{"id":650,"date":"2009-06-05T09:50:07","date_gmt":"2009-06-05T16:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp\/2009\/06\/friday_links_\/"},"modified":"2009-06-05T09:50:07","modified_gmt":"2009-06-05T16:50:07","slug":"friday_links_","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/2009\/06\/friday_links_.html","title":{"rendered":"The ins and outs of art openings – you can die out there and be another accident statistic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whenever I determine not to read (or write) another top ten list, Glasstire: Texas Visual Art Online<\/i><\/a> publishes one more great one. Beneath the absurdity of Beth Secor’s 10 tips for navigating the Ins and Outs of Openings<\/i><\/a> is bedrock good sense.<\/p>\n

Take Secor’s #6, Location, Location, Location<\/i>. Last night at Heide Hinrichs and Debra Baxter’s opening at Howard House<\/a> (more later), I found myself talking to a woman who wants to open a gallery in Post Alley (Pike Place Market.) <\/p>\n

“Nobody will come,” I told her. “There’s no place to park and nothing that amounts to any kind of art density already in place.” Yes, in a better world, we’d all hoof it far and wide. Neither rain nor sleet nor hail nor snow and so forth. In this world, to misquote Bob Dylan, the dealer will die out there and be another accident statistic.<\/p>\n

Or, as Secor put it:<\/p>\n

6. Location, Location, Location.
\nThink twice about the gallery you have chosen. Is it off the beaten path, perhaps in a sewage pipe or demolished building? Is it easily accessible? (For example, does it have a door, or do you have to crawl through a window?) Is it surrounded by barbed wire? Once a patron enters, is he ever heard from again? Is the gallery owner reputable or does he have a name like Louie the Lip?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The dealer doesn’t have to stress his lip to be unreliable. Call it the kick the dog theory. A guy has a bad day at the office, comes homes and yells at his partner. His partner yells at the kid who kick the dog who defecates in the shoe of the guy who had a bad day at the office.<\/p>\n

In a bad economy, dealers struggling to stay afloat too frequently fail to pay artists in a timely fashion if at all, thinking as dealers they need the money to make frayed ends meet. (Isn’t this the reasoning of bank robbers?)<\/p>\n

It’s the untold story. I keep hearing it, always with a don’t-tell caveat. If desperate, artists might yell at the kid, but they protect the dealer till there’s absolutely no reason to do so. That’s why it’s important to have a dealer who doesn’t think of artists’ money as back-up stash.<\/p>\n

Secor’s # 7 is titled, What Should I Serve?<\/i> Is this a regional difference? With the exception of Garde Rail<\/a>, one of whose owners is Southern, and Francine Seders<\/a>, who’s French, Seattle galleries serve nothing. If you need water, somebody might spit down your throat.<\/p>\n

In Texas, however, refreshments are expected.<\/p>\n

It’s really important to serve some sort of refreshment at your
\nopening, as it creates ambience and draws people to the show in ways
\nthat your art never will. Seriously. Typically, galleries and museums
\nserve wine and beer, and on occasion hard liquor and finger foods.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I love her examples of refreshments gone awry. Here’s one:<\/p>\n

\n
In 2000, an employee at the American Visionary Art Museum<\/a> was sent to purchase food for an art opening and was told to, “buy on the cheap.” She returned with the following items: A slab of butter, hamburger buns and Craisins. Guests mistook the Craisins for salsa gone bad, and kept going outside thinking they might find hamburgers cooking on a grill, but to no avail.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whenever I determine not to read (or write) another top ten list, Glasstire: Texas Visual Art Online publishes one more great one. Beneath the absurdity of Beth Secor’s 10 tips for navigating the Ins and Outs of Openings is bedrock good sense. Take Secor’s #6, Location, Location, Location. Last night at Heide Hinrichs and Debra […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-650","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}