The Hurricane and the Houston Arts Alliance

The Houston Chronicle reports:

The Houston Arts Alliance has created an “artist recovery blog” to facilitate communication between the city’s estimated 500 arts organizations and 14,000 working artists in the wake of Hurricane Ike [the blog is called haahelps.com.]…

Of the 92 arts organizations that had responded by Friday, nearly 60 percent reported wind, water or tree damage and “continued loss of power,” while 80 percent said they postponed or canceled events, and 42 percent reported lost ticket sales.

More than 60 percent of the 68 individual artists who responded incurred some level of damage.

Get the Special ‘Mummy Wrap’ at the Spa

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has compiled a list of the ‘King Tut’ packages and attractions offered by Dallas’ fancier downtown hotels, including the “Bare Bones Package” at the Adolphus and the “Tutini” cocktail at the W Hotel.

The Swell Season — Plenty to Talk About

The Swell Season, a.k.a. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, a.k.a. the two stars of the indie smash Once, finally hit town Monday night, playing to a capacity crowd at the Palladium Ballroom. After wearing grooves into the film’s soundtrack from playing it so much, I can’t say I was disappointed in the live incarnation. But I could have gone for a little more music.

Through some double- and triple-time strumming, Hansard got more out of an acoustic guitar than any man could, and when he and Irglova harmonized, you couldn’t help but swoon. And they didn’t make the crowd wait for the goods, belting out their Oscar-winning “Falling Slowly” two songs into the night.

But never let it be said that the Irish gift for gab passed ol’ Glen by. After the former Frames frontman introduced a new song, he felt the need to go on and on (and on) about its meaning, effectively killing any momentum the previous song produced. The irony here is, though the songs have perfectly meaningful lyrics, the real beauty of the group is just listening to the delicate interplay of the male and female voice. They could have sung in Japanese and the listener could grasp those feelings of longing and love that Hansard wanted to make sure we understood.

Still, between all the talk, the show was filled with transcendent moments, including two Van Morrison covers and a sing-along version of Austin’s Daniel Johnston’s “Life in Vain.” A sign out by the souvenir stand said the show will be available soon at playedlastnight.com. It’s one that’s worth owning if you’re a Swell Season fan. Feel free to skip through the chatter if you get it.

It’s Not the Current Economy That’s Hurting the Arts …

… it’s the one we’ve had since 9/11. So says Michael Boehm in the Los Angeles Times.

What many of them called “the perfect storm” hit in 2001. The tech-bubble burst, the World Trade Center was attacked, and economic recession ensued, discouraging donors and ticket buyers, curtailing government grants and leading to layoffs, cancellations, deferred expansion plans and downsized theatrical seasons and productions.

Charitable gifts to the arts rebounded with the stock market, but in many cases attendance did not, as the public’s fascination with the Internet and home electronics accelerated.

The bottom line is that worries never left, experts say, so arts decision-makers didn’t need the current financial crisis to snap them to attention. There has been an ongoing urgency to face the new music and dance — not the old-fashioned waltz but steps unimagined before Necessity called.

And in a passage relevant to the current troubles of the Texas Ballet Theatre, Boehm adds:

Dance, in fact, is the canary in the coal mine. During the 1990s, says John Munger, research director for the national service organization Dance/USA, it was typical for no more than six to 10 of the 80 or so companies with budgets over $1 million to cut spending in any given year. Since 2001, at least 20 a year and as many as 44 have been compelled to downsize.

Future of Cultural Criticism?

Doug McLennan is the mind behind Artsjournal.com, one of the best arts-news websites and art blog collectives around. Confession: I blog there as book/daddy, but seeing as Doug has been doing this for nine years and Artsjournal.com gets 45,000 users per day, my estimation of his achievement has some basis. Amanda Neer of Life’s a Pitch interviewed him about cultural blogs and art criticism.

Here are some of his thoughts about the near-future of criticism and how newspapers have only hurt themselves:

When do you think newspapers will croak for good? At some point Jonny Greenwood or whomever is going to declare that Radiohead no longer wants to be reviewed in print because it’s bad for the environment, and that will be the end, right?

I think there are already artists and arts organizations that have given up on newspapers. Hard to argue with their logic. I don’t think newspapers will ever really go away. I do think that 2-3 years from now it will be the exception for local newspapers to have staff critics. They’ll still run some form of writing about culture. But it won’t mean much. Really a shame. I think newspapers have hurt themselves greatly by the ways they’ve come to think about arts coverage. There’s a huge audience out there, but newspapers have pursued a dumb strategy when it comes to A&E coverage.

I feel like I came to the blog party circa five years late. Ah well. Are blogs over? Close to over? What will be the next big thing?

Blogs aren’t over. But blogs don’t have some magical property. Blogs are merely a quick publishing platform that allows the world to see what you write. They’re like a pen is to paper - a tool that enables you to write. What you choose to do with it is entirely up to you. There are as many kinds of blogs as there are people. Some of the bigger blogs are starting to look more and more like traditional publications. Some traditional publications are looking more and more like blogs. Some are very journalistic. Many are like personal diaries.

What’s next? I think there won’t be a huge revolution. Changes will be incremental. Video, audio, collaborative. Etc. The next immediate thing is the explosion of mobile use and interactive multi-media. I think this will very much change the way we use the web today. It will make how we use the web/create for the web today seem like the Dark Ages. Any artist, arts organization or journalist who isn’t thinking about the way mobile use is going to change things, is going to be left in the dust.

Women Filmmakers Find a Helping Hand With Chick Flicks

It’s no secret that women are underrepresented in the male-dominated film industry. For every Sophia Coppola or Amy Talkington, there are dozens of men filling those director’s chairs. And the male-female ratio on film crews is even more out of whack.

To that end, the Chick Flicks Film Festival, a fundraiser produced by Women in Film Dallas, takes to the screen for the seventh time on Thursday. The purpose of the event is two fold: to highlight work by Texas women and to raise money for a pair of scholarships – a $1,500 tuition scholarship and a $3,500 project completion grant that allows a filmmaker to finish up a film.

At the festival, which screens at 7 p.m. at the Angelika Film Center in Mockingbird Station, work by more than a dozen Texas women will be shown, including 10 minutes of A Native American Dream, the film that recent University of North Texas grad Liz Daggett used last year’s project completion grand to finish. In addition to the films, there will be raffles, with all the proceeds going to the scholarships. After the screening, it’s over to Urban Tacos downstairs for the after party. Tickets are $8 for WIF.D members and $12 for non-members and may be purchased at www.wifdallas.org.

Jessica Schoenbaechler, a writer and story producer with AMS productions, sits on the WIF.D board and oversees Chick Flicks. During a recent telephone conversation, she offered a look into this year’s festival.

Art&Seek: Tell me a little bit about the mission of Chick Flicks.

Schoenbaechler: Our mission has always been to highlight the production work of Texas women, because their role behind the camera isn’t always evident. We really only include work by women with Texas roots or some kind of strong connection to Texas. That can be as a producer or as a director, and this year we have a new category called “Crew Girls,” in which a crew member can submit their film.

Art&Seek: How does the festival fit into Women in Film.Dallas’ overall goals?

Schoenbaechler: We tried to make this program a natural extension of our entire mission. The proceeds benefit the scholarships, and we always try and include the scholarship winners in some way.

Art&Seek: The name of the festival is cute, but do you think it in anyway sends the wrong message?

Schoenbaechler: I’ve wondered about that, too, because I’m new to the board and we had the name before I came on. My understanding is that when they adopted the name it was a very conscious effort to reclaim a phrase that was a bit light-hearted and slightly derogatory.

Art&Seek: Without asking you to play favorites, is there a particular film that you are looking forward to showing on Thursday night or a filmmaker we should watch out for?

Schoenbaechler: Personally, I find the documentaries very exciting, but I think I’m probably most excited about this Crew Girls category, because it really highlights women’s roles in technical positions. Women are definitely in the minority when it comes to working on a film crew, so it’s really nice to see that we do have so many talented women in those positions doing really good work.

Art&Seek: It’s a common observation that there aren’t enough Hollywood films made by women directors. Why do you think that is, and do you see progress to that end?

Schoenbaechler: I think that the industry, historically, has been a boy’s club, but women’s voices provide a vital contribution and much-needed insight. Film is a great arena for women to make progress on issues that are important to them, because it’s such a collaborative effort and because it requires teamwork and communication and creativity. Those are all things that women can excel at. Women in the industry are very communicative and collaborative and do help one another, and I think that Women in Film.Dallas has certainly participated in promoting that.

Ike, the Cultural Impact

Guest blogger Brad Ford Smith is a Dallas artist and arts conservationist.

When disaster hits, all links to normality disappear, this affects the actual collection of information. One organization has stepped in to fill in one of those information gaps. The Texas Association of Museums has posted a city-by-city list of museums, galleries and historic homes impacted by hurricane Ike.

It is a relief to find out that Bishop’s Palace sustained little damage with only 3 feet of water on its bottom floor. But history was erased when the Lone Star Flight Museum was hit with over 7 feet of water, causing major damage to their airplanes and destroying a large portion of the artifacts on display.

Speaking as an art conservationist, the damage from this storm will take years to recover from. Important historic artifacts have been exposed to the most damaging elements mother nature can throw at them. In some cases these artifacts will have to undergo lengthy conservation treatments just to stabilize their condition. Other artifacts are beyond treatment. They are gone forever.

History is a very physical thing. We need things like books and paintings and odd bits of furniture to keep it alive. When these historical artifacts disappear, the history that surrounds them quickly fades away as well.

So check out the Texas Association of Museums’ listing. You may find that you can make a big impact for some quirky, little historic home that needs a little TLC.

Presidential Arts Policies on the Campaign Trail, Pt. 2

The Los Angeles Times art critic Christopher Knight says that we won’t hear about cultural policy during the presidential debates, not because cultural policy is trivial, but because the debates are designed to be trivial. They aren’t debates at all “but elaborately scripted reality television shows.”

So how about considering these issues?

As it stands now, corporate arts funding is just a self-congratulatory form of cautious corporate advertising — and tax deductible to boot. No corporation will ever provide wide-ranging economic stimulus for a free and vibrant creative community. And that’s bad cultural policy.

Second, how about the National Endowment for the Arts, neutered 15 years ago in the culture wars? At its 1992 peak, the NEA budget was a pathetic $176 million, or about 84 cents per citizen. With a budget now of $145 million — not quite five hours’ worth of the Iraq occupation — it’s withered to less than 50 cents per capita.

But forget about budget debates, which turn the discussion away from common public interest and toward special-interest lobbying. Instead, what if the NEA just changed the rules? What if, say, its art museum exhibition grants were available only to shows that are open free to the public? That one small policy change would cause a profound shift in the way American museums do business.

Currently, the public pays three times. We indirectly subsidize art museums through their tax-exempt status. We are taxed for the NEA. Finally, we have the privilege of privately ponying up at the museum box office to see the art. That’s more bad cultural policy.

These two examples, taxpayer equity and a public-spirited NEA, both represent a cultural perspective at the opposite end of the spectrum from where we stand today.

Feed the People at Conduit Gallery

From Michael Roch’s exhibit, The Armchair Naturalist

Guest blogger Kristen Keckler, of Denton, teaches creative writing at University of North Texas.

What would happen if you fed foam peanuts to the elephants? Perhaps Michael Roch’s exhibit The Armchair Naturalist, currently at the Conduit Gallery, attempts to answer this question. At the show’s opening, among art fans of all ages, I felt as if I were on safari through this exotic landscape, one inhabited by friendly, cushion-foam wildlife.

And if, like me, you love strawberry and vanilla ice cream, you may also find a mouth-watering sweetness to Roch’s high-density foam sculptures. As I perused the well-lit center room devoted to Roch’s work, even though I’ve been a vegetarian for fifteen years, I couldn’t help but think that these animals were inviting me to, well, eat them. Mustering every ounce of self-control, I kept my tongue in my mouth, refrained from taking big greedy licks.

And this I say with admiration and not to reduce Roch’s work to eye candy. For while their thick pink and white stripes scream “artificial flavors added!” these sculptures are surprisingly natural and realistic. Roch pulls this off, I believe, by carving (or cutting) expressive postures, palpable textures and angles (suggesting fur or feathers) into his animals. For example, near the room’s entrance, a beaver stands on a podium and extends his paw, as if to say “nice to meet you!” Toward the rear, a bunny’s ears are thrown back, her right foot splayed in a stance both defensive and playful, like a puppy or maybe a kid at karate class.

Mixed media canvasses cover the walls behind the sculptures, and among them are drawings of elephants and crocodiles on backgrounds painted with colorful swirling ribbons. The two elephants wrestle trunks playfully, in some sort of kiss or embrace. Two crocs, on separate canvasses, appear to be laughing, mouths alack, their bared teeth adding only a hint of malice or danger (like the smiles of politicians?). I couldn’t help but wonder: were there lessons to be gleaned from the obvious anthropomorphism, beyond ideas posited by Disney and PETA (that animals have feelings). Are humans so inherently narcissistic that we can’t help but and see our own likenesses in nature?

If the answer is, as they say, “in the eyes,” then maybe I found it in the synthetic flower orbs attached to each animal’s countenance. The vibrant faux violets, mums, daisies, and zinnias add the only hints of color in a sea of white and pink. The contrast creates a startling effect, one that most definitely drew me in. As I glanced across the room at the beaver, his eyes seemed not only to possess depth and movement, but the illusion of lashes as well. (I thought: Mr. Beaver, are you flirting with me?)

It’s interesting to note that the ape’s eyes are daisies, and the daisy (beside suggesting youth, bridesmaids, late spring days, and the cheerful garnishes we attach to flip-flops, presents, cakes) represents innocence and purity. So was it a coincidence that below a slightly furrowed brow, the ape’s daisy eyes seemed to gaze peacefully and thoughtfully into my own? While the flowers add life to the representations, at the same time, I also associated the flowers with death, as in the X’s marking closed, dead eyes of cartoons, or as in the expressions “pushing daisies” and what-not. So the fact that the flowers replace, or mark, the eyes could have more somber, and morbid, implications as well. And right before I exited into the hot, early autumn night, I thought: are these animals alive or are they dead? If you are a little bit curious, get off that armchair and plan a trip to the Conduit Gallery to see for yourself. Roch’s exhibit is on display through October 11.

Fort Worth Symphony Unveils New Web Site

The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra launched a slick update of its Web site this week while also branching out onto Facebook and MySpace to reach some new audiences.  The handiest function of the orchestra’s new home page is its virtual seating chart. Rather than the staid, static online seating charts most of us are used to, this one allows the user to scroll over a photo of the inside of Bass Hall. As the cursor passes over a section (Upper Gallery, Mezzanine, etc.) the section lights up on the photo to show you exactly where those seats are. That should make for a more informed ticket-buying experience.