The ArtsBeat blog, home since 2007 to our bite-sized coverage of art, theater, literature, classical music and film, has reached the end of its road. From now on, updated and improved bloggy coverage of the arts from Buffalo News critics Jeff Simon, Mary Kunz Goldman and Jeff Miers, along with arts writer Colin Dabkowski and literary blogger R.D. Pohl, can be found on the new Gusto blog. Thanks for being loyal readers of ArtsBeat, and please join us over at the Gusto blog for a new series of regular features and updates on the local arts and cultural scene.
New York State Assemblyman Sam Hoyt. Buffalo News file photo / Derek Gee.
Much more to come on Erie County Executive Chris Collins' decision last week to slash funding for all but 10 local cultural groups. But I wanted to post some comments made today by Assemblyman Sam Hoyt at a press conference protesting yet more funding cuts (this time from the New York State Council on the Arts) to local arts education groups. Here's what Hoyt had to say (audio of Hoyt's comments is also posted above):
As a state assembly member who represents a good portion of the city of Buffalo, I can say that it appears to be an assault on the city. I did an inventory of those organizations whose funding was cut and I’d say about 95 percent of the organizations who received funding cuts were in the city of Buffalo. I hope that the mayor of Buffalo and that the county legislators who represent the City of Buffalo will stand up and express their outrage as well. Again, there isn’t a person in this room who doesn’t acknowledge that during tough times, we all have to tighten our belts. As we said about the main topic of this discussion today, when New York City is receiving virtually 100 percent funding and the City of Buffalo is receiving a 69 percent cut, that’s unacceptable.
Secondly, on top of that, the dramatic, draconian cuts that Mr. Collins has proposed for these arts organizations is the most short-sighted thing I’ve seen from this county executive, and there’s been a lot since he became county executive. Why? Because we’ve watched, over the years, our city struggle. We’ve watched the manufacturing base leave, we’ve watched our economy in a downward spiral. We’ve watched the population flee this city. And one of the most consistent and steady and stable, positive forces in the City of Buffalo is its extraordinary arts and cultural environment. It’s not just recognized here in this room; it’s not just recognized in New York State. It’s recognized nationally and internationally.
That a city of our size can have the incredible inventory and collection of magnificent arts and cultural organizations, large and small, large and small, is really something that we need to embrace, celebrate, promote and invest in. And to divest now, as has been done at the county level and at the state level through these arts in education programs, is at the very least short-sighted, at worst disastrous. Because we’re recognized as an extraordinary center of a healthy and vibrant and prospering arts and cultural community. And to strip that away, which is what you do when you cut the funding? The age old question of, 'Whoever the last one out is, please turn out the lights,' will be answered.
This morning on WECK 1230, Loraine O'Donnell interviewed a number of people on the Western New York cultural scene about Erie County Executive Chris Collins' recent decision to cut funding for 33 local cultural groups (including myself).
County Executive Chris Collins. Buffalo News file photo.
Today, the cultural community of Western New York awoke to some of the worst news it's seen in years. County Executive Chris Collins announced that he would cut cultural funding completely for 31 small and mid-sized arts organizations in his 2011 budget. For some background, read Matt Spina's story here and look for my column, which will appear in Sunday's Spotlight section.
One point that needs to be made right off the bat about Collins' move has to do with Beyond/In Western New York, the mammoth international art exhibition which kicked off last weekend. This is a project that grew out of a collaboration among small, medium and large cultural organizations across Western New York, and which has already drawn large number of cultural tourists to the area and promises to continue doing so throughout its three-month run.
It was a genuinely democratic project that Collins supported with county dollars. (UPDATE: That money, which Collins said he had pledged in a June interview, was not provided. Collins spokesperson Grant Loomis said that the county money was contingent on Beyond/In Western New York organizers getting funding from the City of Buffalo, which the organization was not able to secure.) But it would never have been imaginable, much less possible, without county funding for small and mid-size galleries like Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, El Museo Gallery, Buffalo Arts Studio, Squeaky Wheel and many other groups that use vital county dollars to leverage and pull in support from outside funding sources.
To many, this smacks just ever so slightly of hypocrisy, and seems to be yet another example of how Western New York politicians find innovative ways to shoot themselves in the foot and stunt the region's potential growth. As Hallwalls curator John Massier put it in a Facebook status update:
"Last Friday, I stood on the observation deck at City Hall and heard the Mayor make the point that there were NO HOTEL ROOMS available for the coming weekend, as a result of the Beyond/In WNY 2010 project, clear evidence of the value of cultural activityy. Five days after the Mayor gave us two thumbs up, the County Executive has given us the finger."
For the above video, I asked several Infringers to recount their favorite moments of the festival's 11 days. The answers, as expected, range from strange to stranger. I've had a few favorite moments myself, one of which was watching Jack Topht perform a hilarious, 45-minute-long stream-of-consciousness storytelling session peppered with raps he'd written at SP@CE 224. Jack Topht does what's called "Awesome Rap," a not-very-widespread style of hip hop to which this graffiti scrawled on the wall of the Nietzsche's bathroom pays tribute:
Another fave moment, which involved a naked performance artist and a Mark Twain impersonator, I wrote about here.
It's utterly stunning -- just in case I have not been enthusiastic enough about it yet -- that this city supplies so many daring, restless and productive creative minds, and that there exists here an infrastructure to let them do their thing for free and with zero rules. It's great for them, certainly, but it's an even sweeter deal for the ambitious consumer of the arts, who had an almost endless supply of projects and performances to choose from over the past 11 days. The festival proper, as of 1 a.m. Monday, is over. But it's important to stress that many of the acts Infringement has showcased -- along with the art and, to an unfortunately lesser extent, the wacky, one-off theatrical projects -- are going on all year long, often in the same venues that hosted festival performances.
(Side note: The letter below was my "Self-Infringement" project, drawn at random from a box in Rust Belt Books, something I plan to work on in the wake of the festival. I'll report on my progress here. I'm thinking my skill should be juggling, but I'm open to suggestions.)
I've tried to get across a sense of just some of the acts and projects that caught my attention this year at the festival, but obviously what I've written about on this blog and in the newspaper hardly scratches the surface of what was on offer. Feel free to contribute your own favorite festival moment in the comments section of this blog. I'm sad it's over, but glad I had the chance to see a lot of intriguing new talents, some great stuff, and even some awful stuff. But ultimately, what I gained from the festival was a renewed faith in the creative potential of the city of Buffalo. And that faith was pretty strong in the first place.
Hope you all had a similarly gratifying experience, and until next year, Infringe on!
Last night, Nietzsche's hosted the Infringement Festival dance party, featuring sets by the likes of DJ Cult Hero, DJ Medison, shapes of states and many more. I went on the recommendation of uber-infringer Ron Ehmke, who noted that his favorite Infringement moment so far came when he heard shapes of states, a one-man outfit conceived by Geoffrey Peters. I was not disappointed.
The night also featured bit of breakdancing from the members of Buffalo's Differential Flavor Crew, one of whom you can see doing his thing (no cardboard necessary!) in the video above.
Stay tuned for more on Infringement's final weekend.
Last night I caught a bit of Pyromancy, Buffalo's fire-dancing troupe, doing their popular performance in Days Park. It was a cool scene, with families and Infringers of all stripes oohing and ahhing at the troupe's entrancing brand of blazing ballet.
As I wrote in my column in today's Spotlight section, a select group of local cultural organizations have banded together to form a broad new advocacy group.
The Greater Buffalo Cultural Alliance, cast by its creators as a grassroots effort to get more people to acknowledge and invest in the arts, will direct its efforts both at local perceptions about the arts and culture and at sources of public funding and policy.
The organizers of the GBCA made no secret of their intent to enlist all of Western New York's non-profit cultural groups in their ambitious attempt to weave the arts more deeply into the identity of the Buffalo Niagara region. But at this point, specifics are obviously lacking.
So what's your take on this new group? Is it an exercise in futility to try to wring more attention and dollars out of a state government already facing massive deficits? Does it even make sense to treat the arts in the same way as manufacturing, or, say, tourism? How should the GBCA get started on its momentous task?
This Friday, we'll run an interview with Amanda Benzin, an Orchard Park native and member of the prestigious Chicago company Jump Rhythm Jazz Project, which performs Friday night in the University at Buffalo's Center for the Arts. The company, whose approach is based primarily in rhythm and the emotions that drive it rather than classical technique, has a very cool series of webisodes it produced to mark its 20th anniversary.
Here's a quote from JRJP Artistic Director Billy Siegenfeld to give you an idea of the company's philosophy:
I feel good about this idea that there was a universal language that we could speak and it was built around rhythm, and that that universal language was something that could appeal to not just one kind of dancer, but all kinds of dancers and not just one kind of audience, but all kinds of audiences. Because rhythm is so much at the core of our biology. It's at the core of the way we speak. It's at the core of the way we walk. I was very passionate about finding a system that could both teach that an also use choreographically.
Check out the first one here, or visit the JRJP's library for more.
Russian ice dancers Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin at the European Figure Skating Championships on Jan. 21. AP Photo / Ivan Sekretarev.
There was some talk around the office this afternoon about the writing of Washington Post fashion and culture critic Robin Givhan. I've been a fan of Givhan since I read her breathtaking, uncommonly eloquent review of a Kara Walker show at the Whitney Museum in 2007.
Thus reminded of Givhan's work, I searched on the Wasington Post's Web site and ran across this gem from Jan. 31, a rumination on the fashions we've been seeing at the winter Olympics in Vancouver. In it, she deconstructs the costumes of Russian ice dancers Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin, who have come under fire from members of the very group of aboriginal Australians whose culture they were trying to appropriate. Givhan writes:
Serious folks who represent the aboriginal culture have announced to the media that they are offended. As well they should be, if for no other reason than the costumes are hideous. But the bigger issue is whether the idea itself is offensive. Should Russian skaters be using Australian aboriginal culture at all? Is any sort of appropriation inherently mocking?
