Art Savvy in Gloucester
By Keith Powers
Friday, September 8, 2006
http://toa.hiasys.com/lynnfield/artsLifestyle/view.bg?articleid=571915&format=&page=1
Art has always been about more than pictures and performance.
"What the arts do is to help build communities, in many ways," says Dan Hunter, executive director of Massachusetts Advocates for the Arts, Sciences and Humanities (MAASH), an advocacy group for nonprofit arts organizations in the state. He’s speaking in general terms, but he’s describing perfectly what seARTS, a Gloucester-based organization, has been doing for the past six years.
The numbers are staggering. Massachusetts has more nonprofit arts organizations per capita than any other state. More than a quarter of a million people work in the "creative economy"-more than in software or health care. And more than $7 billion flows into the state from "cultural tourism."
"It’s an economy of ideas here," Hunter says. "If anyone thinks that Massachusetts is going back to making widgets, they’re crazy."
Given these facts, why is it so hard to raise money to support the arts? Organizations like seARTS are trying to answer that question. The group was formed as a response to an initiative by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and spearheaded by Gloucester sculptor Jo-Ann Castano. It has a broad set of goals, but simply put, wants to brings artists, businesses, and cultural organizations together both to embrace the vigorous artistic tradition on Cape Ann, and to encourage future work that will benefit them all.
Cape Ann’s seARTS can already count many successes. Last month’s New Arts Festival, led by dancer/choreographer Sarah Slifer, brought many artists and their groundbreaking work to untraditional venues like the YCMA, the Cape Pond Ice factory and Fort Park. Its "Artists on Atists" series pairs filmmakers, visual artists, actors, writers and musicians in engaging dialogues.
Its "Partner with an Artist" series brings artists and businesses together in a way that stretches the boundaries of how both think about the creative process and public exposure. And seARTS has done much work to revitalize the Rocky Neck Arts Colony, America’s oldest such community that has not been given the recognition and financial support it deserves.
"We’ve got a long way to go," says Susan Erony, executive director of seARTS. "It’s a real uphill battle here. There have been many attempts in Gloucester to form or buy an arts center. Gloucester is a great place to work"-Erony is a visual artist herself-"but it’s tough. The support systems are not in place."
The group is a coalition of about 160 artists, businesses and organizations, investigating ways, as Erony puts it, "to bring the community to the arts and vice versa. Especially with contemporary art. There is no institution that tells people what art looks like today. There isn’t a translator between contemporary art and the community. New artists are doing things in ways that are not at all like the ways things have been done before, and that has to be exposed to the public."
Erony was a curator at the Cape Ann Historical Museum, and says "then I began to realize how influential Cape Ann was artistically during the years from 1850 to 1950. But that history isn’t even taught here now." She will address that problem, with a series of three Tuesday evening lectures at the West End Theatre beginning Sept. 12 (visit www.searts.org for details).
"There was really groundbreaking work being done here, and those conditions should be able to be recreated. When people are afraid of contemporary art, they miss the connection to the history of art. One builds on the other."
Castano, who calls seARTS "my baby," has a long history of supporting the arts through advocacy, grant writing and outreach.
"It’s really difficult work," she says, "but I guess it’s in my nature. My family has a tradition of being in the arts, and I was brought up in that kind of environment where it was a priority.
"Artists are looked on as kind of a frill, but they are essential to the community. What we need here in Gloucester is a permanent home, with an exhibition space, and a place where artists can come and work and discuss things. We’ve broken down a lot of barriers here, we’ve established a network where the artists and the community can talk to each other, and we’ve established a presence on the Internet. We’ve reached out to artists, and to businesses, but now we have to do a better job of reaching out to organizations." Castano admits the prime focus has been in Gloucester, but says "artists and organizations all over Cape Ann are what we are interested in.
"We need to work together. Arts groups have to share resources and leverage their funding. We’ve accomplished a lot, but there is much more work to do."
Dan Hunter gives the final word on the importance of the arts.
"Of course it’s an economic development tool, even if you don’t think of the arts that way. Just look at Lowell, or North Adams, or New Bedford, where artistic initiatives have revitalized downtown communities. And of course there’s education, which arts organizations have taken upon themselves. But there’s also the intangible aspect: think about it, when someone visits you from out of town, you take them to a concert, or to a museum, or some other cultural organization. That’s what makes you proud to be a citizen somewhere."
Interested
Gloucester artist and seARTS Executive Director Susan Erony will give a three-part lecture on the history and of Cape Ann Arts and its connection to the contemporary arts community. The first talk will be held on Tuesday, 7 p.m. Sept. 12 at the West End Theater. The second lecture will be Sept. 19, and the third, Sept. 26. For more information see www.seArts.org.
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