0
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT Date of interview: 9/20/93 Place of interview: Coffee Table I. Personal Identification Name: Leni Anderson Age: 28 Background: Leni moved around a bit while he was growing-up, spending most of his time in Columbus. He was bom in Los Angeles. His parents got Leni involved in art at an early age. He graduated from Columbus West High School in 1983. Attended Allegheny College on a scholarship for one quarter. He was in the army reserves at the time and went on active duty for three and a half years. He got out of the service the first time in 1988. He moved to Europe for a year and had a band there in Germany. Returned to school in January 1989 until January 1991. He re-uped for the Gulf War. He returned to school for one quarter in the fall of 1992. He dropped out because of finances. Since then Leni has been establishing himself in Columbus as a performance artist. II. The Identity of ACME The nature of ACME: "1 feel that, especially when 1 was starting out in performance, it was a good place for me to reestablish myself here in Columbus, through the use of Cafe Ashtray. It was the second place that I have performed with my group Guerrilla Theater and Company. Then just meeting artists around town, visual and performance artists, and gathering ideas. It was a good place for young or emerging artists to start. You have to be good at what you do; you have to have talent.... It's just a good place to start. They're open to new ideas. And they were open to my ideas— The structure of ACME: "The director, Lori McCargish, and the assistant director, Paul Volker, pretty much run everything. But they have a very healthy staff of volunteers that help support the gallery. And, something that you really don't see in many galleries or establishments, where they have a strong core of volunteers. Changes in ACME: "Not at this time. I think that they are doing all that they can. Whatever improvements that need to be made are things that are per se unseen by the public. Maybe there is internal changes that they are making because the gallery is growing and has gained reputation. But that's a natural process as they grow have to make certain changes. III. Informant's Identification Within ACME Informants participation: "I help set up shows, musical performances on Gallery Hop nights. And, when I'm able to. I'll come in and help and do little odds and ends get the calendar for the Artmag together. But I really don't do as much as I would like. But I do what I can." Leni has been working with ACME for approximately one year. Reciprocation: "One of the main things 1 get out of it is just meet new artists; and. I've developed, 1 think, pretty good relationships within the arts community.... IV. ACME'S Identification Within Society Alternative: "1 can't really say.... Columbus is viewed as a conservative town. And some of the art that is shown in ACME may not be shown in a Gallery such as Nicolai, just because of the purpose of the different galleries.... Mainstream: "It's really hard to say exactly what. In conversation, I guess, we subconsciously know what we mean by alternative and mainstream. But when it has to be put into words, that is, for myself, 1 can't really say what it is. 101
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT Date of interview: 9/9/93 Place of interview: ACME Gallery I. Personal Identification Name: Jim Beoddy, aka Goblinhood Age: 42 Background: "Rrst of all talk about Beoddy, because Goblinhood has his own specific origin and genesis. But Beoddy was bom in Cleveland. When 1 do the me/this/hirn/that thing. I'm pretty vague about things, but it's all really Beoddy.... The difference between Goblinhood and Beoddy, is that Beoddy is the kind of person that would have enjoyed having the Mars Probe get to Mars, find out more about it, and sent us back the information. Whereas Goblinhood is the kind of person that doesn't care one way or the other, but if it does screw-up he is willing to take credit for that and make a big deal out of it and exploit it for his work. In other words, that's one difference.... As far as the planet Mars is concerned they have separate agendas. Beoddy looks at it as a human. Goblinhood looks at it from the view point of a Martian. The only other difference is that Goblinhood is more relaxed and less inhibited than Beoddy, in terms of performance. The mask makes a big difference there.... The only real difference is that when I'm not wearing the costume. I'm Beoddy. When I am wearing the costume I'm Goblinhood; it's still Beoddy, but a different aspect of Beoddy.... Beoddy spent most of his life living in Ohio, until the death of his mother, which I guess was 1964-65. She died in a car crash. It was a major traumatic experience for the artist. After that, he lived in Mississippi for a year with his mother's relatives. He had been going back and forth to Mississippi during the summers his whole life.... This was during desegregation. At the time it didn't make that much of an impression. But in hindsight, it was obviously a really strange time to be hanging around there. Then he lived in Ohio through high school in a little town called Bellevue. Came to Columbus to attend Ohio State University. Spent a couple of years there and more or less had a nervous breakdown; wound-up in Upham Hall for a while. And eventually couldn't finish school, couldn't handle going to classes and being around people. He became very reclusive. That pattern continued so far for the rest of his life. As far as employment is concerned, he hasn't had a job in years; he's been on SSI [Supplemental Security Income].... And what this says about the state is that they have determined that he is probably not fit to work or eligible to work, you know, which is true; if he tried to get a job, he wouldn't be able to hold it very long. He's not emotionally equipped to be out there doing anything. So, it's easy for Goblinhood to tell you that. 1 mean, that's one of the things that the character can be used for he'll stand on stage and talk about Beoddy as if he was in some other room, you know?... 1 know more about my situation than anybody else can know.... 1 don't know what the state thinks its doing.... If it hadn't been for SSI, Beoddy would probably have perished a long time ago. He's just barely hanging-on as it is. So, that's his background. [In Summary,] he got through about two-and-a-half years studying art, got fairly good grades when he was in class. Most of his work, though, has been self taught. The last time he tried to go to school, he was actually going to get state assistance doing it. The Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation was going to be sending him to school, but he would have had to work a part time job and it would have been really hard to do it. He was already wrapped-up in painting pictures on his own. The paintings were very important to him... since being around psycholobists and councellors hadn't worked out for him, the paintings provided the only effective therapy he could get. So school wouldn't have helped much. It was like just: 'thanks, anyway, but I can't do it.' So in other words, he couldn't go back to school because 1 0 2
he was too busy with his own work.... The next couple of decades: Beoddy dropped out of school in 1973 for the last time, and spent some time working on cartoons. That really didn't get too far.... He mostly started concentrating on painting, and became involved around 1979 with this little political organization. So, he started doing more like political cartoons and things like that. Started having more stuff in the Free Press and other publications. Got involved with Northend Community Center by this time, he's done enough serious painting that he could apply for a grant form the Ohio Arts Council. He got the grant. The grant was to paint murals at the North End Community Center. He painted one mural there in 1980, with private donations. He painted another mural down at the other end of the hall with the grant in 1982. That was where Goblinhood came from. Beoddy had also been exploring what he called 'intermedia': this idea of wearing costumes and having the characters being in paintings and cartoons, and also be running around the street. He had a character called 'Buckethead and the Amazing Suitcase Doll.' The suitcase doll was basically like just a little prop. Although, Beoddy treated it like a sidekick, right? Buckethead was basically Jim Beoddy wearing a bucket helmet on his head and a costume. And it wasn't a success in that he was never able to get away from being the artist; it was always just him dressed up as Buckethead. The difference between Buckethead and Goblinhood, is Goblinhood can go on and become almost be a totally different, person because there's very little between him and the real Beoddy, alright? He can be as different as he wants. Goblinhood was painted as a life-sized character in on panel of this mural called, 'Synchronauts' in 1982. 1 guess wc can thank the Ohio Arts Council for Goblinhcxxl.... (These panels exist and are stored in Monkeys Retreat.) That's where Goblinhood came from. At the time, Buckethead was still having sort of a career going around doing things. He was never as active as Goblinhood is. But he was still out there. For instance, he started going out giving talks at Worthington High School. They have this political speaker's group twice every year. And Buckethead was going out there a couple of years, actually three or four years. Then Beoddy went through a period where he stopped working on comics, stopped publishing stuff, started becoming very withdrawn again, and started mostly focusing on his painting. At that point he stopped going out there. During that period, Buckethead was officially killed- off as a character. Because, among other things, Beoddy had to move abruptly to a new home and the bucket got wrecked in the process. Now he uses the bucket on this fake head as a kind of grisly trophy of Buckethead. That was the point where Goblinhood first began to really have his own separate career. Before that he'd never really done much of anything, because he was always in the shadow of Buckethead. During 1989, remember when the Jesse Helms stuff began to hit the news about the arts, that specifically was when Beoddy really began to emerge from that reclusive life style. I He started) to become more involved with the arts community around him for that specific reason. Because his work has always fallen into that category of, like, objectionable material, so he would need to go out and defend it. He figured that if he didn't get out there and have his own work out there soon, other people would have ruined the possibility of that ever happening, you know? So, that's how Jim Beoddy got involved with the ACME Art Company, through a group show involving that kind of work in December 1989. Then he hung around here for a while. And when Lori McCargish took over the gallery, she asked Beoddy to show his work here in August of 1990. Which he did; he had a big exhibit along with the artist Aaron Schroeder, who is a sculptor. Because she had just taken over and they were really short-handed, there was nobody really working here, except Lori and a couple of her friends off-and- on. Beoddy volunteered to gallery sit for the entire month, just so he knew the place would be open, right? So people would come in and see the work. And after that. 103
because it had turned out to be easier than he thought it would be (I mean it isn't like going to a classroom or something; It's just like being someplace for a few hours). As a volunteer, he was able to say 'if you want me to go on doing that I'll go on doing it.' And they did, because they desperately needed help. So, he went on gallery sitting for the next three or four months regularly and then began to taper off a little bit, shorten the hours that he was coming in because they were getting other volunteers to come in and do that. For as long as they needed him he was here, basically. Towards the end of 1991 he had gotten really burned out on gallery sitting, and didn't want to do that anymore. So, he started mostly just hanging around for other things. And when they started Cafe Ashtray going, it interested Goblinhood, who by that time had established himself as a performance character, but he didn't get to perform very much, all right?, and he needed a place to be; just wanted some place to be, you know, to wear his costume without getting thrown out or something. So he volunteered to help with Cafe Ashtray. For the next year-and-a-half or so, he worked the door at Cafe Ashtray. Now they are sort of getting other people to work the door when that's possible so that Goblinhood by now has actually gone back to gallery sitting in the form of coming in and reading tarot cards, from five to seven everyday the gallery is open. So, Beoddy has always said that Goblinhood would make a better volunteer than he would because Goblinhood actually needs to be out there; somehow, that's the only way he, 1 mean, I don't go home and wear this costume around. There's nobody to see it, and that's sort of the basis of the whole thing: to like restructure reality for other people in some small way. It's not something that you can sit around and do at home.... II. The Identity of ACME The nature of ACME: "Gee, I had to explain that on the telephone sometimes. ACME to me is like, well like I said, Beoddy got involved here because of the arts controversy. And then looking around this one gallery, he'd seen it kind of exemplify the determination to promote alternative art no matter what it was, you know? They've had some pretty weird stuff here. And, they've had weird stuff in a lot of ways. 1 mean, you know, not all of it would be considered particularly offensive to anybody; some it is just plain weird. Because its like an alternative/nonprofit gallery...it fulfills a lot of the things that public art is supposed to fulfill. Not so much, you know, to keep things going that eveiyone is already familiar with and that the public already likes. Because in a lot of ways those things can support themselves. But just to show the range of what can exist; to keep art alive in a way by not limiting it to certain accepted forms and so forth, and leave a space open somewhere where even the most experimental stuff could get done. That's what the gallery represents to me: to promote and nurture alternative forms of art.... The structure of ACME: "They have to schedule all of this in advance in order to apply for grants. So we know like a year ahead of time what we are going to be showing out here. That's chosen by a committee. I mean I might not like it or it might not be what 1 would choose. But on the other hand, 1 wouldn't want to be on the committee either. I've done things like that before where I've had to sit and view slides and decide what should go in and what shouldn't. That isn't really where I want to be at. So, I'd just as soon let them decide themselves. No matter what they have in here, because of my own commitment toward freedom of expression and supporting the arts no matter what form they take, I would go on working with the gallery regardless. Even if I really didn't like what they had. And they've had stuff that was so impenetrable to me that it was like, you know, 'what is that doing here or anywhere?' And yet, 1 don't care; 1 mean, 1 just work here, you know? And that covers the exhibit, what they do with the bathroom, and what they do with the performance space downstairs. Goblinhood has 104
been one of the longest involved people in Cafe Ashtray. But again, I haven't had that much direct involvement in what goes on there except when I've scheduled things to do myself. Then I'm more involved.... In a way the volunteers have as much to say about what goes on here as the board members do, because the volunteers are around as much as they want to be and they can get as involved as they want to be. To some extent they have a lot of input. Whereas the board members just come around once a month or something, though some of them are more involved than others. But in general, they have a tendency to be able to become a little out of touch with what the gallery is going through. The staff is here all of the time. The volunteers are around, pretty much, quite a bit. We really run the place; the board mostly makes decision and takes responsibility for things.... The more involved you become as a volunteer the more you can do. Take Goblinhood as an example: it might not seem like it right now but it actually took me a long time to set this up. It's not the kind of character people actually want hanging around, you know? He's such a creepy image, that they had to really get used to him in my opinion. He's been here doing performances, starting with March of 1991. But, it wasn't until Cafe Ashtray began and he started to help with that he began being here on a regular basis. But the fact was he was there working and kind of went along with what they were doing. Cafe Ashtray is a performance thing; and, Goblinhood is a performance. After about a year of that it became a lot easier for them to say, 'hey, we don't mind having Goblinhood around during the afternoons, he can come volunteer, you know?' Changes in ACME: "Actually, 1 always thought it was satisfactory. There's maybe some difficultlies that I'm not aware of. 1 think there's usually some minor tensions within the staff or between staff and board, but it usually works out OK But I think it's that way with any kind of office situation.... Depending on who the assistant is, the staff seems to get along pretty well and they work well. Lori has been a good director. I've been officially involved ever since she became the director. So, we've worked together for a long time. In my opinion its been good. As to the board, I think it works well enough.... The board [exists] for purposes of outside validation, or something: for the people who take it seriously, the place needs a board. I guess the best that I can say is that it does work pretty well. I know a place that uses volunteers a lot should be open to the volunteers to some extent, to have some sort of input. And this place does that, infact many people wind-up ont the board. If you work here a lot, you get to have— for instance, we don't have any control over the show that's out here because that's got to be picked and planned, done a year in advance. But we do always have things that volunteers can get as involved as they want. If you wind up being in charge of something, it's like taking the responsibility for it and doing it. So, 1 think that works out pretty well. And 1 think that's the way it should be. I don't think that it should be a thing where there's some kind of rigid hierarchy, and people volunteer, come in, and they don't really mean anything and Just do the w ork... 1 think that this is basically an open kind of place where what you want out of it can be dependant upon what you are willing to put into it. My own wants have been relatively simple. But like I said at some point, Goblinhood, the character, started really wanting someplace he could go and Just be, you know—really needing that badly. And I managed to set that up here. So, that gives me an indication how flexible they are here. But I don't think that somebody can Just come in here with a weird costume and start hanging around all the time because they felt like it. I think the gallery would need to know the person and get to trust them. But, after that people are pretty much open to new ideas here." On "outside" and "inside": "Look at the arts controversy itself. You have the outside public, people who are not involved in the arts, they don't understand anything about it.... For instance, the weirdest show we've had in here to my mind wasn't anything 105
controversial or offensive per se, it was a show where this guy did an installation made of paper towels. He had paper towels laid out on the floor and on the walls.... So, we're getting grant money to have this show in here. The tax payers are footing the bill for this thing. Even I couldn't understand it, right? I mean I had a vague idea of what he was getting at. This is something that during the arts controversy, Jesse Helms could have taken this as an example and just have the whole Senate laughing at the artist and at the whole artworld based on Just this one little thing, you know? That's the 'outside.' That's like: they're out there and they don't understand the art. Our job really is to present the art to them and try to help them understand it. 'Inside,' it's like an attitude where 'OK, this month we have paper towels we might not like the show any better than Joe Public likes it or understand it any better. Our position is, 'it's part of the arts.'... The inside position is just that the whole idea of alternative art means that you are not going to understand half of it. Some of it is going to be too new, to out there, too inpenetrable, you know. And so, the best we can do is make it accessible to the public and try to answer their questions with our opinions. The board represents it to the outside. It makes it look like we're an actual business doing something serious; we've got a Board of Trustees, we've got a staff, we've got all these volunteers. But the volunteers alone...they also give us a certain amount of validity in this. They make it obvious that we fulfil an important a function in somebody's viewpoint.... (Within the insiders] there is like an inner-party and an outer-party. The inner-party is simply made up of the people who get the most involved. The staff.. .they're usually very closely involved in most of what goes on; and there's usually a couple of board members and a couple of volunteers also very closely involved....
III. Informant's Identification WithinACME Informants position: Volunteer Informants participation: "Beoddy was involved for over a year as a gallery sitter. And he was involved in the nuts and bolts of things.... He mostly was helping to keep the doors open...during 1990-1991.... A good example of the kind of impact Goblinhood has had on the place—and this really fascinates me—ever since I started volunteering for Cafe Ashtray, one of Goblinhood's favorite pastimes is to go outside and stand around in front of the place, because it's this great luxury. He even does it when the weather's cold. If it weren't for ACME he couldn't be out on the street. There isn't any other place where he could do that. But here Goblinhood functions as a kind of symbol of how weird this place is to some people, like a living advertisement. I was standing out there a little while earlier and these two foot-cops went by, went into the J & G and came back out again. They looked at me and I looked at them and kind of nodded, you know. There was nothing they could do about it. They've grown to accept that I'm around a lot. But the first time I ever tried to come over here wearing this mask was early in 1990. I was coming over here for an opening. I was late. It was during a gallery hop. What 1 didn't know was the artist showing his work was Smokey Brown, who's a friend of mine, right? And that there was this other group who 1 was also slightly familiar with that was going to be here wearing masks as a kind of performance thing. Well I didn't know that. I just thought I'll take my new mask over and show it to them. (This isn't the original Goblinhood mask, by the way). So, I'm across the street and figured I'll duck into this convenient alley here by the phone booth—they don't have phone booths like Clark Kent used to use—but there's this telephone thing on the wall near the alley. So, I go down there and put the mask on and prepare to cross the street, right? And no sooner do I get it on when there's these two cops standing there. One of them has got his hand by his gun. You know, I had this duffel bag there with me and I just put this mask on and they're like, you know: 1 0 6
'don't make any false moves, take the mask off, and show us your ID.' So I start to reach into my duffel bag for my wallet and ID, and his hand goes back to his gun and he's like: careful with that bag!' And it's like, yeah, yeah; and. I'm laughing. You know, it's like that funny.... We wound up standing in the cold for about fifteen minutes while they called in on me and found out that I wasn't doing anything. That was Goblinhood's normal situation before he started here as a volunteer. And now when ever he gets a chance he just stands out there, because he can get away with it. It's like this great triumph of something every time he goes out there.' Goblinhood tells the story about the back page ad for ACME and how it brought David Greene into the gallery, "(Goblinhood) probably turns a lot of people off. At least, it becomes something that they have to sort of get around in their mind or ignore. But I think that most people ignore it... that ACME every once in a while somebody will see it as as a sign of real openness, or creativity, or Glasnost, or whatever you want to call it. They can actually tolerate a character like Goblinhood being around. Those are two examples of the kind of impact—and most of it's been more-or-less like that, that I've had. Beoddy gallery sitting was something they needed but it wasn't that big of a deal, because 1 really haven't been that real involved in things. As for Goblinhood.... Reciprocation; "My participation here now is mostly as Goblinhood, and Beoddy isn't around here much anymore. 1 might come in, like yesterday I came in and I didn't feel like setting up the table and putting my costume on and everything so I Just kind of sat around, Beoddy did. So, I mean, he's still around once in a while. But in general, like with this whole tarot thing it's like I'm not interested in making money; I don't even care if I do readings. This is a prop. This is one of the things that legitimizes Goblinhood to the point where people can kind of tolerate him no matter how strange he looks. Because they see the tarot thing and they figure, 'Oh, well, its just like, Shirley McLaine, l^toya Jackson, Dionne Warwick. Instead of Dian Warwick, they've got Goblinhood. He probably isn't even as psychic as Dian Warwick; it's probably some sort of gag or something. But still, the image goes along with the tarot readings to the point why I'm doing this. And these days. Goblinhood is useful in here in that he comes in and if everybody else wants to leave or has to leave he will still be here. You know, the place will still be open.... As for what 1 get out of it. I'm not really like most of the artists, in that. 1 think they all have different kinds of ambitions. Whereas for me. this is kind of a self contained thing. Just being the character fulfills the artwork. This is the only way I can do this kind of artwork.... Now Goblinhood has a place to live, a place to go whenever he wants, and be there. That' what 1 get out of it. In a sense, my participation is the most self-interested of anybody's, because I'm already getting what I want just by being around. Any time 1 want 1 can go stand on the street and look at everybody and, you know, get away with it. (Laughter).... Before we started Cafe Ashtray, for instance, 1 spent all of October of 1991 wishing some place to go. 1 didn't have any money, and ACME wasn't doing anything for Halloween. So, all of the Halloween parties cost money to get in.... 1 was so desperate [to go any place) that on November first when 1 had some money I paid five bucks to get into this Amnesty International fundraiser at Staches' because it was set up sort of like a late Halloween party; you could dress up as your favorite political prisoner or your favorite dictator. 1 guess Goblinhood is a little bit of both. So, 1 went and paid five dollars to stand around in the mask all night, and not have to take it off or anything and get away with it.... No matter how difficult this gets for me at any given time. I'm going to hang on, just because I owe it to the character now. He's done enough for me and the gallery that he deserves the right to just exist. And 1 keep him existing just by coming in here. It also keeps me in touch with things. One thing that I've learned over the past three years is that I'm still not ready to go out and get a job, because this is like 107
the lowest pressure work you can possibly do. And yet, there are times when it's really hard for me to do it. If my livelihood depended upon it, I would just fall apart and wind up in a hospital or something.... Goblinhood himself, it’s strange that he even manages to exist. You wouldn't think it's that strange; it's just a piece of cloth, its a mask. There's almost like this taboo. Like with the police, it's real easy to understand they don't want you running around wearing a mask, because then if you commit a crime they can't even really identify you unless you've left fingerprints __ Everybody else, they just get creeped-out. It's hard to say why. I guessed I'd feel the same way.... I recognize that I've got my own approach to it. If I'm standing outside I don't make eye contact with people; I don't look directly at them. I try to always seem to be looking at something else. In other words, I do everything I can to avoid forcing them to interact. Now I have my own position about art and how it interacts with people. For instance, they've got laws now that say that you can't play your stereo too loud out on the street. I'm one of the people that really suffers from lots of noise pollution. I'm kind of in favor of those laws.... When you are making everybody else listen to it, then you're kind of infringing on other peoples' space. They can't get away from it.... Whereas visual stuff is a little different. You don't have to look at it. You can always look away; you can ignore it. The fact that it's there doesn't have to bother you. Yeh, it also goes into your brain too, if you look at it. Bur not as directly or as inevitably as music or noise. With Goblinhood for instance, if they don't want to look at him they don't have to. If they do want to look at him they won't have to confront him; they won't have to deal with it, because the chances are if he secs that they'll look he will look away.... The spider on the mask is what I regard as harmless art. The spider is actually a really harmless creature, in general. Yeh, there's a few breeds that can actually kill you.... And they're also useful; the catch bugs and stuff. They are also very creative as witness the webs they make. But people just don't want them around. (A lot of people] would kill a spider if they would see one in the room.... My art has that same effect on people, even though most of it is basically harmless, and perhaps even useful. Their initial reaction will be repugnance. The spider on the mask is kind of symbolic of that. IV. ACME'S Identifîcation Within Society Alternative: "We are likely to show things here that they might not show anywhere else." Goblinhood talks about the Newark show that closed that gallery for a year. "Alternative means, to me, stuff that exists but it's not part of any mainstream grouping of art. Without places like ACME a lot of it simply wouldn't get seen.... 1 believe that the arts community has a mandate to present such work to thepublic. 1 believe that an institution like the National Endowment for the Arts, for instance, isn't there just to support established cultural bastiaons like museums, opera, and ballet that already exist, that might not go any further if they didn't have any funding. It's also there to support as many different kinds of art as possible—I mean we live in a diverse society, we live in a multicultural society and that means that art is going to range from cardboard cut-out cockfights, to paper towels on the floor, to paintings to make people bleed from the ears, to music that nobody wants to listen to, to virtually all kinds of stuff. Every kind of art possible is what there should be in a culturally diverse society. But instead it's like, the stuff that gets accepted and promoted and tolerated for the most part is just whatever becomes broad-based enough that it winds up on TV. Then you have everybody running around imitating it and so on. And there's still all of the stuff outside of that.... It's all still there. But without places like ACME nobody can see it. 108
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT Date of interview: 9/15/93 Place of interview: Coffee Table I. Personal Identification Name: MegGalipault Age: 32 Family background: Meg grew up in Worthington, OH. She has three older brothers and one older sister. One brother is a painter; the other is a writer. Her sister is a painter, as well. "Art has been in my family as a grew-up." Father: was in the field of aviation safety, an experimental test pilot. Mother, started in nursing school, had five kids and dropped-out. Parents got divorced and she went into social work for the welfare department. Both have died. Meg thinks that her mother "always wanted to be an actress." "My parents were excommunicated from the Catholic Church.... We went to church until I was seven or eight ... Education: Graduated from Ohio University. Studied public relations in the journalism department. Attended the Worthington alternative high school. "There was very much an artistic bent to the school." Former and present occupations: "What 1 do right now is I'm a consultant in corporate sponsorship, but I also write. That's really my goal, to write fiction. I'll be publishing a book, I just found out. Its non-fiction on corporate sponsorship.... Basically, what I do is work with festivals and non-profits on how to attract corporate sponsorship...." After graduating, Meg went to Boston for two years. The first year she managed a dance studio and company. Next, she did some free-lance writing. After returning to Columbus Meg got a temp job for an auto racing organization. She has been working as a consultant for four years. Belief structure/Art interests: "I don't want to spend my life, like my parents did, stuffing all of their creative instincts down to make a buck. I always knew that was not me, that I don't belong in a corporation. I would not ever fit into that environment. So a couple months ago, I finally made a decision that I don't have to: that ! need to follow my own creative aspirations.... 1 have a lot of childhood struggles that I am dealing with, so that is a very big part that is motivating me artistically. Its being able to communicate and exorcise those things out of my life. II. The Identity of ACME The nature of ACME: "ACME is a venue for experimental art, in all forms: visual, theatre, whatever. That's its basic premise, I think.... I think its an outlet for artists who find it difficult to get their work shown in more traditional galleries.... Its a place for people who are not mainstream. I think that its more an artist's galleiy than it is an art lovers gallery, in a sense. That is not to say that artists are not art lovers, as well. But it seems to be more purposeful for the artists themselves, which is one of the things I like about it. There's a lot of galleries around here that show art that is a little bit more middle of the road, and that satisfies people in some groups, to make a generalization. But that doesn't satisfy me.... There are some benefits to the gallery. Its certainly a social place for people who don't fit in with other places. I really feel that ACME home for me. I've always felt out-of-place in more traditional settings. Basically, I've stuck out like a sore thumb, which is one of the reasons that I went to an alternative school.... I feel that I've met a lot of people be hanging-out there and being on the board. Also, for me personally it provided motivation for my own art work. Being around artists: which one of the things about ACME is that there are artists there who regularly show in the gallery and you can talk to them, and find out what motivates 109
them. And hearing that helps me do my own work. Its nice to know that people go through the same things when they are creating something. Its a motivational source. The structure of ACME: "Its kind of a mish-mash right now, unfortunately. We have two separate bodies: we have the board and we have the staff. Although we are trying to get those two entities to work together, there is still a lot of problems with communication. And that affects the management... The volunteers [as a third body] are kind of directed either by the staff or the board. Its not very often that the volunteers have an opportunity to jump in and say, 'lets do this.'... Changes in ACME: ... Which is something that needs to happen more, we need to bring those people in more. Friday night meetings, certainly, offer a vehicle for volunteers to get more involved. But ultimately you have to go through the board and committee people, which is something that we are working on. The reason being that it was probably OK to operate on that level, but we can't really do that now. We have so much stuff going on. We got to have some structure.... I would like to see a way to bring the volunteers in more.... We are hoping to move into another space sometime down the road. If we are going to be able to grow, we've got to move into another space. More outreach: there are several people in the board and volunteers that really want to do more outreach. And I think that'll happen within next year. The board has change dramatically in the last year. 1 started December j 1992], just for a frame of reference. Its been overhauled. We have lost probably more than half of the old board members, and we began to invite members who are already active in the organization.... 1 think that (the retreat] will be beneficial."
III. Informant's Identification WithinACME Informants participation: "1 got conned into it, (laughter). Actually, 1 didn't become president until February ] 1993). 1 started in as a board member in September ] 1992].... 1 could tell quickly that if things didn't change quickly that 1 was going to drop out. So I kind of raised hell for a couple of months. That's when 1 became president. Before that I had been to the show at the gallery hop and some of the other shows, but I hadn't been actively involved. I've known Lori ]McCargish] before and I kind of knew Paul [Volker], but 1 didn't know many of the board members. As President, I kind of view my job as mediating between the board, the staff, and different committees (which have been pretty nonexistent until recently), and making through people follow through on their commitments. Board development should be a top priority for me, but unfortunately since we've had to do so much crisis management, 1 haven't been. But I'm hoping that after this retreat we will be a little more organized, then I can start looking at that. I am also going to have to take responsibility for the development committee (which I'm hoping to be able to find somebody else to do that), but in the interim because we don't have anyone. I'll have to do that fora while.... Development is fund-raising. Board development is recruiting board members, and looking at the long term development of the board.... I should be spending more time sitting down with each board member.... 1 was putting in probably twenty hours a week; and. I've cut back to four because 1 couldn't run my business. I try to help out with grants and letters that go out. I take care of the agendas [for the board meetings], and setting up meetings. Informants position: President of the Board of Trustees. Reciprocation: "I love ACME. I love what it stands for. 1 love its presence in the community. Its definitely needed here. Its an outlet for me, personally. 1 have very selfish reasons for being involved. And I'm trying to get the most out of it I can.... Its a good place for me to be inspired and motivated. Its great being a part of the art scene. 1 1 0
the progressive art scene.... The people here are really dedicated, and its really nice to be in that kind of atmosphere.
IV. a c m e's Identification Within Society Alternative: "I guess to me, alternative means progressive—another one of those words. Things that kind of push the envelope of people's level of acceptability. 1 mean there may be stuff here sometimes that I might find offensive, but 1 diink that its good that its here. Stuff that wouldn't get shown in Nicolai's, other galleries, and the Columbus Museum. Experimental. Mainstream: "For me it means conservative, but 1 don't necessanly think it means conservative for everybody. I think it is, what is acceptable to the general public, what doesn't frighten people, not very challenging. INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT Date of interview: 9/2/93 Place of interview: Coffee Table I. Personal Identification Name: Scott Galloway Age: 26 Family background: Bom in Dallas; raised in Columbus. "I was not raised with a religious background. After talking about his art, Scott referred to his family influences bu saying: "But it kind of filtered down from my grandparents and other parts of my family. We have a long history of ministers, preachers, evangelists in my family.... My parents kind of broke away from all of that, but it still played a factor." Scott has two older sisters. One is a watercolorist and freelance artist. The other is a Fh.d and a professor of Biology at Union College. Education: Graduated from Upper Arlington High School, 1985. Graduated from Brown university in 1990; studied art and semiotic theory. Art interests: "1 am personally interested in the arts. 1 am an artist.... 1 work with photography and Xeroxes, manipulating those with pastel crayons, watercolors, and pen and ink. That has taken the form, in the past, of poster size images and three- dimensional sculptures using plexiglass.... I've participated in the member shows and December sales at ACME. I've had piece at ROY G BIV earlier this year. I've participated in a couple of group shows up in Cleveland at Spaces.... Right now I'm working on book. It's a surreal short story that 1 wrote, concerning the violence done to angels by people who don't believe in them.... The angles start out as being, how do 1 put it, they are wearing masks and gauntlets. They are in the bondage of his disbelief As his perception changes of religion, or whatever, they are stripped of these bandages, of these encumberments, that he's put on them. II. The Identity of ACME The nature of ACME: "The standard line is that ACME is an alternative art space. What that fits into is sort of exploring people whose artwork isn't normally or necessarily considered art work by the nature of the media used. People who don't have a name in the arts and might have problems showing at a more 'traditional' gallery.... People who are interested in expressing... more controversial political issues through their artwork.... ACME is not just a gallery, its also kind of an educator. I'm not sure how much of that really carries over... In letting potential artists, people interested in the arts, and people who are just in the community, giving them an idea that art is not just about marble museums.... It's not something elitist. It's not something that is so intimidating that it can't be approached. Its not something that you have to spend years and years studying about various styles and techniques to appreciate. But its more of a hands on sort of thing. And it encompasses a lot of different aspects.... Art is a celebration of emotions and ideas, a celebration of being alive...its sort of an educator through the community outreach aspect of it.... Allowing people to have a voice who might not be able to express themselves in other places.... It's a coming together of different ideas that aren't necessarily found in the mainstream....I'm a little bit uncomfortable with the word education, because we are not, like, they're saying this is what's right. Its more in terms of: these are possibilities, these are possible ideas, these are possibilities through public expression.... The structure of ACME: "We've got the Board of Trustees, which varies from about nine to twelve people. There arc also advisors to the board, which is another group of five to eight people, 1 believe? I'm not exactly sure. The board is supposed to be the people who make plans, set goals, come up with ideas, policy, whatever. Then you've 1 1 2
got a staff of two, the executive director and the assistant director. Ideally they are there to implement and make real the board's policies . Also within the board, there are several committees, which deal with things like P.R., volunteers, programming, development, things like that. Working with the staff there is this huge group of volunteers, that basically do all of the labor: hanging the shows, cleaning, maintenance, everything and anything that needs to be done is done on a volunteer basis. The only people who get any sort of money are the director and assistant director. The way I sort of see it it's sort of an hourglass shape, big on top, a very small two person funnel in the middle, and a large segment of volunteers. In my mind that's not the most efficient structure." Changes in ACME: "More streamlining. The board, every once in while, runs the risk of becoming too large and too cumbersome: to many people with too many ideas that just overloads the staff. Too many policies, too much paperwork, all of that. The board needs to be, not cut down in number, but made more efficient, in that, people who are on that take a more active stance in what they are doing. Ideally, I would think the staff should be wide, that hourglass middle section, should be wider to relieve some of the pressure that builds up.... And with the volunteer group at the bottom, there needs to be more collective way of, |well,| it needs to a little bit more collective. There are a lot of people in the past, at least, who said, 'yes we are interested' they come and get their picture taken, sign up for stuff, and we never hear from them again. There are people who maybe come in, maybe, once or twice, and fall to the wayside. We need to be a little bit more selective, and we need to figure out some ways to show our appreciation for and help get them to put in more effort into working at the gallery. Instead of having an hourglass shape, make it more up and down.... Nothing to change the atmosphere or tone of the gallery, but just sort of practical changes to make sure that it continues growing, that it continues showing quality exhibitions, and so that it survives. The infrastructure needs an overhaul. III. Informant's Identification Within ACME Informants participation: Scott began volunteering for ACME in 1991, doing various tasks. "One of the things I have done is take in all of the slides that are sent to us and 1 organize them for the programming committee. So I see, basically everything that comes in. And its been a real eye-opener to see what is going on, where its going on, the people doing it; its been really exciting to see that there are people, all over the country and all over the world makein things and creating things. They may be people that it's I art] not their main occupation, but they are going out into their backyard and building something, going down to the basement or into garage, whatever and creating. The tightness of imagery that's out there is amazing. That kind of imagery is out there. Its not just centered in New York of Ix)s Angeles or big cities. I like to see what they are doing and what they are working with.... It has changed the way I look at my own work.... Its kind of expected that each board member either lead a committee or be a part of a committee; there's maybe eight of them. That's something that I'm not necessarily comfortable doing. The way I see my role is someone who goes around to the various committees, picking up what the frustrations are, what the things they're doing, what their goals are, offering suggestions where I can, and then taking all of that and reporting to the president and letting her know what's going on. So, that frees her up from having to really spend a lot of time and effort making sure things are being done. It frees her up to do more administrative sort of things: planing agendas, working with the executive director, whatever...." According to Scott, ACME is loosely organized. In the upcoming retreat, he hopes that roles and responsibilities will become better defined. "One of the things to be discussed at the retreat is board 113
refinement, getting things nailed down a little bit, also how ACME is perceived by the community, how we want to be perceived;...focusing on long term goals. Its all sort of interconnected.... Right now we like have a window open to really explore these issues, and get them settled to an agreeable state.... [Aside from the vice president's duties, as a volunteer] I'm still doing the same things that I always have done: organizing the proposals that come in, contacting artists, gallery-sitting.... Informants position: He was elected to be the vice president of the Board of Trustees in July 1992. "This is all pretty new to me." Reciprocation: "When I moved backed to Columbus [after graduating from Brown,] I got to a point where I was feeling very isolated. I missed being around the atmosphere in the art department at Brown, where you could hang out [with a group of creative people [...to talk ideas and issues.... ACME is a very unique place in the city, a very necessary part of the art community. From that sense, its something I want to see continued; and, I want to see it develop. I want to help out as much as I can to keep it alive.
IV. a c m e's Identifîcation Within Society Alternative: "That's real nebulous.... In a very cut and dried sense, alternative is sort of positioned against traditions.... This is a very simple black-and-white- dichotomy: traditional vs. alternative. Traditional are the techniques, genres, ideas that have sort of become passed down through art history.... 1 use the word traditional in a very broad sense.... So, alternative then becomes things, processes, or médias that art don't easily fit into. Xeroxes, computers, manipulated art, video, installations, performance oriented work, to certain extent photography (which is still not considered part of the fine arts)." Avant-garde: "Avant-garde is a sticky one [to define]. My sort of perception on art history is that avant-garde was almost a movement rather than an idea.... Mainstream: "Mainstream, I think of more sort of like pop culture: what's out there, what you see on TV." V. Additional Comments On the ACME community: "One of the things that sort of sets ACME apart form other galleries is the personalities that you see there, its got a lively feeling to it, a lively atmosphere (most of the time).... At one of the board meetings, we were talking about Cafe Ashtray and the gallery in general. There was a person named Joel Three who started up Cafe Ashtray, when he left he took his personality, and Cafe Ashtray suffered for it. We still haven't found out what to do with it, how it's going to work. The same with Artmag; should Paul Volker decide not to do that any more: I'm sure that we would continue doing it, ]what form would it take?]. In terms of the ACME community, its a lot of these very lively, intelligent, creative personalities sort of bouncing around the walls. It can be a little overwhelming most of the time, but it is also a lot of fun." 14
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT Date of interview: 8/31/93 Place of interview: Coffee Table I. Personal Identification Name: David Greene Age: 35 Family background: Youngest of 7 children. Father: Lutheran. Mother Catholic. Large family. Raised in Pittsburgh her father worked in the agriculture department and David's father was a son of a coal miner. Both from large families. "In a way, both were kind of rebellious for their time—a mixed religious marriage. He was a doctor; she was a nurse.... basically it was a liberal family. They ended up getting a divorce, when I was in fourth grade. But we always had a lot of medical textbooks, art, music, you know with seven kids in the family you are going to have just about everything things laying around in one form or another. Jazz records, symphonic music, so basically, I was exposed to the full range of what the world has to offer.... We had an art history library.... My Eldest sister, Sally...was an art student at Kent State." She influenced Dave before he began to " draw on everything, all of my books.... So, I always had a real strong interest in art. That helped to sustain me." Education: Dave started college at the Ohio University branch campus in Zanesville, taking a few art courses. He ended up becoming interested in communications, radio and TV, because he liked music also. Art interests: "1 was a frustrated musician....which, I think, the twists and turns that life takes you through are actually fortuitous and takes you to where you need to be, if you handle it the right way. |Laughter.) ! met a friend of mine. Bob Burnet, we drew in sketchbooks together." Former and present occupations: After graduation David worked in a small radio station, a record shop, then came to Columbus. He got a job doing hand lettering on "knick- knacky" gift items. Then David took a job at a night club as a bouncer, working his way to being entertainment director and head disc-jockey. He met his wife there; "she was an artist also, a writer." All along he kept drawing in a sketchbook. He did a few paintings. Then he was "forced" to take a job as a traveling salesman. Then a job as a hotel and restaurant bar and supply salesman, followed by being a mortgage broker. He got divorced. David Took a vacation, quit his job, and became a "hippie-beatnick- punk-rocker-artsey-boy because that was always want to do anyway and 1 had no reason not to." He did various odd jobs while making art. II. The Identity of ACME The nature of ACME: "Acme is a peer group, an after-school art club, analogue to a garage band, which is a real good analogy: I like that. Because the vast majority of the people are really associated with Acme a lot, very few of them have had complete art training. What they know how to do is what they taught themselves to do." "ACME is a multi pronged thing. Its not a knife; its a fork. Actually, its more of a spork. It combines the qualities of a knife, fork, and spoon... Primarily, it serves as an area where artists that would not normally get exposure, get a chance to display their works. The fact that it exists here in Columbus in the form that it does and shows the work that it does, one hand serves as a function of the fact that Columbus is the demographic test market for America. If it is going to live in Columbus, Ohio, it will live in just about any market.... Columbus has become a very vital area.... There's a lot of money and a lot of power. There's opportunity for a lot of growth. But at the same time there is a lot of people like myself...who have moved here from smaller periphery areas...that gives it that balance.... ACME exists to show that artwork, and as a result of that the people 115
that it attracts are the people who are going to do it whether they get money or not.... ACME is a coalition of people [who are going to do it because they feel the need to do it, whether it sells or not].... A professional artist is someone who spends a significant amount of their time doing artwork.... Paul Volker can give you a better description of ACME.... It has helped me to establish myself as a central Ohio artist. "It serves as a socializing place, as a singles club, a political forum, a place to go when you've got nothing to do.... In college you had a clique of people that you can hang with; this is a continuation of the same thing. It is people that reinforce your lifestyle and your political choices. It is lifestyle affirmation, because art and music have come to that point where it use to be, [like folk art].... ACME lets people be creative in one way or another, either being associated with it, contributing their skills as clerical-janitorial- P.R., whatever, it fulfills a creative need in them.. .just by participating in it. Its a collaborative effort!... Any collaborative effort put on by any organization.... In that essence it can become a work of art, if the proper care and thought is given into it." To David, especially because the collaboration is taking place at a gallery. "Actually, ACME is an ongoing performance piece. Sometimes its just an installation that you come in and look at, sometimes its a live effort that you view, sometimes its a live performance that you interact in and participate in , thus becoming a part of the work of art itself.... The ACME soul is that part of American society that says; Hey, wait a minute, what about his viewpoint,'its the logical-emotional-sensitive-caring-outraged- beatnik-hippie-liberal. The structure of ACME: Gaia concept (refer to tape). "There is a core of people.. .of people who want to do it.... They find a way to do it." Changes in ACME: "1 would like to see more people involved on the level as the core of volunteers are, simply because that would allow us to do more things." ACME needs more consistent person power, to David. "Getting into a larger space, getting better funding, being able to do more of what we do now, and having a firmer financial footing so that we can do it with out having to worry about the budget as much. There's a lot of good ideas floating around out there its just a matter of finances..., the same drive with a bigger budget. III. Informant's Identification Within ACME Informants participation: David is a "volunteer. He became volunteer-of-the-month for August. "Simply by going in and volunteering 1 have met more artists than 1 can name. I've made some tremendous friends.... Reciprocation: Jim Beoddy believes that if ACME didn't exist, then Gobi inhood wouldn't exist. And, in a way, I kind of feel the same, because its one of those places that you can go and this is what 1 contribute and they'll say: 'Well go ahead.'" .... Its my chance to get my tawdry little bit at immortality, and get my name, at least, in the minor role of art history." David seems to enjoy the effects that he has mentioned while describing ACME from above. IV. ACME'S Identification Within Society Alternative: "Alternative means exploration, open-mindedness, accepting, encouraging, and supporting." Mainstream: To David, the antithesis of alternative is "mainstream, lowest-common- denomenator, McDonalds^"." V. Additional Comments "Tribes use [the arts] as social glue. Popular American culture is on that same level as tribalism. And what we are doing at ACME, especially through Cafe Ashtray 16 performances, is applying that same social glue to the people that are associated with ACME. Its the same lifestyle reinforcement.... Maybe its more like social Jello™." 17
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT Date of interview; 9/20/93 Place of interview: His Home I. Personal Identification Name: John Groeber Age: 29 "Not a baby boomer" Family background: John has lived in Columbus for the past 25 years. Education: He went to parochial school. He attended OSU graduating in economics. He graduated from law school in 1990, also at OSU. Art interests: His interest in art stems from grade school. He likes drawing and painting. "I think that I do better drawing than I do painting. Painting: I can’t seem to get very precise. But that's OK, too, because then everything is kind of off-the-wall, I guess." Former and present occupations: John worked at an accounting firm for a few years until the spring of this year. He described it as "big, corporate, bureaucratic, stab-you-in- the-back sort of place. I wanted to quit there three months after I started.... What I did was nonprofit organizations there." He expressed his interest in nonprofits as an "under-served market." So, he and an associate have formed a practice that primarily focus on nonprofits. He sees it as a way to help people. Belief structure: John was raised Catholic. His wife is also Catholic; they intend to raise their daughter Catholic, as well. "I think that it's important to have a religion. 1 don't necessarily care that it's one religion or another. We have a spiritual life, I guess. We believe in after life; that sort of thing. Politically: my wife is very Republican; I'm very Democratic. We cancel each other out." He lists the two problems in this country as the deficit and poverty. "Politically, from an art standpoint: ... .people at ACME if it makes any kind of expression it's art.... I don't buy that at a ll... I tend to think that some point that the expression has to take on some creativity within the person's own abilities.... If its something that 1 can do without any effort, 1 don't think it's art, because I don't think of myself as a person that is talented enough to to do what 1 consider art." He thinks that there should be "some kind of parameter" for the use of public funds for art. "1 would like to be a good family person; that's important." Other information: "Other things that I like to do is fish." II. The Identity of ACME The nature of ACME: "1 look at ACME as the organization where anybody with any kind of artistic expression in their lives, if they want to fraternize with other artists, doesn't matter what their abilities are that should be the place where they should go and find that fraternization. As you know it is a nonprofit organization, tax exempt and all of that. But more than that it's just a unique way for people to belong, I guess, in the art community.... Maybe it's just a fantasy. ACME might be the fantasy that as long as I'm a member there, I can always call myself an artist. Although, in reality, I practice law. That gives me that opportunity; and, it ought to be that.... There is also people who dedicate their lives to art work, and that organization also exists for them, as a space to be creative." Changes in ACME: "We don't do enough in the way of serving artists that are really trying to establish themselves. We could do more. We could try to establish a data-base or a set of channels of individuals around the country, maybe.... We could set-up, almost, an employment situation where artists can go out into the community [to do art work].... It's mostly the people who have the creativity but don't have the established artistic background. I guess.... Well there's a lot of things that need to be improved. Start with space: I think the space—although its Short North and it's important to be there because that's considered the artistic eclectic community of Columbus—is 118
probably too small. The office facility is way too small. Cafe Ashtray and the downstairs area concerns me from a legal stand point, I guess maybe because I have that background; in that, we do these performances we don't know what is going to happen. People have to walk down those steps into kind a of dark area. Actually, I haven't gone to Cafe Ashtray because I'm not too interested in performance art, myself. But we need to get a better space for that. From a facilities standpoint, I think we need to upgrade. I think the organization is ready to upgrade. Financially, we need to improve our cash flow, that's for certain.... We are also working on a set of by-laws; we don't have a set of by-laws to operate." The structure of ACME: "I see the structure of a nonprofit organization as: you have your members, management, the board. And the way it should be, is your members move up into the board; they get to run the organization, then they move on. Then the constituency builds by the growth through the organization. All of the ex-board members still continue to part of the organization, but they have reached out and touched a number of other people. I tell all my friends, 'it's always so much fun working there.' I took six people to the auction.... The way it works is that it should be a filter, almost a reverse filter, though. Growth coming as people pass up through the organization. And right now we have the same board members working fulfilling duties because other people aren't there to step in and do them. So we need to get that transgression moving. I don't know how we do that. I think having by-laws will do that, because people will say, 'here's the way we are going to run the show.' That'll help. From a management standpoint, we have grown to the size of a $60,000 per year income organization. 1 think there's room there to grow, to triple, quadruple that. It's going to take putting on a professional edge. Right now we are this anti-establishment, anti-management sort of organization. And to serve the community better through the programs 1 mentioned before—like having an outreach program for artists or having this data-base, or something like that—we're going to have to employ more people, we'd have to increase our size. Those things cost more money. And to do that we are going to have to get our management in line with operating something that's maybe four times the size that it is right now. Something has to give there. Membership: my own experience with membership is whenever to somebody else there's a lot of closet artists out there who would love to be a part of it. And I think the opportunity to increase membership is enormous; we just have to get the word out." John is not sure that we should be showing work from people out side the Columbus community. "1 don't think that were a national organization. So, 1 don't know if we should confine or condense the reach of the group to, maybe, Columbus and Ohio. Part of me thinks, yes. But part of me also likes to see stuff from all over the country, because it adds a dimension that's something that 1 haven't seen.... He talks about censorship a little suggesting that ACME serves a need for open expression in the community. III. Informant's Identification Within ACME Informants position: John is a board member. Serves as the finance chair. Informants participation: John became associated with ACME in the spring of 1993. He was called backed through a referral service. He expressed excitement in knowing that he could be affiliated with an arts organization like ACME. Because of his business and legal background he feels that he should "step in there and take a role.... kind of a watch-dog role. It's fun to be in, because of you have a law background you can play that game.... My wife and 1 want to get involved in the gal 1er)' hop. That's something that we enjoy.... Long range goals: 1 want to give it about three years, to make a difference. And then just be a member; and come to all of the functions, that sort of thing.... It's fun to see all of the new things; that's what it is. 119
Reciprocation: "Maybe it’s the feeling that you're important to something. It is fantasy, too. Play art director art gallery, that sort of thing. It isn't just out of the goodness of my heart, because I want to volunteer to help something. I do want to help, and I do have that goodness there. But I wouldn't be doing it if I wasn't getting something out of it. There's a little ego boost to say. I'm a board member here. It's fun to know enough a business and legal background to have your opinions get heard and respected; there's that. It's fun to see something move and grow too.... I've often tried to sit and think, do I do anything just out of the goodness of my heart.... I think I always get something out of it. Which isn't bad, I rationalize, because 1 have that incentive to do a good job....
IV. a c m e's Identification Within Society Alternative: "Alternative, to me means, something that you couldn't buy over the counter, something that you couldn't buy going to the mall. To me, it's something that's out on the fringe. It's something that my mom and dad don't know about. It's something that I wouldn't take my grandparents to see or do. But it's something that 1 want to see. It's something that I like that not a lot of people do. It's not mainstream, although I'm a mainstream person. It's a chance for me to go off the mainstream. It's sometimes bizarre. It's sometimes offensive. It's sometimes funny. But it's never non interesting.... It's something that I wouldn't accept. The fact that I wouldn't accept it. The split second 1 saw and didn't accept it to me makes it an alternative form. Doesn't have anything to do with sexual preferences, the kind of people who frequent it. During the auction we saw some of the most bizarre looking people there. 1 wouldn't be like them; I wouldn't do that. But I enjoyed seeing the product of that environment. If people say that alternative is the product of a bizarre clique in society, I don't agree with that. I think that it's anything that somebody sees different." Mainstream: "Mainstream would be kind of what I do on the weekends right now." John describes his daily/weekly routine as mainstream in effort to "try to make enough money to pay all of the bills. That's mainstream to me." It seems to be an acceptance of a life-style. John discusses the similarity between alternative and "non-mainstream." He suggests that "the more people the see alternative, the more casual | mainstream 1 it becomes.... If you go to the gallery hop and you see a lot of bizarre people walking around, conscientiously you say, 'that person is different. You might say, 1 wouldn't want to be like that.' Mainstream people are the people who make that distinction. In an alternative community that would be a casual situation; you wouldn't make that distinction. So there's opportunity as society progresses, that we can make alternative a more casual term. It won't be easy though, because mainstream society is so large __ Although, mainstream people can enjoy the alternative just as much as anybody else.... V. Additional Comments "1 remember Paul Volker and I got into a discussion once about who is an artist. We were talking about how 1 could never be an artist because I'm just not willing to make the sacrifice to go live on the street and view society emerging before me so I could record it into art. 1 thought, 'you know, you're right. 1 don't want to do that. I like sitting in my living-room, not worrying about making it home.... But the more 1 think of it, anybody can be an artist.... That's the purpose for the organization. There is an organization out there for you if you have any creative expression what so ever. We can all call ourselves artists if we want. 1 2 0
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT Date of interview: 9/20/93 Place of interview: Coffee Table I. Personal Identification Name: Faye Herskovitz Age: 37 Family background: Faye’s maternal grandparents were from Russia during the revolution. She and her mother were both bom in Columbus. Her father was bom in Czechoslovakia, immigrating to the USA on July 3, 1949 and surviving the concentration camps of the Holocaust. Faye is the only child. Art interests: Faye is really interested in photography. She has produced photo essays on her father's experience of the Holocaust and on death at a funeral home. She is currently working on a series of local artists' portraits in their own environments. Faye likes to be around artists because they are inspiring to her. She loves photography, which goes back to her seventh birthday when she wanted and received a camera. Education: She attended the Columbus Torah Academy and graduated from Walnut Ridge High School. Faye attended OSU for two years. She was "never happy at Ohio State," taking courses that she thought needed to, not taking art courses. However, she was very interested in art classes in high school. Faye has taken quite a few courses at CCAD as a creative outlet. Former and present occupations: She has worked with Bank One for fourteen years and held numerous part-time jobs. Other information: "One thing that is important to me is to treat all people with respect," no matter what religion, race, or gender. "1 can't understand how other people can treat other people as if they were below them. Especially coming from the background that 1 do. You know, my father was persecuted solely because he was Jewish." II. The Identity of ACME The nature of ACME: "ACME is an art gallery. And ACME is a community. And ACME is a social type place. And ACME is part of my life.... It's just has become integrated into my life; it's just part of me.... If 1 was somebody else looking, 1 would think that it's a really cool gallery that I'd like to go to. As a matter of fact, before 1 new anyone at ACME, before 1 started getting involved with ACME, when 1 would coming down to the Gallery Hop, no matter what, I would always want to go to ACME. Even if I didn't go any place else. 1 would want to go to ACME, just to check it out and to see what was going on there. It's role is to give people [artists] the vehicle to show their work. For instance they showed my work, my photographs last summer. If ACME wasn't there. 1 don't think that anyone else would have shown photographs of dead people, hanging on their walls.... It's an alternative type gallery, where other views were different, not the normal type things, like the pretty little watercolors. It's everybody's gallery.... Changes in ACME: "I think less talk and more action, more organization. But the thing is, I think, people are trying to do that anyway. People on the board and the staff are really giving it an effort. I'm not so sure that they know how, especially the staff.... And 1 really wish they would hire an extra, another person for the staff, because 1 think that it would help out a lot. The structure of ACME: III. Informant's Identification Within ACME Informants position: Faye has served on the Board of Trustees since June of 1993. She has been affiliated with ACME just over a year. She acts a volunteer coordinator. 121
Informants participation: "When I first began volunteering at ACME, they really didn't have an organized volunteer staff. One day I came in on a Gallery Hop and Joel Three was sitting there really kind of bummed-out. He said he hated gallery hop.... I said, Til come in and volunteer next month at the Gallery Hop. And I did. And that was my first time, that was July 4th. I really liked it. I just little-by-little became more involved in all kinds of different things there. I've painted pedestals, washed the floor, and all kinds of different things. 1 Just showed a commitment to ACME. Well, first when I went in there I was kind of intimidated by people because 1 thought they were, you know, real art smart and I wasn't. I still think that they are. But the thing is that they eventually trusted me and welcomed me and realized that I could become committed I have kind of brought people in there who may not have really come in there ever because either they were intimidated by it or whatever or they were afraid of it.... Some of my friends have started volunteering there and made a commitment to ACME. And right now what I do is basically, I just sort of fell into this coordinator job because at first I was going to do a bookkeeping type thing. But it turned that they...put me in the position of volunteer coordinator, because I was a 'people person.'... I feel that if 1 had more time 1 could get a better handle on the job. But I've got so many things going on, like my job...my class and all of that.... And there's so many things going on that I feel if I had more time to spend with ACME I would be doing a much better job at volunteer coordinating. 1 feel like I don't always have a lot of ideas.... I'm not living up to my expectations. Whether or not I'm living up to other people's expectations, 1 don't know. But I think they realize how much more 1 do outside of ACME. " Reciprocation: "Well, I get the felling of belonging to the community,...an arts community. 1 want to feel part of it, and 1 do. I've met a lot of people and artists through the gallery: that's important to me. I'm the kind of person who always likes to have people around. 1 don't know why. Maybe it's because I'm an only child.... 1 want to be with people who i feel are similar to me and have similar views that I do. And I've gotten that out of ACME. I enjoy seeing other people's creativity....
IV. a c m e's Identification Within Society Alternative: "Alternative means to me something that is not considered the norm, such as pretty little watercolors hanging on the walls with little flowers and stuff like that.... Something that's really different. Something that people won't buy posters of and hang on their walls. .. 1 2 2
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT Date of interview: 9/9/93 Place of interview: Short North Tavern I. Personal Identification Name: Mike Kehlmeier Age: 31 Family background: Raised in Westerville. Mike's family has been in Columbus for generations. He grew-up in a white, "suburban lower-middle class" family. Father is retired from the Ohio Bell; he worked blue-collar tasks. Mother worked for the Westerville community news paper for about twenty years. She still does free-lance writing. Mike was raised as a Lutheran; and, his parents still go to the same church. He still has a good relationship with his parents. He is the youngest of three brothers. His brothers still live in Columbus. One is married. "There's two queers in the family. Well, two-and-a-half.. .[The married one is straight but the second and third oldest are the queers. The third oldest, however, is now straight.] use to be but he found God." Education: Graduated from OSU in 1988 in Journalism. Worked on the Lantern. Former and present occupations: Currently works at Suburban News Publications for the Upper Arlington News, covering city council. Participation in other organizations: "Columbus AIDS Task Force, ACT UP, Queer Nation, but they folded. That's how 1 got involved with ACME.... The only radical organization, period, in Columbus." Belief structure: "1 don't belong to a church, or anything. God is a stupid concept. Politically: you could call me an extreme liberal. Radical-liberal, 1 like to think of myself as. Art interests: "I have really a lot of ideas; but, 1 haven't put them on paper, yet.... 1 see myself as an artist, kind of as an emerging artist because 1 haven't done anything yet.... Mainly, performance and writing. Writing I consider an art.... Beoddy, he's king.... II. The Identity of ACME The nature of ACME: "It's a radical group. It's somewhere where I can really express my ideas, political ideas and feelings. Its the most radical group in Columbus, because Columbus is so conservative that its really the one alternative place you can go where there are a bunch of liberals and radicals. It provides some kind of a social as well as someplace where you can vent your feelings and politics; that's for me personally, though. But there does reach a point for that over all, I think. Politically active: which we haven't been lately, but we were before.... Once we get all of this board shit straightened out, that's what 1 want to delve into more. We need a political committee, I think. Like before when Bush came to town to open-up Ameriflora, we had a brocoli protest on the grounds of Ameriflora. We don't do that any more. We use to do all sorts of shit.... It wasn't in the name of ACME but we just organized it.... We need to do that more. Its a shame that we don't.... ACME also serves as a place for artists to go and display their art work. [They're] mainly alternative and emerging artists. Which is mostly its most important function. However, that's kind of second to me. 1 didn't join because of the arts; I joined because it allows me expression. Which that is obviously an important role. No place else shows what we show. The structure of ACME: "(Laughter.) ACME is basically Lori. The board is suppose to set policy and rules and all of that shit. In the past, the board has been really lame and Lori just basically just does what she wants. Really she does that now, which she doesn't really do a bad job of it; she's done a lot. She screws-up a lot; but, she keeps it afloat and she's done a hell of a lot of work and everything. 1 think she considers ACME to be, you know, her baby, which really isn't true. Which is kind of hard 123
sometimes, because she doesn't do what you tell her to do. Whereas she is kind of like the top it is also made up of artists and volunteers. It’s mainly ten to fifteen do everything.... Not including some of the board members; some of the board members never do anything.... We need a lot more people, but oh well.... I guess you could call it that ACME feeling: very sarcastic at times, very humorous, very cometic, not usually serious. 1 guess that just reflects us as people. I don’t know if it’s because our lives are so shitty that we,’re never usually very serious, or what (laughter). You don’t like to think about the hard issues. As far as the artwork s concerned, there have been very serious topics.... They may cover very serious topics but they do it in a very sarcastic way.... 1 think that’s good [humor and sarcasm], because so many people think alternative artists wear black and you know sit in comers and meditate and do all sorts of weird shit, which some do.... A lot of the people are just basic sarcastic bastards that have a very biting sense of humor.... 1 think of it [ACME] more of an organization than an art gallery per se.... I see it more as a community center type. A place where people in the Short North, OSU, and surrounding areas can go.... Changes in ACME: "Do more events.... We need to start more artist services.... I don’t like the term art gallery.’ It’s too stuffy.... III. Informant's Identifîcation Within ACME Informants position: Mike has assumed the role of being the PR person because he works for a newspaper. He has served on the Board of Trustees for one year. Informants participation: Mike has been with ACME for two years. As PR person he is working on how to get people to notice ACME, at least the press. "1 try to do more than that because it’s kind of boring and I do that day-to-day anyway.... I try to do a lot of programming, too: think of ideas for Cafe Ashtray. In the past, 1 came up with the crucifixion of Goblinhood; Jim and I worked on that together. 1 had an AIDS awareness Cafe Ashtray, where the health department did testing.... In ACME you don’t have one specific job, you kind of do whatever. I see myself as kind of a political representative, trying to keep people on their toes, trying to keep them active, trying to politically motivate. Because people can get into the grind of ACME and do the same thing.... So, 1 think we need an injection of radicalism every once in a while. That’s what I try to provide, I guess." Mike is the sticker maker. Reciprocation: "1 guess it’s the fun thing that 1 do. believe it or not. I guess I need to do something that I believe in. 1 don’t believe in mu job whatsoever (laughter), because 1 don't care about Upper Arlington, you know? And I write all of this shit that 1 don’t care about constantly. So I need an outlet to do something that I care about. And now that ACT UP is gone and Queer Nation is gone, 1 can’t really do that stuff. 1 still work for the Task force but they are not radical in any way, shape, or form. They’re more service. I do it as an outlet because the rest of my life is boring. So 1 need something to spice it up. 1 meet a lot of fun people; the people are great. 1 do it to meet the people. It’s somewhat prestigious.... It’s definitely a social thing, to be with people 1 can relate to somewhat at least.... Mike says a few other things about how he can relate to other members on a political level where there are commonly held beliefs that question society.
IV. a c m e’s Identifîcation Within Society Mainstream: "The Columbus Museum of Art, the Nicolai Gallery, and the glass gallery would be mainstream.... At ACME you may not like what you see. It may almost hurt you in some way...or cause you to be emotional in someway.... 1 think that the whole purpose of art is to be emotional in some way. It’s not just painting a pretty flower. 124
It's what that flower means to you.... Mainstream art is mainly pretty things. Art for art's sake is mainstream art. Stuff that would look good in your house.... Alternative: "Most alternative art is happening now.... I think that progressive and alternative are kind of the same thing.... Usually when you say alternative you're comparing yourself with something.... V. Additional Comments "At ACME you are allowed to have your own voice and opinion, but with that comes responsibility. You're the one responsible for doing what you say. So if you come up with with something you have to be the one doing it because everybody else is doing their own thing. It's a voice but its a responsible voice. You're in charge, wholeheartedly. 125
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT Date of interview: 9/8/93 Place of interview: Coffee Table I. Personal Identifîcation Name: Lori McCargish Age: 32 Family background: ”I am supposedly of Appalachian decent which I use on OAC grants identifying myself as a minority. My father's side is Scotch-Irish. My mother's side is French-Canadian and German. My mother was a singer who was in a devastating accident which ruined her vocal-chords. Yeh, I got her a camera a couple of years ago. I've encouraged her to do a couple of things. She is not really an artist in a strict sense, of any background, any formal training. She has always encouraged us to be artistic. My father, poor guy, didn't have much artistic background, and not much education. He was a Columbus police officer. He was basically a bully (laughter). So, I don't talk much about my father. Education: I have a BFA in photography at Ohio State University. I had 2 years of dance training at OSU, and 3 years of Graham technique training. Art interests: "So I've danced, photography, a lot of art history background as part of education at OSU. Former and present occupations: "I was an artist model for about three years. I've done free-lance photography. I've worked at a photo studio, and photographed babies and high school kids, and football games, and did some weddings, and started doing bands, and started doing artist slides. Then I started at ACME. I've worked in restaurants for years and years. In fact, my first job I lied and told them I was sixteen at fifteen.... Participation in other organizations: "I've been involved in a national abortion rights action league, NOW, the gallery belongs to NAAG I don't have time to belong to as many things as I'd like to.... WCBE. .. ROY G BIV. And I also belong to women's photography forum. 1 attend meetings at the ASMP, which is the association of still and media photographers.... Belief structure: "Yes, very interested in women's issues and women artists. 1 like to include women as much as possible into our exhibition schedule. Being a women artist my self I've realized women aren't getting as many opportunities as men. So, I try to keep the door open for women, for opportunities for exhibition, for organizations to participate at the gallery. Other information: "I'll tell ya. I've reached a point at the gallery where the last three years I've been basically buried and tied to my desk. And I'm trying to break out from all that now because things are starting to come a little easier. The ad ministration is beginning to run a little more smoothly and there's a little more help. So, I'm able to diversify. That's my goal this year: to get out more. [Other than that] I'm pretty interested in dance, photography, and social issues." II. The Identity of ACME The nature of ACME: "ACME is an alternative visual arts space. Because we mostly have visual art. The purpose of ACME is to educate the public, and to present alternative, experimental, cutting edge, non mainstream artwork. To present art to the public that deals with nonmainstream issues, [i.e.,] social issues, political issues, that aren't usually addressed in the mainstream artworld or the media. Its also a place for organizations to become a part of, or the community to become a part of. The arts community: we like to encourage students and younger people to get involved, to give them a kind of venue or starting point and encourage their artistic work.... Its a chance 126
for people to see what's happening nationally, because we exhibit national artists also. Some of them are very well established, even though they are cutting edge, alternative art. They are established nationally, and we try to always have a local artist exhibited with their regional and national counterparts.... We also try to make as much money as we can to support our ambitious exhibition schedule. Changes in ACME: "We are volunteer based. This year, we are going to boost our membership, and develop community awareness to let the community know who we are and excite them to support us.... The structure of ACME: The board, the staff (Paul and myself), the volunteers, basically that's it. The structure is based on'working' all of these people into a cohesive group. 1 try to represent everyone's interests are into a cohesive package.... We tiy to bring social interest groups into the gallery to do fund raisers, to let them know that represent their community and we want to help support them.... They represent many constituients and have their own special interests: gays, socially active people, politically active people, are all part as board members or volunteers.... We tiy and support their causes, to have an open venue to come in and present their views. [ACME is structured) pretty loosely (a chuckle). We re pretty structured.... Policy decisions are democratically voted on. Its all based on ACME's mission statement, and we try to keep our focus to what the statement is.... III. Informant's Identification Within ACME Informants position: Executive Director for three and a half years. Informants participation: "Meg is going to help me with corporate solicitation this year. I'll be putting on a suit and talking to corporate people who would have an interest in the arts and help us support the gallery. In turn we will develop incentives to interest them. Whether it would be having a Christmas party or just becoming corporate members. .. To build the membership, make it more exclusive to people who arc members something so that they feel a part of the gallery.... We want to offer more workshops and legal services.... 1 administrate all of the grant writing, financial record keeping, exhibition scheduling, 1 document all of the shows, 1 help schedule Cafe Ashtray events. Basically, 1 oversee everything. 1 try to participate as much as possible without becoming too bumed-out. 1 attend all of the hops, most of the Cafe Ashtrays, Ohio Arts Council conferences, Columbus Arts Council events, where ever the gallery needs to be represented. Kind of a social-butterfly sometimes, which is fun (laughter). Basically to make the board aware of day to day happenings. Also, how we are perceived by the community. I'm pretty much in charge of all of that.... I'm the, don't want to say patsy; but, (laughter) I guess if there's any problems, its my fault. If good things happen: to my credit.... Well 1 also have a lot of roots in the community here, so 1 know a lot of people. I'm able to network a lot with the arts community on a lot of different levels: visual arts, performance arts, arts administrators, people from all over the state involved with the arts. 1 have the ability to network with these people, and get them involved and aware of ACME. Reciprocation: "I absolutely love it. 1 feel like ACME has created a kind of spring-board for all of the community activity lately. There's a lot of new galleries opening; 1 know most of the people that are starting the new galleries. We've kind of created a strong base for alternative arts in Columbus and it seems to be creating other opportunities for the arts community.... I don't know, I wake up in the morning and I'm happy. Its like no other job I think you could ever have. Its very fulfilling to know that you can help emerging artists. We re going to be showing a woman who's sixteen years old this year in the gallery, just starting to become an artist and she is very promising. It feels very good that I'm able to exhibit her work at the gallery. Its helping my career: I'm 127
not going to be here forever. So, the experience that I'm gaining is very fulfilling. I'm sure it will get me somewhere someday, money-wise (laughter). I don't do it for the money. If that was the case, I would've gone a long time ago.... It has also helped my own careen I've become a better photographer since I've been there, a better people person,... and it's boosted my self esteem....
IV. a c m e's Identification Within Society Alternative: " Alternative means outside of mainstream, what is not usually accepted by popular conceptions or notions of reality.... Alternative art.... serves to express an outsider's view of things or a thinking or reflective persons view of things. Mainstream: "Mainstream is kind of like what is accepted and not questioned, like Velveeta^" cheese. I personally like white cheddar (laughter).... Mainstream is what is held in popular opinion. Alternative is very unpopular. V. Additional Comments "I think that it would be helpful to interview as many board members as possible. Its important to know what those viewpoints are, because some of them are little mainstream. Pointed questions cause you to think and they are helpful. I think it will be helpful to question board members.... 128
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT Date of interview: 9/15/93 Place of interview: Coffee Table I. Personal Identification Name: Tamela Murphy Age: 33 Family background: Tamela is from southeast Ohio, a small town called Coolville. "Dominantly an area where women were women and men were men; and, women are back-seat. I'm the only female attorney from that area.... It's considered very much Appalachia...." Father was a millwright. Mother was a Registered Nurse. "My being in a profession was a major influence in my life to be an independent, self-sufficient female... Education: Ohio University, undergraduate degree in business. "I was fortunate enough to have been exposed to so many different cultures there, so this made me more open- minded..." She started law school at Capitol in 1988. Art interests: "I used to read books and tape songs off of the radio.... There was so little to do where I was growing up.... Music and the arts has kind of like fulfills part of what I do as an attorney, trying to...represent most of the disciplines.... Former and present occupations: An attorney for one-and-one-half years. She worked in different areas: sales, marketing. She worked with the Columbus city attorney all through law school. Her current work requires her to "apply her own interest in music and the arts as a specialized field where they need help. There's a niche here for it...." She has represented local rock-and-roll bands on CD projects, which has gained her some recognition on the East and West coasts. If the future, Tamela would like to live in California, near the recording industry. Participation in other organizations: ACME, The American Inns of Court, alumni activities. Belief structure: "Political views: I'm an independent. I look at all of the options before I take a stand.... 1 was raised in an American Baptist church.... Other information: Refer to tape for interesting back-home stories. "The attitude is that they take offense to what I've accomplished for myself.... 1 would be more accepted if I was more like them.... When I was living there, I felt like the outsider, I felt odd in my environment. I didn't fit in.... I'm an individualist.... One of my friends commented: 'you have the most eclectic array of friends and acquaintances.'... I don't like cliques.... II. The Identity of ACME The nature of ACME: "ACME, to me, reflects the outer-edge, the individualistic attitude of persons and how they approach art and social issues. It's an outlet for people who want to express their frustrations or their feelings through art. But if you look at the exhibits, it is very eclectic.... 1 like the zanyness of it. 1 was very flattered when Lori asked if 1 would consider coming to the board.... 1 felt that 1 could be a contributing factor. Professionally, it looks good for me to be involved in something like this, so its a trade off. I feel also that I can get something from this gallery.... It's a burst of energy. To me its good energy. It's an environment for good karma. It's very open. 1 feel that there's a lot of openness there; where some places are very stuffy.... It's more than a gallery. It's a meeting place.... It's a place for debate, a forum for people to express their views, and still its OK to do that.... Very much there's the First Amendment intact at ACME. The structure of ACME: "Well we have several different committees that try to help.... There is some structure to it but it's loosely bound. Well we have this hierarchy thing 129
and do reports.... I handle the artist's services. [For example] last spring I did this arts law seminar, where people could learn a little bit about copyrights, trademarks, unfair competition, help in regard to grants, sponsorships.... This is not a cliquey spot where all of the radicals hang out; we want everybody.... We may not appeal to everyone but there's a good cross-section of people that cross cultures— Changes in ACME: Tamela stated that ACME is "trying to grow and move into a new space." "It could develop further if the financing was there. This is a nonprofit, non assisted gallery. We get to do so many of our good shows because we are not under the stipulation of so many things from [limiting] funding sources.... Other comments: "I've made such great friends. .. I wouldn't have known such nice people.... III. Informant's Identifîcation Within ACME Informants position: Tamela serves on the board, and chairs the artist's services committee. She has been with ACME since February 1993. Informants participation: "Councilor when there's been some crises I've been available to take care of some brush-fires. And I don't mind doing that. Yes, 1 am legally trained. I have the capability and the advantage of using my knowledge to help the gallery.... Reciprocation: "Professionally, I looks good for me to be involved in something like this, so its a trade off.... Self-enrichment, self-fulfillment, career satisfaction, professional satisfaction.
IV. a c m e's Identifîcation Within Society Alternative: "Alternative ]means] different, unique, and not afraid to be that way.... Alternative from the mainstay, the stuffy...the stuffy 50s, where everything was fluffy and nice.... V. Additional Comments There were a lot of great stories and analogies to refer from the taped interview for further reflection. 130
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
Date of interview: 9/14/93 Place of interview: Larry’s I. Personal Identifîcation Name: Lori Peacock Age: 30 Family background: Lori has one brother who is married. Her father was in the military for 20 years. After retirement he worked as a programmer, rose to a directorship, and was laid off. He now works as an instructor at Devry. Her mother is now a Realtor. Education: Lori has a BA in political science and Geography from Miami University. Art interests: She has not been interested in an art education but she is a patron of the arts. Former and present occupations: Lori worked for a bank in Dayton, Ohio for a while. She currently sells Electronic Commerce software and services with Sterling Software. She has been with Sterling for over five years. Participation in other organizations: "I volunteer for lots of different organizations." Two Sundays per month, Lori goes to a local animal shelter to clean cages, etc. She has worked in this past with AIDS Service Connection and ACT UP in Columbus. Before moving she had worked with a volunteer effort against the war in El Salvador. At school she volunteered for political campaigns. She has also tutored people as a volunteer. Other information: She is a recovering alcoholic and has been involved with ALANON and AA. Belief structure: "I'm not religious; 1 don't believe in God per se but I am spiritual. AA has helped me with that.... 1 am for animal rights. 1 am a vegetarian. That's very important to me.... II. The Identity of ACME The nature of ACME: "Being a volunteer there and not being that involved in the board, 1 don't have a good grasp of what ACME is. 1 have my own opinions.... To me ACME is a place where 1 can be myself and express myself. To be whoever 1 want to be... and not to change the way 1 have to talk or not to act differently than normally. It's a place to go to have fun. It's not necessarily just an art gallery to me. It is a place for socializing; I've made friends there, some really good friends. I've met my future husband there. And that's not anything that I expected. I expected social functions, people to have fun with, people to talk with. And it's met my expectations there. It's gone above and beyond my expectations there. I think that initially when I started there—some people say that it's pretty cliquish—1 can see that in a way. But I really didn't force my way into people's lives. I never felt that I wasn't a part of anything. 1 always felt that I was a part of ACME, even if 1 went to a party or a Cafe Ashtray.... To me it really is more social but it's also a way 1 can contribute my skills and feel good about myself. They may not have the personnel on staff who have those skills. I can contribute those skills and feel valuable. And having someone saying, 'good job.' And not have it be something that 1 have to do like work. It can be pleasurable and fun, exciting and meet people at the same time. I know that it sounds like a social club; but it's more than that, for me. It's a way to contribute to the community in a way that's not so typical.... 1 may not be an artist, 1 may not be a performer, I may not contribute that way,..but without someone like me there the performers can't perform, the gallery can't be open. You have to have people there who do the books. You have to have people there to collect money at the door, to watch to make sure that the artwork is not stolen or broken.... The gallery itself is the way for local artists, who may not be shown anywhere else to be shown. It might not be shown in other galleries because 131
the work might be too controversial.... It may not be saleable artwork; it might be an installation. I'm not schooled in art; and, I can't tell you what everything means that I see there. But I have a feeling that something really good is going on. And that's the feeling that I got when I went in there the first time, to see people's work that is really important to have there. The structure of ACME: "There's a board with a certain number of trustees, two staff members— Changes in ACME: "They should be structuring the calendar year. They should also have a mission statement.... How it's structured for the volunteers is not the way I want it to be. .. Basically we have these events and we call people. Sometimes it's two weeks before the events and sometimes the day before the event. When I say event I mean typical things like gallery hop to special events like the auction. 1 try to get special events coordinated, where I've got something so that next year if I'm not doing it somebody else could see what land of volunteer jobs there are during special events. What do people have to do? How many people should be assigned to specific jobs? When should should these jobs start and end? How you do these jobs? What jobs need training? What kind of supplies? Being volunteer coordinator. I've not just gotten people there. I've actually gotten supplies for people to use, like cash boxes to collect money, signs to point people in the right direction. I would like to see that more formalized. It's not to the point yet where it runs smoothly from start to finish.... There are some people at ACME who don't think that we should formalize things. 1 work in typical corporate America. I'm pretty organized about my job. Things are in a very formal professional approach; and, that's how I approach things. Things are not like that at ACME. And I don't know if they will ever be like that at ACME. And I try to get certain things to work there that 1 think would be good for organizing volunteering. That's my contribution. But sometimes it just hasn't worked that well. And I just haven't quite figured out the way to approach it to make rules. There should be guidelines, there should be rules for all volunteers: like show up on time. You should have a volunteer contract. It's not that hard.... It seems that every organization that I've been involved has been like that.... I'm not looking at it as an image of prestige. I'm looking at it as an image of being serious and taken seriously.... [It's not K-Martj. III. Informant's Identification Within ACME Informants position: "I'm actually volunteer coordinator for special events. And if special events don't get organized, there's no funding. If there's no funding the gallery can't exist. So its a way to contribute to the community and to have a really interesting job.... I'm going to look at my role at ACME as sort of consultative. 1 want to offer my suggestions on how to do things. Not just do them like I've been told to do them in the past.... Informants participation: Lori first came in contact with ACME about two-and-one-half years ago. She has been volunteering since off and on. "1 started at ACME because it was a cool place; 1 knew it when I walked in. 1 walked in on a gallery hop. And this is a place where I could find people to relate to. I've done a lot of volunteer work in the past. So I know about organizations. 1 didn't come in there and think: oh god, 1 have to be an artist to be involved here. There are other people kinds of people with other kinds of skills. Basically how 1 started, Lori asked me to help work the community festival, and help hang a show once, and just basically be there. It was helpful to her; and, that's how I got into volunteering.... Reciprocation: "It's a place to spend my free time, social contact.... It's not just social contact, because I can get social contact at some professional society/organization, like 132
Optimist or Toastmasters. But I also have a lot of fun; and. I'm interested in what's going on at ACME. And I feel very much a part of it. I feel that it fits me better than anything else that I've been involved with, because people there accept me for who I am, and I don't have to be anybody else,to say what I feel about things.
IV. a c m e's Identifîcation Within Society Alternative: T hat means that it is alternative from the mainstream. That means that its left of center politically. Alternative has always meant left of center politically. It has also meant that it's something that most people don't know about. And most people don't particularly even care for. And that may go against some of the things that I just said about wanting to get the message out. I think that there are a lot of people that who may want to be involved in ACME who don't even know about it. 1 think that it needs to be there.... V. Additional Comments "1 was involved in ACT UP before I was involved in ACME.... ACT UP was a place to be radical.... [ACT UP was more dogmatic.] People there [at ACT UP] in a lot of ways were sexist and racist people. And I just don't find that there at ACME. I find that I am accepted for who 1 am, even though I live out in the suburbs and I have a typical corporate American job. 1 am still accepted by people who are really left-wing radicals, just as well as 1 accept them for their life styles. ACME has a lot of different kinds of interesting people.... They can come together at ACME and be themselves. They don't have to hide the things that they do.... That's what I meant by being comfortable there, that I don't have to fall into a role as a way of behaving for ACME.... People at ACME really care about other people.... We are all trying to open our minds to different people. And not everybody there is perfect and wonderful and open and spiritual and everything. There are people there with there own problems.... 133
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT Date of interview: 9/1/93 Place of interview: ACME Office I. Personal Identifîcation Name: Paul Volker Age: 36 Family background: Paul's father was an artist and high school art teacher. His mother worked in the medical field as a hospital administrator, educator, surgical, and consultant. Both of his parents were academically inclined, according to him. His parents were Catholic. Education: Paul attended school at the OSU lab school through the sixth grade. When the school was closed he attended public school for two weeks and didn't like it. So, his parents sent Paul to a boarding school in Princeton New Jersey, which was called then the Columbus Boychoir School. After two years he returned to Columbus to attend public school. He claims to have been a trouble maker and never received a high school diploma. Paul then went into continuing education at OSU. He mainly attended art and film-making courses for three years. Art interests: Yes, extensively. Recently, he has been working on his painting technique. Former and present occupations: At the age of 19 or 20 he began to produce free-lance commercial art, continues to do so, and has taken many other jobs: public library, food service, and retail. He worked on the Columbus Free Press from 1978 to 1984. He did a cartoon called "Hero Dog" for six years for the Free Press. Prior to working at ACME, Paul was working for six months as cook in a Tibetan monastery in Woodstock for six months and studied with a Tibetan temple painter. Belief structure: Paul didn't attend to Catholicism. When he was in ninth grade he began study readings from Chairman Mao Tse Tung and also read Marx, Lenin, and Stalin through high school. He became involved in radical political organizations. He is very interested in grassroots political activity. He has been studying Tibetan Buddhism for ten years. Other information: "My life changes from month to month." II. The Identity of ACME The nature of ACME: "ACME Art Company is kind of an enigma, because its never l%en done before. There are a lot of alternative arts organizations, and the ones that I've been familiar with—and I worked in New York for a while as an illustrator for the Yippies and I got to visit a number of galleries—But ACME is really an unusual thing, at least from my point of view. It's a constantly changing theater. Everybody who participates in it are sort of the actors. Our Job [the staff] is to provide a background for people to come in and be artists or be art supporters.... On paper it's an alternative arts space, but I think it goes beyond just exhibiting artwork. My personal feeling about ACME is that it's position is to be a vehicle for whatever new changes might be occurring in the arts or in culture in Columbus to be a rallying point or clearinghouse for that land of thing; that would be my goal for what ACME would be.... Rrst it wasn't even started as a nonprofit organization. It was started as a private gallery. It emerged from a private gallery that already existed. It's still trying to restructure itself as a nonprofit organization. It's not all that traditional in the way organizations usually organize and get started, where they have a particular plan and they limit themselves to that plan. It's whatever comes-up next. I mean, next week we may be doing something totally different than we are now. Since I’ve been here, we've gone through a whole lot of changes. Partly, it's stuff I've been pushing, and maybe I've been pushing too hard to get ACME to do too many things. Because I always have big 134
plans. Sometimes I think that I maybe should have slowed down and not try to get everybody to do too much at once. Because I have a lot of energy, but other people don't have as much energy as I do. So, I try to set everything in motion... Changes in ACME: "Right now It's really growing. The funny thing is that at any one time anything can start to get really old really fast; it's like leaving something out of the refrigerator.... Things stagnate really quickly. Part of that is because people solidify in their minds what is suppose to be happening here. So they think of it only an art gallery, and it starts to solidify, then all of the other activities don't happen [fail or die]. The structure of ACME: "We have two employees. Then we have a Board of Trustees and advisors." III. Informant's Identification Within ACME Informants position: Assistant art director since January 1993. Informants participation: In January 1994, Paul will leave his position as assistant director to work on his own art production and so ACME can be revitalized by bringing new blood into the organization. "As an advisor I will be able to do more and 1 will also be a great volunteer because we need more good volunteers. Sometimes there are good people but you can't get them do to anything unless you pay them so it's better to get somebody else to work her who will get paid to a lot of the work that I'm doing. Because, I'm not doing it for the money. If I was doing it for the money, I would quit, because I work sixty hours a week and I get paid for twenty. It makes me a big volunteer already. I'm already volunteering forty hours a week. Well, I started participating because Lori called me in New York and said that she really wanted me to come here an work.... Reciprocation: "My own personal motivation for doing this.. is to have an opportunity to interact with people and create situations where other people can enrich their lives through some kind of participatory activity. That's my main objective. If 1 wasn't doing this 1 would so some other tiling where 1 would try to involve a lot of people who didn't have another outlet for doing stuff. Personally, 1 don't even look at all of the work we hang here, and 1 shouldn't say that because I'm the assistant director. For me, I think, there's already warehouses full of artwork that no one's ever seen. Everybody could quit painting now and there would be enough artwork to show for the next five hundred years. No one would know the difference. To me, just having the artwork hanging, it's nice for the artist, but I'm not really into the relative importance of having artwork hanging around. I don't have any artwork hanging in my house, except for my studio. A lot of my friends have my artwork: and, they collect other Columbus artwork. 1 don't collect anybody's artwork; 1 don't buy artwork. I get tired of looking at stuff really quickly. I'm glad people do but artwork; I'm especially glad they buy my artwork. But I have no need for it. My interest is to try to help the organization grow for the people, because there are people for whom that this thing is more important than it is me. So, I'm here to help them try to organize that....
IV. a c m e's Identifîcation Within Society Alternative: "Well that's real interesting, because 1 used to work on an alternative newspaper and with the same question: if you have freedom of the press, what does alternative news paper mean? An alternative news paper originally in the 60s were started because the regular media was totally ignoring anything against the Viet Nam War. The alternative newspapers went through a thing called liberation news service, providing information in opposition to this third world coverage. A gallery is also kind of media like a newspaper is. I mean this is all about media in a way, because you have one person doing something and many people are affected by it. That's the basis of 135
media. Even spray-painting a wall is media. Its a real inexpensive way of getting your message out. So, an alternative art gallery originally means that your showing work that is by artists whose work might not be shown other places, either because it's not sellable...or art which is constantly trying to create new ideas in people's minds.... Alternative means that it leaves the door open.... Work shouldn't be shown because it's going to shock somebody.... It's alternative to the concept that the primary function of artwork is to be viewed for its aesthetic consideration. And I think that's been the governing feeling of art up until recently—and still it's present, and probably is still the most important aspect (to the mainstream}. V. Additional Comments On grassroot organization: "There's a way of addressing issues culturally. For instance, there's a Klan rally that's happening in October. And people go and they protest it and they have a big fight. But what the KKK does is a kind of guerrilla theater. They do street theater. What I would like to do is go and get big rubber cone heads and stand next to them with big signs that say, 'inbreed for racial purity' and 'keep sex within the family' and 'outlaw education.' Everything misspelled, you know? Kind of like standing next to them with these big pointy heads without hoods on, which would probably get media attention. It would be really funny and it would totally undermine what they're doing without being confrontational.... This is the kind of thing that artists can do to address social issues. Maybe it shouldn't be ACME's purpose, but ACME is the place where this kind of thing could be organized. ACME has been a place for addressing AIDS, racism, and censorship.... 136
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT Date of interview: 9/20/93 Place of interview: Especially Espresso I. Personal Identification Name: Joanne Ziegler Age: 42 Background: Joanne was bom and raised in Columbus of "a typical suburban" family. She has an older sister. Joanne graduated from Eastmoor High School. She advanced her studies where she could take a heavy load of art courses. She participated in a transfer program in the Columbus Public Schools which provided her the opportunity to take a half day at a another building to study commercial art. Hans Rcitenbach instructed the course and influenced her greatly. Joanne started studying at OSU in the Summer of 1969. She became frustrated and angry at the the National Guard policing the campus and quit early. A friend invited her to visit him in Morocco for four months. She was influenced by the culture there. Afterwards she returned to the U.S., got married (to the wrong person), and bore a son. She was very interested in participating in the rock and roll industry. Art interests: Celtic music, puppetry, and circus. Former and present occupations: She began to work for Ohio Bell, which she continued for 18 years, holding a few part time jobs like working at the King Ave. Coffee House. Belief structure: She is a practicing Buddhist, learning to have compassion for all living things. She lost her job with the phone company over her beliefs and was persecuted. Other information: Joanne had cancer and healed it through Chinese herbs. II. The Identity of ACME The nature of ACME: "It seems like it is a blank slate that has lots of possibilities. It has the possibility of being a fiscal agent for performances and for working with underserved audiences.... People who are not in the mainstream who have maybe gone through university training that have not been satisfied with that and can take it a step further into really new conceptual areas, pioneering and forging ahead rather than just repeating the same old stuff, 1 think it [ACMEj would be a great thing for that. I see it as an opportunity for the more experimental artists. 1 see it as an opportunity for those who are not the average run of the mill...Short North type artist." Joanne interestingly makes an example of ACME as the white dot in the black field, the Short North, of the Yin-Yang symbol. "I see it as kind of a melting pot for many different kinds of artists. I think that it could really be worked with and expanded. I feel like now it's at a plateau." She then describes that effort behind an average volunteer the same way. potentially dropping off. "The exceptional person 1 volunteer) will see it for what it can do and what it can be, rather than walking and saying, 'oh, what do you want me to do today,' walking in and saying [enthusiastically], hey let's do this today!'... Something that's the basis of creativity.... For that kind of dedication, it takes someone who is exceptional in that they can really identify what is the possibility and potential that such an organization offers.... This is your art gallery. What an opportunity. People have an opportunity to go there and run a gallery, to learn how to do layout for a magazine, to learn how to deal with people, how to structure art shows, how to make auctions, all of this sort of thing. It's an incredible amount of potential there. And that's not something that happens at" the other local galleries. "It's like art, do it.... There's a huge amount of potential.... III. Informant's Identification Within ACME Informants position: Joanne has been a volunteer with ACME for three months. 137
Informants participation: "About a year ago I came down and talked to Lori McCargish to apply for a job.... She began by sitting at the Com-Fest booth followed by worWng at the auction. For the auction she started by doing data input in the office and felt appreciated. "When I worked for the auction, I really got hooked and I really love the concept. And I think that I can even maybe add to it somewhat....
IV. ACME's Identification Within Society Alternative and Mainstream: "It’s easier to define alternative in the context of mainstream. Mainstream to me... is therapy, craft, sofa-art.... Alternative to me is anything but that. When someone has little bit more of a view, when they put themselves into what they are turning out, instead of just painting a landscape because they think it might sell. They're painting it because it really touches them in a certain way and they're compelled to do it from the experience.... Alternative is a product that comes from inside rather than just a product of outer stimulus. Outer stimulus is necessary, but.. .they cause some sort of change in your being and then you're compelled to express it. And 1 think that's more honest than just cranking out stuff.... V. Additional Comments "Well 1 hope that ACME can evolve on the step up. 1 hope that it doesn't degenerate into this kind of acceptance of what's going on. And 1 hope that it can evolve with people involved in it who are caring and vital and progressive and can really push ahead. 1 think that it can be something that is really, really fantastic if it's given a chance and people really get involved in it. APPENDIX D GOBLINHOOD’S LETTER TO GEORGE BUSH
138 139
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Reality isn't what it used to he: Theatrical politics, ready-to- wear religion, global myths, and other wonders of the postmodern world. San Francisco: Harper & Row, Publishers. Armstrong, D. (1981). A trumpet to arms. Boston: Southend Press. Appley, D. & Winder, A. (1977). An evolving definition of collaboration and some implications for the world of work. The Journal o f Applied Behavioral Science. 75(3), 279-289. Bay, C. ( 1972). Civil disobedience. In The international encyclopedia o f the social sciences o\s. 1-2, pp. 473-487). New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. Becker, H.S. (1986). Doing things together: Selected papers. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. Becker, H.S. (1974). Art as collaborative action. In A.W. Foster & J.R. Blau (Eds.). Art in society: Readings in the sociology o f the arts (pp. 41-54). Albany, NY : SUN Y Publications. Bellah, R., Madsen, R.. Sullivan, W., Swidler, A., & Tipton, S. (1985). Habits o f the heart. New York: Harper & Row Publishers. 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