NOCCA Students respond to P.1 follow up

Thank you so much to the NOCCA students who submitted their writings to the blog. Their work makes me think about what I like in art essays: the writer discovers something unexpected through the act of thinking deeply and writing about a specific subject. For me personally, the meaning held in this kind of writing is much more satisfying than the typical art review. The best art experiences take you somewhere else - a journey is taken - and one moves forward from a new place. Congratulations to these students and the journeys they shared with us.

local art criticism in jeopardy?

In the afterglow of Prospect.1, visual artists have been surprised to discover that local art criticism and coverage in print media appear to be diminishing, not increasing. As professionals we have relied on printed criticism to attract curators, gallerists, and patrons. Our viral email campaign to restore full length articles to Gambit Weekly was not successful, and art listings in the Times-Picayune have been reduced to “Highlights.” With newspapers closing around the country, it is time to be proactive in moving critical writing about art into new media. What can we do to encourage new voices, and how can we raise the profile of contemporary New Orleans artists in national and international arenas?

Please join us for an informal discussion/social event in the café of the Contemporary Arts Center on Wednesday, March 25 at 7:00. Caffeinated and alcoholic beverages will be available for purchase.
post by Cynthia Scott

renewal of Art Writers Grant Program

Arts Writers Grant Program Announces 2008 Grants and Five-Year Renewal of Program

The Creative Capital | Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program is pleased to announce the grantees for the final round of its three-year pilot phase. We are also pleased to announce the renewal of the Arts Writers Grant Program for a five-year period. The 2009 grant cycle will open for submissions on April 27, 2009. Please see the website for more info and application information.

Inside Art New Orleans

D. Eric Bookhardt's got a blog, if you haven't seen it yet, check it out:
Called Inside Art New Orleans, it's another outlet for his criticism, with much nicer images than print allows, and great links.

Part 5 NOCCA students respond to P.1: Amber Lyons on Beatriz Milhazes

Kaleidoscope Eyes by Amber Lyons
Gamboa by Beatriz Milhazes
The U. S. Mint Louisiana State Museum

“Come Fairies, take me out of this dull world,
for I would ride with you upon the wind
and dance upon the mountains like a flame!”
– The Land of Heart’s Desire by William Butler Yeats

Often as a child I found myself day dreaming about an empty hardwood floor stage, flooded with bright warm lights before a sold out audience. Perfectly poised with pointed toes, I am graceful, the music and my body acting as one. Lilac chiffon skirt layers drape over my sculpted legs, the magenta nylon/spandex leotard a disposable layer of skin over my chest and torso. Freshly bloomed pink rose ribbons and slippers—an image of grace. In these dreams I am a Prima ballerina assoluta. Of course, I realized that I will never be a Prima ballerina assoluta or even a ballerina because I lack the grace and poise, not meeting the height requirement by a foot and two inches. Never has this subject been more painful then when I first looked upon Gamboa by Beatriz Milhazes.

Originally constructed as a two dimensional piece of set design for her sister’s ballet company, Milhazes took advantage of her part in Prospect 1 to try her hand at creating a three dimensional piece. “New Orleans was always about the vitality, the dancing and the music. So I link it — the carnival in New Orleans with the Carnaval in Rio [Brazil]. It will make this kind of dialogue between two cities,” Milhazes told the New York Times. Using the set design as a point of reference, she went about making her acrylic and oil dream into a tangible reality. The piece, constructed of crystals, cardboard, ribbons, iron, beads, plastic, sparkling sequins, fake flowers, terry cloth hair bands, and oversized Christmas ornaments, takes up the entirety of the room in which it is displayed. Gamboa made the childish, fanciful ballerina inside of me want to dance between the strands of beads and plastic orbs dotted with opaque neon dots.

“All children, except one, grow up” – Peter Pan by James M. Barrie

When no one was around I crawled underneath the piece, just for a moment, looking up into the center of the white iron frame, a circular hole the size of a basketball. The center hole was surrounded by widening concentric circles. Each row of circles was separated from the last by a thick white line. Beneath the frame and attached ornaments I felt as safe as a child nestled inside of a wooden crib looking up at a mobile of stars, sleepy in the comfort that everything would be okay. Reluctantly I crawled out from the comfort of the mobile and off the cold concrete floor.

Lines of small gold and silver beads, reminiscent of beads thrown from floats at Carnival, fall from the iron host until connecting with targets or flowers or luminescent circles of gold or white circles with bright neon spirals. At the end of some of these strands are small pink or white crystals varying in size from tear drops to jewels the size of a child’s palm. Some scores of beads contain just one large fixture, such as a large flat gold orb. While others possess a few ornaments, for instance two plastic flowers: one pink and one purple sewn together. Beneath them is a small plastic white bulb incased by a hot pink terry cloth hair tie. Underneath that is another just like it but the hair tie is sea-foam green. The strand finally ends in a white cardboard circle that houses a spiral design made by yellow sparkling dots. Each ornament is connected by a few beads. Like fingerprints or snowflakes, no two lines are the same.

Everything but the iron frame of Gamboa felt disposable and cheap separately, but became beautiful and priceless when combined. How many Mardi Gras beads are given to little girls to play dress up with or cut up and used in Kindergarten art projects?

“Picture yourself in a boat on a river,
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies.
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly,
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes.”
- Lennon/McCartney

A good portion of Milhazes’ work is large, bright, and bold on canvas using colors prevalent in Carnival celebration, psychedelia, and common favorite colors of little girls. Gamboa was a bit of a departure, in that it also employed a cornucopia of colors such as gold, blue, red, purple, black and in more varied tones, some with glitter and some without. Natural, sparkly, and neon colors give off a feeling of tenderness and delight that can easily be found in a group of four year old girls having a tea party with stuffed animals as dates or pretend fussy children. Gamboa provided Milhazes the opportunity to make her abstract visions into a tangible form of reality.

Cutting D. Eric Bookhardt's column: another least favorite thing

The Gambit Weekly has decided that art criticism is not important.

WOW! It's hard to imagine that art critics would be cut, now, right after New Orleans was the center of the art world, however briefly, the first weekend of November. Our city was also briefly the center of the theatre world in November for the Fringe Fest. But theatre and visuals arts are still in the back seat, judging from the news that one or the other critical columns will be cut in the new "redesign" of the Gambit, starting this coming week.

I guess it's news to those not in the arts that critical response is important. Artists need to be written about. We need to see our work from other eyes - we learn and grow from it. We also use reviews to put in our grant and job applications. Reviews show that we are part of a community, part of a dialogue that extends beyond ourselves. Our arts community is experiencing a huge boom right now. This is not the time to cut art criticism!

We don't know what the redesign will actually look like, but we think that there will be more "blurbs." "Blurbs" are not an acceptable substitute for art criticism! Don't be fooled by the Gambit response you will get if you write them, stating that "we are not eliminating arts coverage, we are actually adding it..." "Blurbs," like the current ones we see in listings section with the small photo, will not be an acceptable substitute for thoughtful arts criticism.

Karen Kern of the New Orleans Arts Council wrote this brief and elegant letter to the Gambit. I wanted to post it here and encourage those who have not yet written the Gambit to write and demand Eric's column back:

I'm writing to urge you to keep the "Inside Art" column by D. Eric Bookhardt. The dramatic post-K rebound of the local arts scene and it's impact on our economic and spiritual recovery have been hard to miss. The boom has been evident across the arts spectrum - from the explosion of high art (new arts districts such as the St. Claude corridor, Prospect.1, the amazing array of new public art all over town) to the overwhelming number of arts activities presented by a slew of local groups. For arts enthusiasts, it's been nearly impossible to keep up with the wealth of offerings. The positive effects of all of this have touched business owners, school children, and neighborhoods. It has brought New Orleans positive attention in national publications and media.

At this time of unprecedented local arts activity and notoriety, we need more critical review, not less! Eric Bookhardt's "Inside Art" column is vitally important to our burgeoning, internationally-recognized local arts scene. And, our arts and culture are vitally important to our economy and our future. To eliminate the column and Eric's important critical review is short-sighted; it’s not only a disservice to the arts community and to the Gambit readership, but to the city.

Please reinstate "Inside Art" and Eric Bookhardt!

Karen Kern
Grants Manager
Arts Council of New Orleans

Here are the addresses:
Gambit main email address:
response@gambitweekly.com

Editor:
Kevin Allman:
kevina@gambitweekly.com

Publisher:
Margo Dubos:
margo@gambitweekly.com