Thursday, June 19, 2008

Budding to Bloom

"We (in Cincinnati) truly have a budding arts community."

Just yesterday, someone at Joseph-Beth Bookseller said this to me. I simply nodded in agreement as I've done every time someone in and outside of the local art scene has made this claim since my move to Cincinnati.

Six years budding.

Now I call on artists and art lovers of the Greater Cincinnati area to honestly and intellectually engage the arts. It is past time to go beyond the mere marketing of our local arts scene. We must instead invite and insist that our artists and our cultural advocates participate in an artistic discourse that is not only local, but national, and perhaps international.

This discussion will include honest thoughtful analyses of art exhibitions in our galleries and museums. We must resist the temptation to state simply, "I like this, I don't like that." We are certainly free to express our tastes, but we should require more thought. Artists learn from and thrive on honest critiques. As their creativity and discussions through their various media evolve, so do we.

It is time to bloom.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations Kathy on your blogosphere debut! Looking forward to lively discussion.

Cincinnati is a great place to bloom in arts of all kinds.

Eileen McConkey said...

Thanks for the arts talk outlet.
I always find it amazing that people lump all artists together as being creative. I am an artist at the Pendleton Art Center and I have seen many a person call themselves artists who maybe shouldn't just yet. There are artists who are creative in thought but technically lacking and there are artists who have a good enough technique but haven't much creativity at all. Artists are as diverse as the rest of the world in personality, outside interests, left or right side of the brain thinkers and creativity.

So wake up community! Learn the difference between a draftsman a doodler and an artist. Sure there's room for all of us in the world, but let's stop lumping us all together and get some distinction in our vocabulary.

Me said...

Thanks for your comments Eileen.

I really think the lumping is a result of first, many not feeling comfortable talking about art, and few places in the Greater Cincinnati area that demands an honest discussion about it.

To be honest, I think the Pendleton Art Center as the "home to the world's largest collection of artists under one roof" is suspect to this lumping.

This city runs the risk of simply commodifying art and artists.

How do we as a city satisfy our interest in growing an art audience without flattening everything out to fit an even playing field?