The following is a prepared statement by Black Rabbit Magic concerning the availablity of art venues in the Spokane art scene. It was delivered via a costumed performance by Bruce Hormann, creator and founder of Object Space Collective, at the Second State of the Visual Arts Symposium, November 13th @ Saranac Art Projects:
First, we are not interested in commenting on “the scene.” Rather, we are creating a notion of art consciousness in Spokane. A scene is self-isolating. Consciousness permeates structures trough general awareness, self-criticism, and praxis.
What are the goals of this symposium? People want venues? Get a booking agent 
We hear they are clever. Art is everywhere and should be everywhere and we should have the right to do that. People have to take the initiative to make stuff happen. Spokane is not the warmest environment or the most receptive to “alter” galleries because the people who own the spaces, for the most part, only see money, and they do not value aesthetic experience. Teach them to value it experience beyond its cash representation and doors will open.
We do not see a lack of art venues in Spokane. There is, however, a lack of artists being pro-active in procuring space to exhibit their art, and there are sites that get called art-sites that show bad art and perpetuate a misguided public perception of what art is…And few people to hold them accountable.
Whereas in other cities the alternative space is an accepted and appreciated avenue for aesthetic experience, in Spokane, alternative space exhibitions are a relatively new and burgeoning phenomenon within the local aesthetic culture. For the most part, these opportunities for exposure are being spearheaded by young “emerging”—really amateur—artists who are interested in art beyond its dimension as a commodity maybe because they aren’t making money themselves…
We’ve noticed a growing trend in this “emerging” artist demographic that rejects traditional academic process-heavy disciplines in favor of a globalized business approach to production, exposure, community and collaboration sometimes to the detriment of their aesthetic principles. This is a great effect of the internet—which we would argue to be its own kind of alternative-space—and social media. Also, there is a deficit between the institution and the ownership of the means of production beyond it, which further isolates local arts culture to a homogenous aesthetic experience in Spokane. If artists have access outside of academia to the means of production, we’d see a more vibrant, radical expression of local aesthetics. This is happening in Spokane as exemplified in the recent growth at Object Space, the Second Avenue Art Collective and in the development of a cohesive Main Street Multimedia Arts and Residence Complex.
The problems listed above are a matter of local culture but also a matter of the ubiquity of art that doesn’t necessarily engage its audience, which is our problem as artists.
We need to emphasize that Spokane needs to embrace the experience of art rather than relying on market indicators to tell us we do or do not have an art-culture here. Art needs to become more relevant to our spiritual/emotional/intellectual experiences of this place and time and to social practice rather than to our ability to blindly consume visual messaging.
Art is not money. We build our lives around aesthetic experiences. Budgets may be a part of that, but the ways that we think about aesthetic commerce are changing. If it were about money, and we really wanted some money, we would open a harem. The thing that has always got us about the Spokane scene and “scenes” in general is that only to a small degree is it about actual people making a point. Let’s have some critique. Let’s have some accountability. Let’s challenge each other to build the strongest structures of aesthetic production we can. Let’s build a community where one human can say to another, “I see what you are saying, but your work is not communicating that to me.” Let us help strengthen each other as humans so that we can work together to build a better society.
Returning to venues, artists need to be more proactive in obtaining space and marketing themselves. In Spokane, this is being spearheaded by many groups in a number of unique ways. Projects like Riverspeak, Baroque Network, and Terrain are changing local art culture by making talents of all kinds more accessible at an intentionally local level. These kinds of endeavors need to be artist-led, and it should be a responsibility of educational institutions to expose their students to these kinds of opportunities and empower them to create new, more relevant opportunities for themselves.
If Spokane’s local culture and our aesthetic culture are able to merge through the appreciation of the art-experience, we’ll have more receptive, appreciative art-environment. The groundwork for this will take place at a grass roots level in the streets, vacant commercial properties and beyond, as it has in cities across America.
We will begin to understand that art is not what is hanging on the wall in some gallery. That is merely a dimension of art. We have to rebuild the structure of what art is in people’s minds. To do this, we must expose people to meaningful experiences; we have to provoke them out of the comfort zone; and most importantly, we have to let go of the idea that art is merely something that we sell and buy.
These are huge things and if people want it, it will happen.
Just start walking. Just do it, get it done.
Right.
The Grow Show continues to grow. It’s true. In May, Black Rabbit Magic orchestrated a multi-city art exchange in Portland, Olympia, Tacoma, and Spokane. Artists worked with food security and arts organizations in each city to highlight the beneficence of community learning-eating-loving-creating networks. In each city, “reclaimed” shopping karts were transformed into unique mobile garden boxes, each with the capacity to grow healthy, local goodness. After a flash-art exhibition in each city a new cart was traded in and a cart from one city was given to the creating body in the other city. Shows were staged everywhere from Art Galleries to Front Yards. The Portland Art Museum even served as a venue for part of one morning.
