[spectre] The artist as administrator

[Aliette Guibert]

I do not approve that: regarding the way of the actual word it could be an
introducing power and a hierarchy in art and between the artists.

Administrate is administrate, curate is curate, could it be done with talent
or a singular sensibility, and could it be make by artists sometimes... But
it remains a question of ethics (on lobbies on net artists). You will miss
the critical mass.

That is my first radical opinion but unstable position (it depends at
last;-).

Regards



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Andreas Broeckmann" <abroeck at transmediale.de>
To: <spectre at mikrolisten.de>
Sent: Monday, May 31, 2004 10:18 AM
Subject: [spectre] The artist as administrator


> Date:         Thu, 27 May 2004 23:33:39 +0100
> From: anya lewin <anya.lewin at BTINTERNET.COM>
> Subject: The artist as administrator
> To: NEW-MEDIA-CURATING at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
>
>
>
> Dear Crumb,
>
> This not exactly about new media curating but is about arts administration
> which relates  . . . I hope you don't mind that I send this to the list.
>
> Anya
>
> I am forwarding a letter from my friend Redas Dirzys. He is an artist and
> the head of an art school for 12 to 18 year olds in Lithuania. The school
is
> now under threat of closure under the false pretence of reorganization.
>
> In April of 2003 Steven Eastwood and I visited the school for 5 days. It
was
> an amazing experience and resulted in a 27 minute film called Different
> Systems of Chaos. I have made a website where people can download the film
> (its in 3 parts but you still need a fast connection) in case you are
> interested in getting more of a feeling for the school. The address is
> http://www.yesandnu.com/Alytus.html.
>
> Sincerely,
> anya
>
> Here is the letter from Redas:
>
> Dear People of the World,
>
> My name is Redas Dirzys and I am an artist, and the head of the Art School
> in the small town of Alytus of the small country Lithuania. First, I want
to
> announce worldwide more than just the fact of attempts of the local
> authorities to close the art school. The major thing I want to call your
> attention to is the license, arrogance and cynicism of the functionaries,
> that you're noticing around yourself too, and the mechanisms they are
using
> to highlight their power. This is not a fear of losing my job; please
don't
> treat it as a desperate attempt to ask for a support of the school.
>
> The story is very simple: local authorities decided to close perfectly
> functioning schools for visual arts and for musical education and to join
> them to the training school for folk crafts. The whole unit they decided
to
> call the Artistic Training Center. The basic thing of the whole
> reorganization is the appearance of the classical bureaucratic pyramid,
all
> under this mechanically made unit, with the main task properly to properly
> administrate these bastard artists.
>
> The official motivations for this step is: better coordination of the
joint
> events of these three former institutions (common participation in city or
> the state or international celebrations and projects) and better
opportunity
> to get bigger money from European foundations. The step is warranted on
the
> thesis that there is not such kind of infrastructure of the State Art
> Schools in the countries of EU, even they are trying to prove that the EU
> officials are insisting not to support this kind of schools from the state
> money and the mostly funny argument is: there is not such a kind of
schools
> in Denmark (Danish educational system is the standard for the Lithuanian
> educational system to be turned into. 10 years ago Danish experts were the
> first to came to Lithuania with the money of European foundations to
ensure
> the way of Danish educational system to be taken as an example).
>
> The methods: the chief of city educational department issued the order for
> the heads of the schools to prepare the documentation for the
reorganization
> of their institutions to look as they are asking for those themselves. I
> gave everything to the press what already means in this former soviet
> country that I have no chance to win that fight (anyway I've already
refused
> from the same amount of salary in a new planned Artistic Training Center).
> So, I am turning all that activity to a biggest social performance I ever
> did - to play the game till the end with the full spread of imagination.
>
> I am inviting everybody to react to the fact in the way they find out
> convenient for themselves by writing the letters from abroad - to let the
> authorities of the small city of the small country to be seen from a wider
> prospective, or to propose them some much spectacular way to deal with the
> artistic education. Anyway they are asking now for another alternative
ways
> what to do with the artistic education?
>
> Please use the following email addresses to send the letters: info at ana.lt
> and saule at ana.lt . The addresses are from the local main daily of Alytus
> city and for a whole south Lithuanian region Alytaus Naujienos (Alytus
News)
> - the most influential for the region who have also kindly agreed to work
> for that.
>
> Sincerely,
> Redas Dirzys
> redas_dirzys at yahoo.com
> The head of Alytus Art School (still)
>
>
>
>
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