Periodically, we pose questions about issues artists face in their work and lives.
We recently asked a group of curators, editors, and presenters about their advice for artists. So this time, we decided to turn the tables and ask artists, What is ONE THING you wish more curators, editors, and presenters, i.e. gatekeepers, would incorporate into their selection process?
Poet Cassandra de Alba, photographer Keiko Hiromi, Wampum jewelry and textile artist Elizabeth James-Perry, playwright John J. King, and visual artist Johnetta Tinker respond.
Keiko Hiromi, photographer
I do believe that each photo judge or editor has his or her rationale in choosing one work over others and I do respect their judgment and selection process on the whole. However, in addition to technical and visual criteria, I would like to see “cause” to be an integral part of the selection criteria. As a photographer, I usually choose subject matter with the aim to bring awareness to social issues and causes.
While a judge or editor should not be biased toward or against the cause itself, they should judge whether the photograph was executed authentically for that cause. Important issues that are authentically translated into visual space is one of the fundamental ways to connect people via critical dialogues.
Cassandra de Alba, poet
What curators need to understand is that if we are relying on “diversity” initiatives, on actively seeking out “diverse voices,” to arrive at a lineup or a table of contents that is not overwhelmingly white or straight or male or etc., then we are still not truly doing the work. If we are reading widely and listening widely, it’s impossible to end up with a list of poets who all occupy the same slim handful of majority identity categories. There is so much incredible work being made right now, and if our approach to it is, “well, we need a non-white poet at this reading,” that’s a failure of imagination and of taste.
Elizabeth James-Perry, Aquinnah Wampanoag textile, wampum jewelry, and visual artist
I hope they take into account a person’s decades of dedication to an artist discipline.
John J. King, playwright, filmmaker, musician, & artist
Feedback. As a young artist I found (and still do find) many submission processes convoluted and overwhelming. Artists are asked to generate dozens of pages of material to submit – artist statements, proposals, budgets, missions, many of them requiring creation from scratch for each opportunity – and all things that I personally had never heard of before I started submitting! To get nothing but a simple rejection is disheartening and confusing: was it my work? was it my proposal? was it ME?! I absolutely recognize that many organizations are so overwhelmed by submissions that to respond at all can feel impossible. But even simple, boilerplate feedback about a certain aspect of the application can be very beneficial. I once applied for a residency, and received a rejection with a small box checked: “Proposal lacks details.” I submitted a new project to the same residency the next year and – remembering that feedback – worked hard to flesh out the details of how I would use my time at the residency. On my second application, I got it. Feedback is essential for any artist to develop their work; but it’s also essential for developing the business side of their career.
Johnetta Tinker, visual artist
My insightful mentors told me that there is definitely something systematically wrong with a decision making meeting that does not include a diverse group of people who have the same interest.
Diversity involves people from different social and economic backgrounds (i.e. ethnicity, race, age, gender, etc.) therefore judges, panelists, and decision makers should be included in order to render fair and unbiased decisions. This is not to say that diversity has not happened but, let us be clear that one or two diverse people in a meeting of ten or more is only a symbolic gesture.
Most certainly, diversity will lead to a variety of opinions that may challenge the status quo. However, should not different voices and perspectives be heard when deciding grant and fellowship awardees? Otherwise, how will the unrepresented, unfamiliar, unrelatable be seen, acknowledged and not overlooked?
Let us be mindful that a diverse panel of judges can put the fingerprint on identifying a deserving, unique selection of talented individuals.
It is not hard to find a diverse group of well-informed, knowledgeable professionals, working in the field with varied degrees and disciplines. They have arrived and at our fingertips. Otherwise, what excuses do we have?
Related reading:
Artists’ Advice for Gatekeepers from 2018
Seldom Discussed Artist Issues
Cassandra de Alba (Poetry Finalist ’20) co-wrote the new poetry chapbook Cryptids with Aly Pierce, published by Ginger Bug Press.
Keiko Hiromi (Photography Finalist ’13) is among the artists exhibiting in Moved To Act! Demonstrations, Marches, Political Actions, a traveling exhibition co-curated by Marky Kauffmann (Photography Fellow ’17), currently on view at the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center (thru 3/1). See a virtual gallery.
Elizabeth James-Perry (Traditional Arts Fellow ’14) has a solo exhibition, Ripples. Through a Wampanoag Lens. at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, for which she was featured on Open Studio with Jared Bowen. She has been involved in the conversation around changing the Massachusetts state seal, and her research on a rare Native powder horn strap and the hidden costs of colonization will be broadcast in the Hoist/Acknowledge + Listen exhibit at the statehouse, as well as being played before the Massachusetts Legislature.
John J. King (Dramatic Writing Fellow ’19) is a playwright, filmmaker, and musician. Recently his play 7 Minutes was shortlisted for Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries Cycle 3 at the American Shakespeare Center, and was a finalist for the National Playwrights Conference at the O’Neill Theater Center. His web series Home Office received rave reviews from the Boston Globe, and WBUR’s The Artery.
Johnetta Tinker‘s (Drawing & Printmaking Fellow ’20) art has been shown throughout the United States and abroad. Exhibitions include Northeastern University, the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, and University Museum at Texas Southern University.
Barbara Cone says
I would like to see “emerging” artists expanded to include people of all ages. Talent doesn’t have an age or a color.
Marjorie says
I agree with Barbara. Because of my disability I have not been able to practice my artmaking as much as I would have liked for the last 30 years.
I am starting to create art again now, but I am an emerging artist who is much older than what is considered the usual emerging artist’s age. This kind of exclusion is just age discrimination, a problem in many kinds of work, not just in the art world.
People are living much longer now so this attitude should be changed.
Richard Limber says
All decision making is flawed, and should looked at for what it is, a reflection of narrowing tendencies, that mirror both the strengths and insecurities of said “gatekeepers”.
The insecurities are what create all the mediocrity..
In the case of organizations such as the MCC it has been my wish that the people who pull the strings would strive for truly wide open, conceptual, creativity, and move beyond picking jurors that are “highly regarded in their field”, and select some jurors that work outside the various arts industries around us. This would help open up the gates of expression, because the “arts” economic forces often amplify confirmation bias problems in the choices of where money goes.
Richard Limber says
Correction for the above diatribe: “: ….and should be looked at for what it is…”
l hope l paint/sing better than l can write….
My hope is that “gatekeepers” step out of their comfort zones, the arts need to be wide open, or “art” be commodified, digested, and discarded ——and forgotten.
Richard Limber says
Once again, this hard working life of mine has produced another lapse, the above should read:
“….or most “art” will be commodified, digested, discarded,——-and forgotten.”
And the most important question is:
DO WE NEED GATEKEEPERS?