Art City Austin, gateway to the hard stuff?

by Ivan Lozano March 31, 2008
i've got a bad attitude...

 
This might not come as big news to anybody who has read Capital A
before, but I’m a bit of a grouch about public art initiatives. Still,
I can sometimes recognize the need for them. Like most people involved
in the Austin arts community in one way or another, I’ve been thinking
a lot about where the hell this town’s scene is headed. The main point
I keep returning to is whether or not this town is "ready" for more
growth in the arts community, mostly in terms of taste and commitment
to supporting the arts
. Time and time again, the voice in my head says
"No, Austin’s not ready." But that doesn’t mean it won’t ever be ready
and maybe we need to prod it a little bit, "train" the community to get
them from where they are to where we wish they would be.
 
artcity.gif

Personally, I don’t have the patience to do this kind of work. A local
initiative that seems to have the patience (and thanks to pretty great
PR skills, the funds) to start this process is Art Alliance Austin.
This re-branded (ad absurdum?) organization is about to launch the
first edition of Art City Austin (formerly the less than stellar,
except for some saucy gossip, Austin Fine Arts Festival) on April
12-13. I won’t go into how I feel about the projects lined up for the
festival because that would sort of defeat the point of this entry,
which is in some ways to alleviate some of my tunnel vision. I wish
them all the luck in the festival and hope they break their own
attendance expectations because I hope that projects such as this one
will act like a gateway experience for Austin at large, oiling up
future collectors, supporters and audiences for the "harder" art
experiences.


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