The Identity Politics of the Real Art Awards and the Art of Art as Politics As Usual

Real Art Ways posted the following to Facebook on July 16, 2018

"Real Art Ways announces the first Real Art Awards. Six visual artists will receive a $2,500 cash prize, and each will have their work presented by Real Art Ways in a solo exhibition in 2018-19.

“Real Art Ways has a 42-year history of supporting artists and innovation. These awards are intended to give artists a boost of recognition and opportunity, and to highlight the importance of art and creativity in shaping our shared culture.” - Executive Director, Will K. Wilkins 

The six recipients are:
Keith Clougherty: Braintree, Massachusetts
Kylie Ford: Portland, Maine
Niki Kriese: Croton, New York
Mateo Nava: New York, New York
Liona Nyariri: Brooklyn, New York
Sofia Plater: Newton, Massachusetts
This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. To learn more about the Real Art Awards and this year's recipients, visit the "Artist Submissions" section of our website. #realartways #realartawards #contemporaryart#emergingartists #massachusetts #maine #newyork #connecticut #hartford #parkville#visualart #sculpture #painting #installation #mixedmedia "

I know the Guerrilla Girls are holding their breath so here is the math.

Six shows are being shown.  Two are by men, four are by women.

Five of the artists are in their mid-twenties. One is forty-ish.

MFAs abound.  No outsiders.  The smell of entitlement and Identity politics is not an illusion.
Make of it what you will.


In this case allow me to -cough- *offer* some opinionated criticism.

As simple background information, Connecticut has been mired in a one-political-union-party hostage situation for decades.  The State is reeling from decades of corrupt double-dealing, insider, and self-serving gluttony at the trough of future taxpayer debt.  The pigs have largely left the farm burping up tens of millions in pension benefits that third-world dictators dream of someday amassing such wealth.  

I know.  I'm being too kind.

To the point.

Real Art Ways is one of a handful of largely urban Connecticut Arts organizations that  manage to get funded from whomever is willing to support them. I'm sure that is neither easy nor fun.

However, I think its disingenuous for Real Art Ways to make the claim that the shows awarded will somehow be innovative in some special way.  As far as I can tell the six shows represent academic rebates on expensive MFA program degrees.  This is not the Art of innovation, this is business as usual - insider, academic, state sponsored, political system art - obligatory, liberal fist-waving, happy parade art.

It also reinforces artistic tropes that belong to the last century. The cult of youth being an important criteria to make innovative art for instance.  Or that expensive academic degrees earned by studying with Modernist trained artists and political activists make for superior art.

The cult of personality has been replaced by the practice of perseverance yet it is nowhere in evidence in these awarded shows.

In the 21st century cyberspace is far more important than geography but as a longtime Connecticut artist this is a familiar slap in the face.  I have a hard time believing that NO Connecticut artists submitted their work for a show.

Its not that these cash awards are so much.  But they are money that leaves the State. Poof. Connecticut is no richer for the showing. Real Art Ways hasn't nurtured a single Connecticut artist in this cycle.  Shouldn't it?

It seems to me that a geographically important gallery that presumably bestows some prestige on the artists selected would, if Connecticut artists don't come to them, go out and find the artists.  There are dozens of Connecticut gallery shows all over the State to mingle with.

The unfortunate message Real Art Ways is sending is:

CT artists are NOT innovative - don't come here, don't stay here.

Don't own an Ivy League-ish degree - Fuck You, don't bother

An artist of color, and outsider, or an edge artist - Fuck You too - we cater to those inside the box not the outside

CT patrons are in need of artistic carpet-baggers to educate them about art - Connecticut artists are too damned stupid to do that

The taxes Connecticut artists pay should subsidize the entitlement class - Connecticut artists don't need the money or recognition - they're losers anyway

Old is unwelcome

Updated: I tell 'ya, *We just can't find Artists in Connecticut!*"

Update:

Since this essay was written, the Arts organization in question, is in fiscal difficulty. I take not an iota of Schadenfreude in their situation but if the organization has difficulty finding artists in CT, unsurprisingly the NEA had equal difficulty finding Art and return on art investment in the organization.  OBVIOUSLY, there's a bigger problem than funding at work here.

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This is a second in a series of blogs about why good and great art in Connecticut are ignored.

The conversation I had with the Arts organization Visual Arts co-ordinator a few weeks ago yielded a nugget worth  examining.  After a series of exchanges that all ended with co-ordinator asserting that "We [her organization]  just can't find artists [in Connecticut]" she mentioned that "maybe the people putting together a Connecticut Arts list will make it easier" [again I'm paraphrasing].

So I went home and looked them up - CT Art List.  They had a pretty decent Facebook page that essentially aggregated Connecticut Art shows - not the worst thing that could happen.  But what piqued my interest was their Artist Gallery page.  Here they display the names of Connecticut artists and a .jpg of their work.

This gallery gives the impression that they're aggregating a comprehensive list of Connecticut artists of the kind my delusional arts organization friend "just could not find".  So I submitted my name and a representative piece of work and waited.

About a week later I received a generic letter that stated, "We have received your application and we are carefully reviewing it. If you are chosen, you will have a page/section created on our Curated Image Bank. If you are not, we encourage you to keep on creating and continue to follow CT ArtList on Facebook, Twitter and on our website. Please submit any events you may have or you know of and we'll do our best to get them up on our site."

The minute I received this I was tempted to write, "Why call yourself Connecticut Art List if you have no interest in artists in Connecticut?"  But I didn't, thinking that I'd let this play out.

So days later, I start poking around their website.  What's this?

"The curated image bank currently features 28 artists from every corner of the state, and in all different stages of their careers. An overwhelming majority of the featured artists are graduates of Connecticut art schools- most with advanced degrees."

Soooo... "Curated" basically means academically credentialed artists [only].  Sweet.  Art history teaches us that that's where most great art comes from or, as the Borat character might say, - NOT!

Rather than rant and rave about this site, their pretentiousness, and the tone-deaf claim that it's some kind of art list representing state artists, let's chalk it up as yet-another-me and mine-first-self-serving art site looking to cash in on the suckers who get signed up.

This isn't new or news.  Brooklyn Art Project gave me the same rash.  There are others.  They advertise themselves as being a resource to you when in fact you are an unpaid, unrecognized asset [potential web consumer] to them.

The sad, pernicious fact is that CT Arts organizations that receive government funding are gamed to serve very specific, inside constituencies.  Their ties to academia and their closed-minded ideas about art and appetite for monopolizing art funding and venues exclude independent artists from the game.

As artists we are emotionally manipulated into feeling sorry for the poor self-serving bureaucrats who "just can't find..." us.  In business, these people would have to explain their conflicts of interest but in the art world we treat them like the victim.

Artists Worthy of Attention

I recently had two conversations about the state of art in Connecticut that I'm fairly certain are probably very much the same elsewhere.

In one conversation, someone intimated that they knew a docent who was familiar with the review and acceptance criteria to be considered for a one person show at a local museum.  According to this reliable source, applications would be dismissed unless an artist had been mentioned as an "Artist Under Forty" to watch or someone whose CV had already included a show of distinction at a museum or gallery of renown.

The second conversation was with a representative from a big city Arts Organization who was visiting one of the many open drawing sessions available to artists in the area.The meme had been floated that the individual might be instrumental in curating a show of drawings from such drawing sessions.

So the individual spent a few minutes speaking with this one and that and got to me.

My first question was, "why doesn't your organization promote more local artists?"  I will paraphrase what followed.

Leaning to me, the person confided, "We try, we really do but *we just can't find* artists in Connecticut [presumably worthy enough for consideration]. We have a yearly show that you can apply to have a show to that used to be called, Artists under 40 but we changed that.  This year we feature an artist who used to live in Connecticut."

I pointed out a handful of worthy artists in the room saying something to the effect, "Here they are!"

The person then said, as if the people in the room were invisible, "I hear there's another drawing session... [elsewhere]."

"Yes, and there are good artists there too."  And I mentioned this one and that.  "So why can't you promote local artists [and I wasn't speaking of hobbyists]?

Again.  "I told you we have *such a hard time* finding artists in Connecticut."

"But isn't that part of your job [given that the organization uses local contributions to run itself]?"

"We have so little money to work with..."

"Then why not hold pop-up shows in all the empty storefronts in Hartford [...Bridgeport, Willimantic, Norwich...]?"

Oh, I don't have time for that - I had to drive to New York to pick up work...[for the next show].

Shortly after going through this circular logic a little more, the art detective moved to the next person.


There is a special kind of insult that is experienced when someone "looking for artists" looks you eye-to-eye and confides that they "can't find them."

I've been making art since I was a young child and off and on for about fifty-five years.  I'm familiar with the games and fairly indifferent to them.  But every once in awhile... it stings.