if i don’t do it…
…someone else should.
I’ve toyed with the idea of taking a grant writing course more than once over the years. I’ve had, and heard, some really good ideas that I would love to see in action. Last night, H and I were sharing a smoke and rambling on about something that led to art. I love the idea of public art, but I feel like most of it is really, really poorly executed. I appreciate it all regardless, on principle really, but… I don’t know, there’s just an ambiguous “but” when I think about it. Like: but, it does make me a little sad that art money funds crappy stuff; but, people don’t always enjoy what the city approves; but, I wish there was more diversity/uniqueness in public pieces, etc, etc. So, maybe someday I’ll take a grant writing course and spend a long time writing letters and getting rejected while trying to sell this idea:
Create a public art space — a concrete wall, essentially — where artists would be allowed to use whatever medium they want (within some reason, as I imagine this would be outdoors so painting with, uhm, biological mediums might not work) to create a mural .
We talked about the pros and cons of having this wall be an open, free wall that could be painted (or whatevered) at any time of day or night, versus having some sort of schedule or *shudder* process involved in getting art up on the wall. My thoughts on this were initially inspired by my friend Jill Rothenberger and her senior project at UW which ended up gathering a crosscut of the city’s graffiti (and other) artists. I loved her, that wall and what she did. And I would love to get the city to open up a little more, so of course I veer toward the idea of saying to Seattle: ‘your wall, do what you want, when you want.’ But I do realize there’s a certain level of chaos inherent in that model. We never really resolved this, but we came up with other ideas and thoughts. A webcam and site, contests, hold small events in front of it, would it fit by the park in Eastlake under I-5? etc, etc.
So if I ever take a grant writing course, I guess that’s what I’ll try to fund.
[Ed. Note: The original article about the wall is here: Art or graffiti? City will decide (can you believe that headline?)]
