The February 2008 edition of 15 Bytes
The response to our attempts to entice readers to comment about the articles in our editions of 15 Bytes has been, so far, at best, tepid.
We recognize that this may be due to the even-handed and formal prose employed by our writers, who aspire to the highest degree of professional journalism. With this in mind, we hope to jumpstart the conversation with some rather more "snarky" prose by one of our readers, Brad Slaugh. When Brad heard, last fall, that Ric Collier of the Salt Lake Art Center had resigned and that the search was on for a new director (see page 3 for the full article), he penned the following open letter and addressed it to the Salt Lake Art Center.
If you have comments about the SL Art Center article or other articles in this month's edition, please comment by clicking the link below.
"Dear Salt Lake Art Center,
What kind of input does the artistic community in Salt Lake/Utah have in your selection process?
I for one would like to see someone brought in who is considerably more supportive of the local art scene, as there are a lot of interesting Utah artists who have been almost completely neglected by the Art Center for years. The near constant stream of artists from elsewhere showing us slack-jawed yokels how it is strikes some of us as a bit patronizing, and I for one would like to see the Art Center mix it up a bit more. Perhaps splitting the time between the International and the local in some way that feels equitable and interesting might be a place to start. Stimulus, response and all that.
Is there a forum for people in the community to express their views on this kind of thing while you folks look across the nation for a new honcho? I understand the impulse to throw a wide net out there into the world in a noble attempt to avoid inbreeding but the flip side is that you end up with a candidate with no connection to or respect for the artists in Utah and who keeps bringing the holy Promethian fire down from the mountain without ever noticing the smoke already billowing from a host of chimneys right down here in the valley.
Let me know what you think.
Brad"
image: Adam Price, Leslie Peterson and Jay Heuman outside the Salt Lake Art Center photo by Gerry Johnson
Comments
right on!
Posted by: suzanne larson | February 8, 2008 02:24 PM
I'm Brad Slaugh, and I approve this message.
Posted by: Brad Slaugh | February 13, 2008 03:51 PM
Dear Brad,
I enjoyed your challenge to the SL Art Center penned out here... I do agree that perhaps there isn't a strong presence of Utah artists at the Center (if you consider the varied scope) but the mission of the Center is that of challenging social norms and provoking thought and increasing the visual vocabulary. There are some artists here in Utah who are fulfilling but they are few and far between. Consider the lack of conceptual artists here relative to strictly landscape painters in the SLC area.
Salt Lake has a little awhile before its visual vocabulary is as well-developed as that of more international markets such as New York or LA or Berlin. I think that the prevailing winds of culture and the gradual emigration of out-of-state people (demographics wise) will help to let the state evolve into a stronger art market where we can have galleries cater to an international audience, not just local collectors. After all, if we can get the Rubell Family to buy stuff from here, then I know that our time has come!
I really enjoy the SL Art Center because it keeps my art career on its toes and my manifesto is to try to help this environs to transmute into a friendlier place for neo-expressionistic and conceptual and cutting edge artworks...
sincerely, qi peng
Posted by: qi peng | February 15, 2008 07:18 AM
Hi. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Geoff Wichert for the great review he wrote in response to my paintings at the Central Utah Art Center. Geoff was right-on in every account. You are an excellent and insightful writer. Thanks, Geoff. You are much appreciated.
Kurt Nicaise
Covington, Kentucky
Posted by: Kurt Nicaise | February 20, 2008 10:21 AM
An Open Letter to Brad Slaugh
Dear Mr. Slaugh,
I thank you for taking the time to encourage debate about the proper role of an art center in its community. I can neither agree nor disagree with your recitation of the past history of the Salt Lake Art Center; I have not been involved in the local arts community long enough to comment intelligently on the historical relationship between the Salt Lake Art Center and Utah artists. Implicit in your letter, however, is a view of the proper role of an arts center which is overly narrow and which, if fully implemented, might do the local arts community a disservice.
At the present time, there are many fantastic venues for local artists to show their work locally. A review of this month's 15 Bytes reveals approximately 40 venues available to local artists just in Salt Lake City. If the Salt Lake Art Center were to devote itself primarily to showing local artists, I believe it would add little to the opportunities already available to them. What the Art Center is better positioned to do than other local venues, however, is to offer local artists a chance to be exposed to work from regional, national, and international sources that would otherwise be wholly absent from this community. By broadening the scope of artistic dialogue in Salt Lake City, the Art Center makes a truly distinctive contribution to local art that is not available from any other source.
Moreover, the idea that an art center can contribute to local artists only through exhibitions also seems to me too restrictive. To take just one example, art center educational programs, properly run, should help to create both current and future generations of people who are engaged with contemporary art. These arts-oriented citizens will not only demand additional public funding for contemporary art, but will also collect and commission local artistic work for years to come. These educational programs about contemporary art are a non-exhibition service to the local art community that can be provided in this locale by the Salt Lake Art Center and very few other venues.
I am, in fact, strongly supportive of the idea of engagement between the Salt Lake Art Center and the local arts community. Right now, for instance, I am hard at work arranging a show at the Salt Lake Art Center featuring work by local artists who participated in last year's 337 Project. But to measure an art center's support of its local art community simply by the number exhibitions offered to local artists miscontrues the purpose of an art center and ignores some of the most important contributions than an art center can make.
The views I have expressed herein are my opinion alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Salt Lake Art Center.
Sincerely,
Adam Price
Posted by: Adam Price | February 23, 2008 04:06 PM