Freedom Of Art In Tacoma

A couple different diatribes have come up recently in the Tacoma blogland, and they've got me thinking a bit (as I am wont to do, from time to time).

The first is a Matt Driscoll interview with Girl Trouble's Bon Von Wheelie over at Spew. The main focus of the interview is on the world of pay-to-play, and the battle against it. This is something I know a bit about. This Shirt Is Pants played a few shows for Big Time Entertainment, one at Studio 7 and three at Hell's Kitchen. We, I think, had an advantage over some bands, in that we knew exactly what we were in for. A couple of the guys had worked with them before, and so we were under no illusions. But we were also one of the older bands on the bills (in our early 20s)... I saw a lot of junior high and high school kids desperate for a chance to play on a stage. It's likely that they ended up there the same way we did: we could get a show at a decent club with no resume, no demo. That's the attraction, even if the end result is an empty pocket and a sour taste.

Honestly, in those shows, the worst part was not Big Time themselves. The worst part was the treatment from venue staff, particularly at Hell's Kitchen. The sound techs were well aware what kind of show they were doing, and it showed. They clearly didn't give even the slightest crap about the quality of the show. The lease was paid, and it was their job to watch and make sure nothing exploded. And I really think they were missing out on a great opportunity. Yeah, there were some crap bands. But there were also some remarkably talented kids. And how many of these kids were discouraged by poor treatment from venues? This is the biggest harm that I saw come out of pay-to-play.

The second blog that caught my eye was a rant about the lack of genuine art in Tacoma from Voronoff the GhostCritic (also known as Aaron Trotter). Growing out of the aftermath of Steve Craig's passing, Trotter's vision is of a Tacoma where artists nurture each other, where art happens spontaneously at the true whim of the artist, rather than living on conventional gallery walls.

I went out and did ArtWalk Thursday night. I had (embarrasingly) not once set foot in the new Tacoma Art Museum or the Museum of Glass, after a childhood of going to the TAM three or four times a year. So I finally went to both. I started out with a lap around, and they are pretty cool buildings. But upon entering, I found myself utterly unimpressed. I am by no means an art critic, or a visual artist, so maybe I was missing something, but I've seen a decent amount of art. I've seen art that made me think, made me wonder, genuinely grabbed me by the [insert anatomical bit of your choice] and made me feel. And this weren't it. Oh sure, there was a lot that was pretty, that held some level of aesthetic, but that, to me, does not make art worth my time.

The only work that I saw that genuinely gripped me in any way was one large piece by Mary Mann at the UWT Art Gallery. It wasn't visceral or anything, but at least it caught my eye and my interest.

The fact is that both of these articles speak to the same issue, the same need. For any artistic community to flourish, be it visual, musical, theatrical, anything, it needs both artists and patrons. Artists can come together and work, draw and paint, play and sing, encourage and inspire each other, but all that creates is art for artists, and that's simply pointless. Art is a means of communication. Artists can talk all they want about not caring what people think of their art because it's personal expression, but the fact is that they wouldn't be expressing at all if there wasn't something they wanted to get out there. And if they are limiting their audience to simply other artists, then they are, frankly, useless. The best thing a song can do is reach the heart of a non-musician. The greatest goal of a painting should be to grip the soul of a passer-by who has never once laid brush to canvas.

Unfortunately, to do this there must be an outlet. This is why musicians need concert venues, and why making these places utterly uninviting to the unknown band can utterly kill a local scene; why artists need galleries, and why restricting them to a few contracted and conventional painters rips the soul away from an art community. What Tacoma lacks is any other option, though. A place where unknown artists can walk in the room and slap something on the wall. A place where a few friends can get their bands together and put on a free show for the rest of their friends. A place where we aren't restricted by ticket fees for all but a few brief moments. People people shouldn't be appreciating art in two-hour-a-month increments, but in every moment that they have available. Musicians should be living music, whether they are sitting at work programming computers or sitting at home blogging nonsensically. And artists should be living art. But more importantly, everyone else should, too.

So what do we do? Does a property owner downtown step up and offer his space, as Voronoff suggests? Do established local artists who needn't worry about their ability to get shows like Von Wheelie carry on crusading against pay-to-play? Or do all the people who suffer most, the people who are being fought for, step up on their own?

I don't really know what I'm suggesting. I'm more fishing for ideas than anything. There is always talk of co-op galleries, musician-run venues, but they all suffer from a lack of groundswell and group organization. A co-op can only survive with a large number of people to spread the load. Likewise, regardless of intentions, two or three local musicians starting a venue often fail because two or three people who just want to play music are rarely capable of managing an operation like that. But we need something on all fronts. Something to maintain the creative fire that keeps starting, sputtering and dying. There are sparks where there ought to be continuous flame.

Anyway, I think I'm done for now. I fear that if I go back and read this I will discover that it actually makes no sense whatsoever. (I also fear that I may have only written it as an excuse to speak academically and seriously about people called Voronoff and Von Wheelie). So I shall defeat my fears by NOT going back and re-reading it. If it is nonsensical then so be it. I spend much of my life trying to confuse people anyway, so it's all good.