I was just reading L’etoile Magazine’s blog, where they interviewed a local graphic designer about his new blog and the local arts scene. To paraphrase him, and to sum up what I hear about this city all the time: Minneapolis is a great city for an artist to mature, there’s alot of support for artists here, coming from the community and from other artists.
I have mixed feelings about the art “scene” here, if you can call it that. I used to really believe in it. Afunctionul was all about investing in our place, and the local scene and how we could build it through those “unestablished” venues to create a healthy, diverse culture. But that was over four years ago. Since then, I tried my best at creating and marketing my visual art. I constantly felt like the “scene” was going on without me. Being an artist here is more about choosing your friends then creating your work. It’s more about having a style and fitting in somewhere socially. I closed my studio because I ran out of juice. I was broke and I wasn’t being myself. I would go to every gallery opening because that’s what you’re supposed to do.
It’s partly my fault for being socially awkward. But I dread the day when misfits don’t have the privilege of a career in the arts because overachievers have changed the standards.
It’s quite possible that the reasons I failed here as a visual artist would have caused me to fail anywhere. Regardless, I wish people would just shut up about how great it is here.
Minneapolitans like to create insulated communities, or cliques. And from that viewpoint, you can convince yourself that it’s anything you want it to be. And with our corporate paychecks, we can finance our fantasies.
This goes for art in general, with a lowercase ‘a.’ The music scene is the same way. I plan on touring this year, if I can finance it through my crappy jobs. I’ll just be doing it alone.