It’s a Marshmallow World
Posted by: admin in Appreciating Art Despite It All, Art and Happiness, Making art for the sake of it, Artistic failure in AmericaIt’s a marshmallow world in the winter,
When the snow comes to cover the ground.
It’s the time for play, it’s a whipped cream day,
I wait for it the whole year round!…
It’s a yum-yummy world made for sweethearts,
Take a walk with your favorite girl.
It’s a sugar date, so what if spring is late,
In winter it’s a marshmallow world!
By now, you art lovers all know the story: the local (MN) visual arts infrastructure (and the national one too, including the museum where I cut my young, art-grad school teeth) is quickly crumbling. As endowments shrink and paying customers stay away, drying up the support money like so much Cobalt drier-spiked oil paint, staffs are being hacked at big arts institutions, longtime professionals are heading for the hills, museums are shutting down, and galleries are going dark.
But fuck it. It’s Christmastime, the most self-delusional time of year, when we turn up the lights against the shorter days, put aside every realistic expectation, and demand that people give us the things we aren’t willing to buy during the rest of the year. Ah, Christmas. So full of false promise, marshmallow wishes, and yum-yummy whipped cream exhortations of love! Now is when we lovingly proclaim how much we appreciate all the people and things in our lives—smugly satisfied that now we’ve done our yearly duty we can forget them until this time next year. In this spirit of Christmas, I thought it might be appropriate now to ruminate on all the things we appreciate about art. In a few days, I’ll post one thing I’m truly thankful about, in that Christmas-sort-of-way, as we approach the hinge of the year (meaning I’ll probably promptly forget about it, as is our way in this culture, soon as January 2 arrives).
If you’re thankful about something that has to do with art, you can post your holiday thankful wishes below (in the comments box). Or else you send them to me at: admin@artisticfailure.com.
Entries (RSS)
December 10th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
But what about the new sales tax dedicated funding from the State? If I remember correctly, I heard that a panel will be administrating these funds, which would include legislators? And one of the names mentioned was a legislator I know of, and this person knows nothing, nothing, about art!
Maybe I heard incorrectly, it was on the radio and I’ve yet to access any information on how these funds are to be used to extend the arts in Minnesota. I thought these new funds would be dumped into the Minnesota State ARts Board. Whatever.
December 13th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
yeah, i’ve been wondering when your going to catch up on such thing michael. as soon as that sales tax got passed (by the people) i was sure you’d have some post about it. there have been some other developments i thought would show up here also. but then, keeping up blogs is hard sometimes, i know.
well, i’m thankful the bulk of my buyers are just working class folk, as they keep buying so far regardless of the way the white collar criminals have coupled with each other around the world and united with the other criminals (potiticians) to do the biggest rip off trick in history. at this point, one has to wonder…
and, i’m thankful that i make art because i want/need to, not because it can be sold at times.
December 14th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Er, um, yeah– the arts/heritage money… Isn’t that something?
There. Glad I could comment on it for you!
December 14th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
But seriously, while I appreciate the effort to solicit free information from me, if you’re truly concerned about what’s going to happen with all the money from the Legacy Amendment sales tax, then I suggest you work to inform yourselves. A series of open planning meetings about the money have been scheduled:
Legacy Amendment Planning Meetings
With passage of the Clean Water, Land, and Legacy, the Council for Minnesota Archaeology, Minnesota Alliance of Local History Museums, Minnesota Historical Society, and Preservation Alliance of Minnesota will convene an initial conversation with the field. Join them at one of three venues:
* 7 p.m. Wednesday December 10, 2008: Nicollet County Historical Society
* 7 p.m. Thursday December 11, 2008: Stearns History Museum
* 3 p.m. Monday December 15, 2008: Historic Fort Snelling
December 16th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
well, i’m only interested if YOU comment on it, MF.
all the info is free, but i’m too busy to spend time on it, as i have art to make, and i’m at 100 hrs a week+ on average already… but i do say this: cheers!