How It All Started Originally Printed in the July/ a Variety of Publications, One of Them August 2008 Issue of ART TIMES an Arts Council
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Inside: Raleigh on Film; Bethune on Theatre; th Burruss on Music; Seckel on the Cultural Scene; Year!!! Trevens and Lille on Dance; Sussman "Speaks Out"; Steiner on the problem of "Looking at Art" (Part I); Our 30 New Art Books; Short Fiction & Poetry; Extensive Calendar of Events…and more! ART TIMES Vol. 30 No. 1 Summer 2013 (June/July/August) How it all Started Originally printed in the July/ a variety of publications, one of them August 2008 issue of ART TIMES an arts council. it was taking an ex- and here with some revisions. traordinary amount of time for this By CornELiA SECkEL particular organization to pull their This issue mArks the begin- publication together and i, as was ning of our 30th year of publishing ray, was anxious to see his profiles ART TIMES. Throughout the years in print. it was probably march of we have met fine people, traveled to 1984 when i approached this organi- places i never expected to get to (e.g., zation to inquire about the publica- singapore and China), attended tion and was given a laundry list of wonderful exhibitions, concerts, the- problems that was preventing them ater and dance performances. Doing from going to print. “What could this work has enriched my life, chal- be such a big deal?” i said. “You go lenged and engaged my intellect, and around and get advertisement to pay fed my soul. i can only thank you, for your costs, put the thing together our readers and our advertisers, for and have it printed!” These were the encouraging us with your support. first words that made ART TIMES raymond J. steiner, co-founder, edi- a reality. raymond and i started to tor and arts writer makes sure that toss the idea around of creating our in each issue there are interesting own paper. i think it was his sug- gestion, he believes it was mine— essays, new poetry and short fiction Cornelia laying out the first issue of ART TIMES, July 1984 for you to read. my job has always we’ll never know. We wanted it to been to make the paper happen. i be a publication about all the arts, with the stamina to make it continue support and networking group for sell the ads, manage the business a resource and a literary journal to happen. women in business who eventually and create the final product in print with essays that would be of inter- To tell you that the thought of honored me for my courage in begin- and online. it is more work than i est anywhere, crossing county and cutting loose from a regular job, one ning ART TIMES) held an expo at ever imagined but when i get feed- state lines. We’d give it away at art with weekly paychecks and defined the Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, back about how important the paper centers and galleries, bring it to the responsibilities, created anxiety for NY. i went to this expo and began is to our readers i am encouraged to galleries in New York City, and, in me is a gross understatement. Never methodically going around the room go on to the next issue. essence, have it where people go who had i felt so frightened of the un- from right to left speaking with each i am often asked how ART are already patrons and participants known (well, perhaps a divorce when woman and gaining strength from TIMES got started and thought this in the arts. We decided the support i was 30 still holds #1 spot). The sup- their achievements. somewhere to be a good time to repeat some of would be from advertisements since port and encouragement from ray- along the way i stopped saying that what i wrote in August 2003 for the there were enough not-for-profit mond and the knowledge that we i was “thinking” of starting a pub- beginning of our 20th year. 1984, groups looking for funding. Well, if both could and would meet any chal- lication and shifted to i am “going the year we began ART TIMES, this was such a good idea why hadn’t lenge put to us moved me along. On to” publish an Arts Journal for the was one of the major turning points anyone else done it? Next step was may 15, 1984, an organization called region. i had made that transition research. We talked to several peo- of my life. i had been Directing the All Women in Business (basically a Continued on Page 19 ulster County Chamber of Com- ple who had been in the region for merce Career education Program many years and asked about publi- for several years (previous to that i cations that might have been similar Visit arttimesjournal.com taught english at the high school in some ways to what we were think- level and worked as a Counselor at ing of. The only one that came close for new essays, videos, several different facilities) and found was “ulster County Artist,” a maga- calendar & opportunity listings that i wanted a new challenge. i had zine founded in the 1970’s when Ceta developed the Career education Pro- money existed and lots of projects gram as far as i could and felt that i were begun. Well, why did it fail? Firstly, Ceta money dried up and CSS Publications, Inc. Support the Arts; (i was then getting close to 40 — you PO Box 730 can do the math) needed to do some- most of the staff was cut. secondly, Enrich your Life Mt. Marion, NY 12456-0730 thing that gave me new skills and and i think even more importantly, www.arttimesjournal.com 845-246-6944 stretched my abilities. i was open Allen epstein, the man with the vi- to any number of possibilities and, sion, was working with a board and i must add, impatient to get going energies were too easily dissipated. with “something.” raymond steiner The lesson for me was that it takes Subscribe to ART TIMES was writing profiles about artists for a single strong vision and a person ART-LITERATURE-DANCE-MUSIC-EXHIBITIONS-THEATRE-FILM-ART-LITERATURE-DANCE-MUSIC summer 2013 ART TIMES page 2 Peeks and Piques! ART TIMES Commentary and Resource for the Fine & Performing Arts “What You See, is What You Get.” right perception of what they are predilections, stereotypes, tastes, etc. ART TIMES (issN 0891-9070) is published quar- A common enough expression, but seeing? Truth is, no one can. We may These inherent partialities are what terly by CSS Publications, inc and distributed what does it mean in relation to, say, agree on the fact that we are seeing a define us. You are you and what you along the Northeast Corridor primarily through- out the metropolitan & hudson Valley regions, looking at art? Well, you might argue, landscape — but can it ever be the ex- are depends on a lifetime of learning, Connecticut, massachusetts and New Jersey. it’s a simple enough statement — you act, one-to-one perception that both of dealing with your world, of “seeing” Copies are also available by mail to subscribers and arts organizations throughout the US and “get” what you “see” — what’s the of us are getting? e. h. Gombrich, in things in accordance with the whole abroad. Copyright © 2013, Css Publications, inc. problem? however, if you focus on his Art and Illusion: A Study in the of your previous experience of the ART TIMES online can be viewed at: arttimesjour- the “seeing” part of the proposition, Psychology of Pictorial Representa- world. As no two artists, side-by-side nal.com and has a pdf of the current print issue (with images in color), as well as archived critiques, a little thought just might make you tion, points to the primary problem or not, do not — cannot — see from reviews, art essays, theatre, film, music, dance es- wonder what it is that you’re “get- of putting a final interpretation on the exact same viewpoint, so can they says from 2001. each month the site is updated with not paint the same landscape. Like- new essays, videos, advertising and resources. Call ting”. When you and i stand looking just what our conundrum of “what for visitor statistics as they change daily. at a landscape painting, do we both you see is what you get” ultimately wise, no two people (not even twins) “get” the same thing? We’ve all seen “means”. As his title suggests, it have ever viewed the world from this Publisher: Cornelia seckel the results of two artists side-by-side all hangs on one important word precise place, at this precise time. We editor: raymond J. steiner painting a landscape. Are their final — namely “psychology”. Although are all unique, all sui generis. Again, Contributing Writers: henry P. raleigh robert W. Bethune results the same? Do they look the Gombrich speaks specifically about this immutable, unchangeable, state ina Cole Dawn Lille same? Can a painting by monet be art, it becomes clear that the same of affairs, is what makes you “you”, mary Burruss Francine L. Trevens confused with a Pissarro or a renoir? logic applies to everything we look and me “me”. All of which, in the end, subscription rates: usA: $18 /1 year $34 /2years For example, i might be going gaga at. Your psyche is not my psyche — make “what you see is what you get” Foreign: $35 /1 year $45 /2 years over a brunette, while you hardly thus what we “get” when we “see” a pretty tricky statement to pin down Contact for Print and Online Advertising rates: notice her because of that blonde or depends upon a lifetime of personal and, because i’m not you, no matter Css Publications, inc., PO Box 730, mt.