Logan Cryer interviews Chelsey Luster– a curator and artist exploring topics like race, gender, and sexuality– about their newest curation, “Wading: When the Water Rises,” on view this Friday, Feb. 11, at Vox Populi thru March 13. Chelsey’s advice for other young artists of color is to protect themselves and never forget how much institutions gain from their ideas, representation, and diversity.
Read MoreDeborah Krieger interviews Kelsey Halliday Johnson, artist and current Executive Director of Portland, Maine’s SPACE (plus former Philly resident/ arts worker/ member of Philly’s DIY-alternative community). Kelsey is enthusiastically dedicated to her role at SPACE, a multi-disciplinary independent maker hub; in particular their grantmaking program, the Kindling Fund.
Read MoreDear readers, as we publish the cash prize and honorable mention winners in the 2019 Art Writing Challenge, we’d like to thank everyone who took the time to share their writing with us and congratulate all the winners!
Read MoreWelcome back to Ask Artblog, a new bi-weekly advice column where special guest experts answer your most pressing art questions! We’re happy to welcome back comic, zine and performance artist Beth Heinly, as this week’s expert. Go ahead and submit your questions for her here, or email ask@theartblog.org for a dose of wit and wisdom.
Read MoreArtist-run spaces are quite creative when it comes to naming their spaces. Recall a small handful (in alphabetical order) in Philadelphia: Fjord, Grizzly Grizzly, Little Berlin, Lord Ludd, Napoleon, New Boone, Pterodactyl, Tiger Strikes Asteroid and Vox Populi. In light of these names, I think a naïve question needs to be posed: why do so many artist-run spaces organize their activities under the rubric of names that, on a formal level, have very little to do with artistic production?
Read MoreBe respectful when a space has “success” in your city. Be proud of them, if that’s what they wanted. Call them out if they still use the word “alternative” to describe themselves, especially if they don’t talk about their stake in our community and society in general. Understand that “artist-run” does not mean anti-institution or DIY. We are being tricked by capitalism, which makes us believe that we are providing alternatives, that we are allies to social movements, while we are actually mirroring society’s systems of oppression. Work by yourself in your basement because, according to everybody, it is impossible to avoid capitalism. If we do participate at all, though, we need to own up to the fact that we are perpetuating deep-rooted systems.
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