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Please leave your thoughts on the visual art scene in Syracuse and Central New York! We are proud of recent efforts to make the visual arts more prominent. If you are involved in one of these efforts, please tell us about it. If you would like to share something positive about the scene, please communicate it. If you have an issue pertaining to the visual arts in the area that you would like addressed, please do so. Let's start the conversation!
-The Folks at Delavan Art Gallery
posted by Delavan Art Gallery @ 6/27/2006
10 comments
10 Comments:
I've been with Delavan Art Gallery since we opened in September 2003. We've come a long way with many shows and even more artists in those shows. Working with the gallery, I have found the visual arts scene in CNY is alive and well even though not everyone sees it that way. There are many very talented folks out there. We live and work here because of the cost of living - it's fairly cheap - but why do many of these artists have to go else where to sell their work and get a fair price for it?
The more artistic venues we can have the better.
More people will come out and support artists.
This city still needs a lot more invigoration like a major bookstore downtown or a cool independant one such as the one on Newberry St in Boston, Mass. The more resources surrounding us the better.
More walking traffic equals more attention to art. More window displays, more galleries, more eclectic shops displaying people's works like the ones in ParkSlope, Brooklyn. Art is everywhere and it gets bought and cherished. We also need more entertainment. The Landmark used to get more venues and it seems it has tappered off.
i've spoken with former Syracuse residents who've returned to visit family, and they say it's like a city that just gave up. There is a small group of people who appreciate the arts, and they come out to the events & art shows, but in general, it seems like the city does not place a value on the arts. It's perceived as for the "disposable income" crowd - yet those same critics will spend a few thousand on a snowmobile. Thank goodness for the Delavan! It's one of just a few places to even show an artist's work. I've had people complain about the price of a piece that I've done, yet down the thruway in Rochester (same economics)my work sells at higher prices. go figure.
Robert Henri, early American artist and author of “The Art Spirit,” expressed a deep interest in the development of art spirit in all walks of life. “If the buyers of pictures could be brought to believe that, whatever may be their interest in accredited old masters, they have equally with artists their part to play in the development and the progress of art in our own time and place.”
The Cultural Resouces Council’s Visual Arts Committee, a volunteer group, has worked hard to offer juried showcases of art produced by central New York artists over the years. Until recently they organized and hung four shows a year in the Civic Center, making some of the best new art available in this region to thousands of viewers at no cost to the Center. However, when the management of the Civic Center, which provided no help in the hanging, decided to increase the cost to the Visual Arts Committee, we could no longer find the required funds. (To do all the work and have to pay for the privilege of providing a free cultural service to the public in a public facility is outrageous in itself.)
Now the Ford Foundation will help locate usable space in abandoned buildings in Syracuse. Whoever will decide to what use that space will be assigned needs to look at the dire lack of public gallery space. Bill Delavan has presented Syracuse the gift of its first and best gallery where quality art is offered monthly. The libraries help fill the gaps in a generous way.
Other cities across the nation have provided public space in many forms for these endeavors: small place such as Wausau, WI, and larger cities such as Raleigh, NC. A simple internet search can supply helpful information.
We’ve heard much about the Cultural Corridor. Forget the corridor and simply find and offer a space to the hundreds of hard-working artists in our area. We have an underfunded, understaffed Cultural Resources Council with numerous devoted volunteers ready to help.
Still being somewhat new to the Syracuse area (we’ve been here almost 2 years now), I’m still feeling my way around the arts community here. From my outsider’s perspective, it seems that Armory Square is the best thing that could have happened to downtown Syracuse. It sure was hopping last night (a Friday night) so it doesn’t seem to lack for visitors. I hope that over the years more art galleries like the Delavan, and more artisan’s galleries like Eureka Crafts, find their way there. I’m going to guess that perhaps many local artists feel they have to look elsewhere to show/sell their work because there just aren’t many venues in the region, which is a shame.
One of the things I’ve noticed compared to where we moved from (the Philadelphia, PA/Trenton, NJ area), is that towns down in that area that thrive, like New Hope, PA, Lambertville, NJ, Doylestown, PA, Clinton, NJ, etc., are ones who have a wide variety of shops, restaurants and galleries for tourists and locals to visit, as opposed to having a random shop here and there. Skaneateles is such a mecca for tourists with the gorgeous lake and restaurants and gift shops, but there are no art galleries there for the local artists to exhibit in! I believe Long Lake Gallery used to have such a space in the front of their shop but since they moved to Fennell St. they now just do picture framing, and the other gallery/galleries are run by photographers who only exhibit their own work.
William Lucchetti had plans to develop the old Crown Mills in Marcellus, turning it into shops, a hotel and restaurant. I’d love to see that actually happen, but am not sure what the status is as construction seemed to come to a halt months back.
A local artist’s co-op would be ideal as well, similar to the one in Cazenovia, which is a bit far for us west of Syracuse to drive to several times a month to gallery-sit if we were members.
When artists have to hunt down their own creative venues, like library, bank, restaurant exhibits, etc., it’s sad. Plus, there seem to be a lot of differing opinions on whether those types of venues are really good for the artists. A recent article in Art Calendar magazine pretty much shot down doing such exhibits. The author basically said, “Do you want to be known as the local artist who had their work in the library? People looking for free books and to get out of the rain go to libraries. They don’t go there to buy art.” I found that to be true, yet I’ve also heard that it can’t hurt to get your work “out there” as much possible. The Finger Lakes and the various wineries seem to bring in a lot of tourism, but the towns are geographically distant, and I don’t believe there are many art galleries or artisan’s galleries in many of them.
Has this area ever had an open studio tour, similar to Ithaca's Art Trail? Again, might be difficult to round up interest if people have to drive significant distances between people's studios.
Armory Square seemed like a promising area ripe for galleries & art venues, but it's turned into another Marshall St - bars, bars, bars - with some shops sprinkled in. And don't even try to park there! Bill Delavan is owed a huge party in his honor for what he has provided for local artists. i think hollyk's idea about the artists co-op is great! to locate it in an area that's accessible - not too far, parking, etc - and has a lot of traffic would be ideal. i remember the shows at the Civic Center were wonderful and very professionally done. again, though, parking keeps me far away from downtown. any old factories out there? check out www.torpedofactory.org - it's an old actual torpedo factory that been converted into an art center. artists rent gallery/studio space on 2 floors of the building, and the 3rd floor is classrooms - year round workshops/classes for kids through adults. they have summer camp type programs, and workshops geared for adults during normal work-time-off. it's a jewel! and it gives fine artists & fine craftspeople a venue to sell/display at a reasonable cost. it's like a community of artists. they have a governing board and it is a commercial venture, but the feeling inside is pure art! i saw a sign on one studio door updating everyone on the artist's health (he'd had surgery), and different artists were taking turns opening his shop for him so he wouldn't lose sales. the artists pay a reasonable rent for their spaces. everything is wide open & bright. each gallery was a former office at the factory! very cool idea!!
Thank you for all of your comments. Some interesting points have come up.
I've always thought the actions of the Civic Center were particularly ironic, considering the Cultural Resources Council was largely responsible for building the Civic Center in the first place.
It often seems that Syracuse has given up. In general, the city definitely makes plenty of mistakes, thinking over and over of short-term needs and not taking the time, money or energy to invest in it's own future.
I am of the opinion that it has not actually given up. There have been a number of galleries opened and closed within the past decade. To name a few off the top of my head in no particular order: Artifice, Gallery 210, Metaphorestry, T-Haus, Altered Space, Cambria and many others... These spaces have not remained open but Company Gallery, Edgewood Gallery, Redhouse Gallery, Spark Contemporary Art Space, Westcott Community Center Art Gallery and obviously, Delavan Art Gallery, have remained open to show the work of area artists. The Syracuse Technology Garden also shows local art, currently in the public eye for hosting the Salon de Refuses.
Additionally, the Community Folk Art Center, Eureka Crafts, Everson Museum of Art, Light Work, Lowe Art Gallery, Point of Contact Gallery, Warehouse Gallery and are all solid art venues showing the work of nationally and internationally known artists, bringing art from the outside in, which is not to be discredited.
I agree downtown leaves a lot to be desired. However, with an influx of new apartments and a new corner store off Clinton Square that provides food for would-be residents, I am encouraged that downtown will once again become more than office space and parking lots.
On the Rochester comment... I have heard some artists say they have had better luck finding shows and selling work in Rochester, which has a similar economic climate. What is Rochester doing that Syracuse is not?
Also, I am not familiar with what the Ford Foundation is doing. ...care to elaborate? There are a number of art and real estate ideas out there, but I am not familiar with this one.
Other current events I'm curious to hear more of your thoughts about...
-The reviews of the Everson Biennial.
-The Connective Corridor
Best,
Courtney Rile
Delavan Art Gallery
Courtney asked:
“On the Rochester comment... I have heard some artists say they have had better luck finding shows and selling work in Rochester, which has a similar economic climate. What is Rochester doing that Syracuse is not?”
Having never *been* to Rochester, so take this comment as one being based only on what I have only heard, Rochester folks have money. I’ve heard the analogy repeated several times that Buffalo is blue collar, Binghamton is blue collar, Rochester is white collar, and Syracuse is “somewhere in-between.” Perhaps Rochester may have more galleries than Syracuse, or else they have the clientele that Syracuse doesn’t draw, with money, willing to spend it on the arts?
Courtney also asked:
“Other current events I'm curious to hear more of your thoughts about...
-The reviews of the Everson Biennial.
-The Connective Corridor”
Can you point us to those reviews? Syracuse Post, or somewhere else? What is “The Connective Corridor”?
Thanks!
- Holly
having taken workshops all around the country, i notice an odd thing in Syracuse - artists don't seem to help other artists as much. there isn't a lot of sharing of techniques, opportunities, sources for supplies, etc. An artist friend of mine in Houston has a potluck at her house every month for fellow artists, and they share food, comraderie, and any pertinent information. for some reason, it almost seems like collegues are afraid to give up that 1 slim bit of information about a venue or source in case someone else "intrudes" on it. yes, we'd all love to make wheelbarrows of money on our art, but aren't we artists first and foremost? remember the joy of the creating. sit up with a few friends and a bottle of wine and get re-energized by the conversation & ideas! who knows what may come of it.
thank you for putting together the current show! wonderful! NOW when i tell people i make wearable art and get that odd, blank stare, i'll send them to you! Linda
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