A textual Junction: December 2004

Come join the party. I don’t mean the liberal party or the communists what I am talking about is Hamilton’s art party. There has been a lot of new galleries open in Hamilton in the last few years. And boy, this has resulted in a lot of parties. So many that it looks like there is an art party on the election ticket.
The gallery owners come from a lot of different walks of life, factory worker, curator, real estate agent, post–pre picture framing, etc, etc. And you will find a lot of people out there at these opening parties lapping up drinks like they are in the Sahara and putting down snacks like it was grub in a boot camp. The art being thankfully silent on the walls and if you are really lucky you can take in a poetry reading with so many poets reading that you cannot retain or think about what you are hearing any more. Let alone appreciate the ones that you related too.
No, this is not New York where everyone is celebrating the artist that is opening and buying up the work. Nor is this Toronto where people are making connections and buying the work. Sorry this is Hamilton, we do it different here.
In Hamilton we have the artists decorate. That’s right artists here are expected to be decorators. Artists here decorate the walls of these art parties at their own expense with no effort (or to be begrudgingly fair, little effort) on the part of the owner to represent, and sell the work. As long as the work stays silent on the walls and the party continues to make you look just like you were somebody someplace everything is eerily fine.
The amazing thing is this view is perpetuated in all corners of this city’s art scene. From the major player down to the artist owned galleries there is so little focus on the artist that one would think that art made its self.
Are our artists such desperate whores? Or perhaps they are affluent hobbyists that don’t need any professional relationship with their dealers, and are willing to decorate these art parties in the guise of increasing awareness. In the thirty one years I have decorated galleries in this city I have witness no increase in awareness what so ever in fact we have been loosing ground.
If the gallery owner wants drinks at his/her opening then they will have to shell out a few hundred dollars, snacks can be expensive, and flowers alone can cost hundreds of dollars. But the artist is given nothing? I find it ironic that artists are the reason for the so called openings and receive less than the liquor control board for their part in decorating the walls. And in terms of attention the works of art seem to go unnoticed on the walls. Is the art that bad?
I really don’t see how throwing art parities for personal friends can build any art community, commitment, or most importantly sustainability for the artists in Hamilton. This town has a history of artists receiving some stature and leaving. Now I can not and will not believe they are leaving because it is Hamilton the city they love and perhaps the most endearing city an artist can live in. I believe they leave because it is a bankrupt art community that only acts out some sort of art scene to perpetuate the art party.
Through out history artists have been tagged with decadence and partying. But does the so called support community have to use this tag to make an excuse for their behavior? If they want to be eccentric then by all means go for it and if they are alcoholics I recommend medical help not art. I have expressed my eccentricities in this community by being a full time artist in this town for over twenty years and spending my time divided between making art and related research. As well as sharing what I have learned with my community through teaching children, up to the age of senior citizens. There are a lot of artists working very hard in your community to create affects or to give you some new percept in your life.
I suggest to the artists that we find some way to address this problem of our stature in the arts community relegating us to decorators at a party instead of major players tying to help shape the progressive thinking about our city. I for one love this city to much to stand back and let stupidity and alcoholism define what I am offering as help and commitment to my community. Art is a necessary part of any community, to inform us, whether we are, business folk or philosophers. Art demonstrates what Hamiltonians are about as a conglomerate of peoples that define themselves from a common base independent of their ethnic backgrounds or their time/ heritage in this shared territory. And it is by looking at ourselves through art that we create a strong bond with the other people around us.
For a community such as ours to have art we must have artists. And to keep these artists beyond their early years we must have some sustainability. In most communities a large part of this is the responsibility of the galleries. There are dedicated owners that court and cultivate a clientele and take responsibility for the art beyond the background in a party. Another factor in sustainability is the role of the non-profit or public galleries. They can also provide support for the growth of the local individual artists. This kind of commitment goes way beyond giving locals a show and a few hundred dollars.
It has become popular in other communities to promote artists. In other words make them know as a whole to other parts of the globe. I have seen groups of artists in art publications from all parts of the globe and most of the time these so called collectives are a promotional package for their region of origin. Something has to change. The artist can no longer be the beleaguered decorators for Hamilton. Artists have to be given the stature that they deserve in a community of this size. And the art buying public has to be steered away from buying their works in other major centres. At the ridiculous low price of art in Hamilton someone should be cleaning up anyway.