Outside the White Box: In Quest of Alternative Art Space in Dallas
Dallas has no Art Community. This is a realization that hits me every time I return from another city.
Dallas has no Art Community. This is a realization that hits me every time I return from another city. There are many signifiers one can use to measure this hard truth, but I think the main one I keep noticing is the lack of alternative exhibition venues. You know — the ones that are run by artists for artists. Spaces that try to promote work that artists find exciting and challenging. Spaces where you go to a show’s opening and it can feel more like an open studio night: the majority of the crowd is composed of artists who are there to see the work and discuss it, there is a often a local aspiring band playing, and people seem to actually enjoy being together and exchanging friendly criticisms. There is not a real push to sell anything at these shows, not because these artists don’t need to sell work (believe me they need to), but because that is not their primary goal. Selling is a possible happy by-product of displaying work that is important to them.
In Dallas there are few venues for artists by artists, and no independent spaces to display work that is not market friendly. The art world is very cruel to these altruistic endeavors. The closest we come to this are the college and university galleries and we are fortunate to have some outstanding ones. An easy excuse for the lack of these artist watering holes is that we are all spread out — suburban existence has negated whatever communal artistic spirit could exist in the Metroplex. Instead, we are isolated and competitive.
It is easy to say that we are not New York, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles or even Chicago. So let’s just look in our own backyard, at Austin and Houston for good examples of alternative art space. These cities have places like Box 13, ArtStorm, SkyDive, CoLab, Testsite, and Okay Mountain, to name a few. They are places to test and exchange new ideas with fellow artists without constraint. They work much like an extended educational environment where the faculty is nonexistent…or maybe they have just been abducted by aliens. Spaces of this nature seem to be popping up by the month in these cities, often dying just as quickly. But their presence energizes the entire community. Even Corpus Christi has at least one great alternative venue, K-Space, and I would argue because of this, despite common opinion, it has a surprisingly supportive and active arts community.
In these cities, like-minded young artists (alternative spaces apparently need the energy and idealism of youth) have come together and transformed forgotten spaces into dynamic galleries of experimentation. These spaces are not usually very large or fancy — just a bare bones, take-what-you-can-get kinds of places. A spirit of freedom and unity, (dare I say anti-establishment?) flows through them. Since I was not there, I can only assume that this is as close as we will get to the happenings of the 1960s and 1970s.
We can’t blame the galleries or the museums for the absence of artist-run venues. Alternative art spaces are a phenomenon that arises in response to these larger establishments. Their growth must be driven by artists in recognition of a communal need. It takes an ambitious, revolutionary spirit and unending energy. There has to be a desire to take charge of one’s own environment, to be overly idealistic. Most importantly, artists hoping to start these kinds of spaces need the support of the surrounding art establishments, money and…yes, more money.
With the strengthening of the area galleries and museums, and with the number of artists that choose to remain in Dallas instead of heading to another city, in addition to those who are moving here, it is only a matter time before alternative spaces begin to pop up. With this, we will move from the perpetual “on-the-cusp art scene” to actually having an involved and connected Art Community. I for one can’t wait, and I hope to see you there.
Lately I’ve done a lot of thinking on this whole subject of Dallas’ artistic community and believe you may have put your finger on a valid signifier, especially given the comparisons with Austin and Houston. I, too, see the three in stark contrast with each other.
But I’ll go one step further and suggest that their natures are not only disparate, but may also reveal fascinating genetic markers to help us understand why alternative spaces, birthed by a community of idealistic artists, seem to happen there and not here.
To keep it short though, I’ll focus for now on Dallas history, one that to me reveals a somewhat lop-sided development, growing up quickly as a commercial center without the healthy counterweight of a more down-to-earth, industrial component and the accompanying pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps view of life. I think Houston has that. Austin seems to have something different at work, I don’t know.
Excuse my armchair Urban Sociology. And not to be moralistic, but I wonder if in Dallas, all that easy money has created an expectation of affluence, and may have given birth to half-committed artists who are like trust fund babies: seeing evidence of “family money” and harkening back to the Medicis from Art History class, they hope to be supported rather than to make their own way. If the two were still around to populate my metaphor, Jackson Pollock and David Smith would be beating these kids up in the schoolyard.
You may have revealed that expectation yourself when you wrote, “Most importantly, artists hoping to start these kinds of spaces need the support of the surrounding art establishments, money and…yes, more money.”
I realize you’re not letting us as artists completely off the hook, since you first identified those entrepreneurial traits we need to start the ball rolling. And I have to admit, I don’t know how much outside support there might be even in Austin and Houston. But I’m aware of no recent example in which an alternative space of the kind you’ve described have been launched by an artist in Dallas, only to be closed due to lack of support from the arts establishment. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m not sure anybody’s even tried.
So while I agree that alternative spaces might be an indicator, or even a factor, of community, and one to be welcomed, I disagree that we’re awaiting necessary outside support to create them. Rather, I would counter that given the passion and resourcefulness apparent in most of the artists I know here, the reason we don’t have such spaces is that no individual artist wants it badly enough.
And even though the art world is cruel to such endeavors, life in general is crazy, wacked-out mean, and still, every day, artists who really want it will fight back to make art and to do the things they really want to do.
25 May 2009 at 4:45 pm