The Santa Cruz Art email list (SCART) is an email forum for announcing non-institutional art events, meetings and projects, ideas and news. It is a low-volume, moderated list sharing information about local Santa Cruz art topics only.
An artist friend once told me that if you don't document art, any newcomer in town is not going to know that Santa Cruz has a vibrant art community that exists largely outside of the gallery grind. Document, she said, and the artists in town, new and old, will have a sense of momentum -- a sense, that in spite of the lack of art galleries, art buyers, art patrons, art grants, art money, that this town has a lively habit of blurring the boundary between art and life.
To that end, we created the Santa Cruz Art Conspiracy. An attempt to document some of the non-institutional creative efforts of artists in Santa Cruz. We want your contributions and documentation of your creative endeavors in and around Santa Cruz.But beyond documentation, this is about community and connection. The Art Conspiracy is really about connecting with other artists, to share a beer or a creative idea, or ask questions about process, or reach out from a North Coast studio or a South County warehouse to make new friends and alliances.
Will SCArt feature public guerilla art? Certainly. Public performance? Absolutely. Creative groups operating outside of the realm of commerce? Yeah, sure. Street art? Street music? Yes and yes. Announcements for gallery shows? Sure, though we wouldn't want that to be the bulk of what we're doing here. How about city-sponsored events? I hope not, but who knows. Awesome bands playing at Moe's Alley? Yeah, no.
This is less about "making it" as an artist, and more about making art. Its all about this elusive something that I'm having a difficult time describing. A bit of underdogism, perhaps, a sense of struggling together, of changing the world through art, of making the world a fabulous, beautiful, mysterious, and surprising place.
Need to announce an art happening? Is it local to Santa Cruz? Is it non-institutional? Non-commercial? Send an announcement to our moderated announcement list: scart@lists.riseup.net
Do you do performance? Conceptual art? Non-commercial music? Want to join a discussion focusing on the process of making art and building community? We prefer to focus on the cathartic process of creating art, collaboration and community, conceptional art and performance. We'd like to hear from you. Email us at scart@riseup.net
Santa Cruz Art Site: santacruzart.net
http://www.santacruzart.net/2007/04/welcome-to-santa-cruz-art-conspiracy.html?showComment=1177709520000#c7163997206649861397'> April 27, 2007 2:32 PM
con·spir·a·cy
1 : the act of conspiring together
2 a : an agreement among conspirators
con·spire
to act in harmony toward a common end
I like the idea also of subverting the idea of art. You know, ART those objects that sit in galleries. I make them now and then and so do you. But I'm less interested in those objects than the process -- the creative uncommodifiable process -- it takes to get there.
Ya? Wha chu think?
http://www.santacruzart.net/2007/04/welcome-to-santa-cruz-art-conspiracy.html?showComment=1179772980000#c7483033745821412972'> May 21, 2007 11:43 AM
fuck juried shows. fuck membership fees. fuck art directories. fuck open fucking studios. fuck supporting the arts. fuck arts benefits. fuck studios and galleries. fuck waiting for anything.
if someone wants to have a show, I say they should set up a temporary galley right on Pacific for the day.
http://www.santacruzart.net/2007/04/welcome-to-santa-cruz-art-conspiracy.html?showComment=1193783160000#c7741189783756610446'> October 30, 2007 3:26 PM
When I say fight the man, it is implicit in my meaning that I do so in my own special way. And I am all about effectiveness. So for instance, when the police come to a GDI showing and announce, "You're going to have to shut this down." And I inquire gently which laws we are violating, and point out we are on private property, and get out my copy of the statute they are citing and point out parts of the statute that clearly permit us to be there, and it is all cordial (though sometimes a little tense), and the police go away with usually some last admonishment, I am fighting the man and fighting for art.
I know that some folk have allergies to grim-faced protest, and endless kevetching about the dominant paradigm, etc, and that the prospect of fighting the man -- or fighting anyone for that matter -- is uninteresting. I hear that and share a certain sensitivity to the same old ways of protest. But ever hopeful, I think resistance and making change does not have to be a dull monocrop.
Here are two question that I hope will illustrate why I am interested in not only making art, but making change:
1. Have y'all had the experience yet where you are doing something fabulous for your community and the authorities unbendingly stop you with no apparent precedent or reason?
2. Have you had the experience where the unconventional is tolerated -- but as it begins to affect real change in the way we interact with the world, it comes into conflict with the powers that be?
Speaking only for me, I am less interested in art as a way to pass time. As they say, at a minimum, I want it to hold a mirror up to the society in which we live.
I think that to those in power, art is okay as long as it stays in its place, provides an amusing distraction, or delves wholly within the realm of commerce. As soon as it steps out of its assigned place, you can expect resistance. Whether we greet that joyfully and creatively or grimly is up to us.