Title: DirectorReport2009-04-15.doc

Programming:

Onibaba [1964] b&w 103 min. Directed by Kaneto Shindo

Wild Strawberries is a 1957 film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, about an old man recalling his past.

Programming:

The economy tanks in 2008. Other non-profits are laying off staff and cutting back programming. We’re growing. We’re even paying the rent!

What’s right with this picture?

What’s right is that we are a volunteer organization. We are not as dependent on grants as other organizations. We can run our events and our education programming without a minimum of outside funding. We still need funding to support our exhibitions. If we can continue to grow, I feel confident that we can raise the funds required to become self-sustaining.

Here are some programming highlights from February & March –

Fort Point of View – an excellent exhibition that drew a large, enthusiastic crowd from Boston. It was a muscular, eclectic show. Joanne & Mary Ann did a great job, hats off! The only disappointment was the complete lack of local interest/involvement. Are the WAS, social security second-career pussies afraid of ‘real art’?

Artbeat! – Mary Ann says, “The Deck Demons rule!” Arms akimbo, index and pinkies sticking straight up, she’s weaving over the bed. I’m sick as a dog. But it sounds good. I have yet to make it to Artbeat!. By all reports it is ‘the happening thing’. In direct contrast we had Break Out ~ Dance, which unfortunately was taken over by an egomanic. It is the ‘no longer happening thing’. Vanessa stepped up to organize Noize & Disco.

XFest 2009 – If I do say so myself, this was an excellent event. Good energy. Good music, dance and video. A good time. Ten visiting artists and forty local artists randomly sorted into duos & trios. There were 10 half-hour sets on Friday night. On Saturday afternoon the visiting artists performed with the dancers then another 10 half-hour sets on Saturday night. On Sunday morning Andrea Pensado ran a Sound Improvisation master’s class. That afternoon the local artists performed then another master’s class, Movement Improvisation with Claire Elizabeth Barratt.

The whole thing was self-organizing. Visiting artists were paid an honorarium to cover their travel expenses. Once here, the local artists volunteered food & lodgings. Publicity was on our website, in our newsletter and on Facebook, through email lists, and word-of-mouth. Peter Valentine wrote a nice piece on Audiofloss, the SUN’s music blog. Nancye lifted Peter’s piece for Steppin’ Out. I printed up programs and discount coupons at Staples. We had three coupons – 10% off at Tepthida Khymer, a free cup of coffee at Brew’d, and 2 x the listed price at RRRecords. Ely had her biggest weekend yet! Andy forgot to tell his Barristas about the coupon. RRRon gave everyone who wasn’t afraid to use the coupon a random discount.

Expenses:

Visiting artists honoraria                        10 x $200        $2000

Printing programs & coupons                            $  200

Facilities rental                                                  $  300

                                    Total expenses                                                  ($2500)

Income:

Donation from Walter (in lieu of LCC grant)                  $2500

                                    Total income                                                     $2500

                                    Total                                                                $0

A month later I’m attending COOL’s Festival Workshop series. We learn how to plan, market, and fund raise for a festival. We had presentations from National Parks, Deb “heads to beds” Belanger, Peter Aucella, and LZ. Some of it was useful, most of it useless.

Fiscal Sponsorship:

Andy Jacobson and Suzz Cromwell are the Turbine House. We met with them at the Village Smokehouse. We agreed to sponsor them on a grant by grant basis. I don’t think that Suzz, who is in charge of programming, is interested in working with us on programming.

Perhaps the best analogy is -119 is to the Turbine House as the Outpost is to Ryles. In other words the people performing at 119 will not be interested in playing at the Turbine House. I think Andy would have no problem us doing something like a Cabaret / fund raiser.

Development:

We have a Development Committee. I’m chair.

http://119gallery.pbwiki.com/DevComMinutes_20090414

Staffing:

Well the jig is up! I’m outta’ here. Y Sok has taken over as Executive Director.

Me as a leader, I have my doubts. I failed my leadership courses at YMCA camp. They assigned me to ‘wilderness trips’, 14-21 day canoe trips deep into northern Ontario. Skip forward a few years to my master’s thesis. I studied ‘systems planing’ in the Mackenzie River delta, north of Arctic Circle, which means Eskimos. Eskimos have a unique concept of leadership, ‘leading from behind’. Essentially, leading by example but in addition, it means creating the space physically and psycho-sociologically (sorta’ like a projected, personal zeitgeist) for good things to happen.

zeit·geist: /tsīt-gīst/ (n) the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of the time.

Just recently, I realized that a number of the organizations that I’ve been affiliated with  – A Space [Toronto], The Kitchen [NYC], The Experimental Television Center [Binghamton, NY], Woodstock Community Video [Woodstock, NY], Media Studies[Buffalo, NY], and finally, Videospace [Boston] – were all ‘spaces’ where good things happened. The people who ran them – Tom Sherman, Woody & Steina Vasulka, Ralph Hocking, Ken Marsh, Gerry O’Grady, George Fifield – were not ‘leaders’ but ‘enablers’. Their attitude was here it is and here we are, go for it!

All of these ‘spaces’ became important in the history of media art. A couple of them are still around – notably those that stayed true to their mission.

Eyebeam [NYC] is the new Kitchen -

“Eyebeam is an art and technology center that provides a fertile context and state-of-the-art tools for digital research and experimentation. It is a lively incubator of creativity and thought, where artists and technologists actively engage with culture, addressing the issues and concerns of our time. Eyebeam challenges convention, celebrates the hack, educates the next generation, encourages collaboration, freely offers its contributions to the community, and invites the public to share in a spirit of openness: open source, open content and open distribution.”

http://eyebeam.org/about/about

I think we’re onto something!

119 is Lowell’s contemporary gallery. We are a space for creative experimentation, for exploring new technologies and means of expression, for addressing social issues. We are unconventional. We encourage engagement and collaboration. And finally, we are open – open to possibility, open to potential, open to “people of all ages, backgrounds and means to explore and experience new, innovative art.”

Prepared by: Walter Wright, Ex-Executive Director