Wednesday, January 9, 2008

1/7/08 Meeting Minutes

SPARKPLUG 1/7/08 minutes (taken by Karen)
There were 6 people in attendance
Sean, Jenny, Kathryn, Mark, Lea & Karen

Agenda items were covered as follows:

1-presentations
Sean Hennessy presented jpgs of his work. (Disclaimer: I am going to sum it up in just 1-3 sentences – (if anyone thinks I have severely misrepresented email me at karenjoan@gmail with what you want fixed or what you thought.)

Sean Hennessy does mixed media constructions using materials like plaster, concrete (raw and pigmented) and glass casting of items like toys, light bulbs, tools and hardware. Inspired by mythology, industry, religion, energy, and archeology he frequently engages in the retelling of classic stories with common contemporary objects, instilling in them a “Narrative of Relics” as a way of contextualizing their cultural content, meaning and identity.


2-surveys
Six individuals have responded to the survey, which gleaned in 4 pages of results, expertly compiled by Jenny. Two mentionable items are the varied skills and resources that were listed by us and the overwhelming interest in being connected to an engaging community of artists that is interested in “cultivat[ing] new ideas” and discussing art on a professional level. These surveys so far seem to justify the conversational discussion format that is continuing to develop as this community becomes more “collective”.

[While it was not discussed at the meeting I do have copies of the results if you would like one, please ask me for it at a meeting. While I presently do not foresee results being compiled again until some yet unknown milestone, having individual record of peoples interests will be helpful to have on file in the future. If you have not filled one out you can get a blank survey in the file section of the dcacsparkplug Googlegroup. When complete, bring it to a meeting email it to Jenny Walton (Jenny.Walton@gmail.com) or myself (karenjoan@gmail.com).


3-ideas about ideas-in no particular order
~HAVE A PARTY! try to bring together the Monday people and the Sunday people and some new people in a more relaxed venue-like someone’s home. Stay tuned, more on this very, very soon
~Sean offered to post information regarding an upcoming film series about sculptors (films
on Richard Serra may be some of the first to be scheduled), be on the lookout.
~We started talking about the WACK! Exhibit, but it seems that of the six people in attendance only Kathryn & I went and we saw each other at NWMA so we had already talked about it. (WACK! will be at NYMOMA at the PS space, you should still try to see it)
~after Kathryn & I gave our synopsis of WACK! the discussion turned into a sort of – “one that got away” reminiscence by everyone else that was there – (you know, the exhibitions that you really meant to go to, know would be important to your development, but still missed going to see.)
~as some of us filled each other in on what others had missed at certain shows like Richard Serra in MOMANY this summer, Julie Taymor at NMWA, Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting at MAD, NY the two following ideas came up

~ Lea had suggested a reading list as well as maybe trying to pick one book that none of us had read and all try to read it – the suggestion is NOT for a book club, (I don’t think any of us has time for that) but for one book that we can all try to get into and draw discussions out of.

Suggestions so far are

The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles

Art & Fear


The Shape of Content (The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures)

Ross King The Judgment Of Paris (the Revolutionary Decade That Gave The World Impressionism

What Painting Is

Pictures and Tears: A History of People Who Have Cried in Front of Paintings

Regarding the Pain of Others

Night Studio: A Memoir of Philip Guston

Taking the Leap: Building a Career As a Visual Artist
- (Not for discussion purposes, but recommended by Sean & myself as a very practical book to have about doing your own PR, taxes, exemptions, budgeting and all kinds of stuff)

Certainly check out these books and try to think of others and post them to the group – I am suggesting now that at the February meeting we try to narrow it down to 5 books and then pick one that we can all try to read this YEAR – just one book –

~In discussing setting up a book list it was suggested that a tag/bookmark lists for books & websites would be good – in hindsight I have thought of linking to exhibitions past present & future that come up in meetings given that there are permalinks on many websites not – it would be a great resource to have)

Sean has already suggested a bookmark site and set up a flickr group for us. We could also set up a book list on amazon.com, shelfari.com or goodreads.com or explore using http://ma.gnolia.com or http://del.icio.us/

(don’t want to get too many web things going here – everyone take a look at these sites, Mike checked in with me and he’s exploring ways for setting up better blog discussion threads, I have given him a heads up about trying to incorporate these other lists to the blog as well so stay tuned)

4- goals for goals

~HAVE A PARTY !

~consider hosting practical artist workshops on taxes/business sides. Sean mentioned a workshop he attended in the past run by Lenny Campello / Frasier gallery a few years ago that was very, very good. The names Sarah Stout and David Furchgott of International Art & Artists were mentioned as people that might be familiar with Lenny’s workshop and be able to come up with something similar.

4~ACTION!

~Recommended openings this Saturday (on January 12th) on 14th Street

Phil Nesmith at Irvine: http://irvinecontemporary.com/index.php
and
15 ways of looking at Philip Barlow at Curators Office: http://www.curatorsoffice.com


5-Agenda Items for next meeting

The next meeting is tentatively planned for Sunday February 10 at 7 PM place TBD (tho’ probably will be in the DCAC gallery
~Mike, and maybe Pat present their work
~Ideas about ideas
~Goals for goals
~talk about the 14th Street openings, discussion ideas and headway on virtual tools to assist with our development of ideas
~keep forging ahead towards “Meatier Discussion”

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What is DCAC's Sparkplug?

Currently composed of eight DC area artists and curators, DCAC's SPARKPLUG meets regularly to discuss their work, explore common concerns, grow their community and dream up creative engagements both in DC and around the world. Through its support of Sparkplug, DC Arts Center provides meeting space, legal and technical resources and exhibition opportunities to emerging artists, curators and arts writers without current gallery representation or institutional employ. Via a continuing dialogue encompassing the theoretical and the practical, the group’s members share experiences, perspectives, preoccupations, challenges, and topics informing their ongoing artistic practice.



The goal of DCAC's SPARKPLUG is to identify superior artists, curators and arts writers without current gallery representation or institutional employ, provide an environment to help foster their development, provide legal, technical and other resources, and provide opportunities for them to exhibit both in DC and around the country.



DCAC's SPARKPLUG will actively seek its membership from all communities in the Washington, DC region with the goal of bringing together emerging artists and curators with a broad range of backgrounds and experiences, a diversity of professional preoccupations and creative visions.