With all of these things going on the idea of community has been floating on the top of my brain, now more than ever. Right before most of these things went down, I curated a show at Blankspace called Double Exposure that highlights just a few of the great artists who do double duty as amazing gallery owners, curators and administrators. The idea behind the show was to really highlight them as working artists and to also spotlight the great spaces they are working with.
As anyone who has met me knows, I believe strongly in supporting the local arts community, my feeling about it is that when one of us does well, we all do well.
So it gave me great pleasure to be able to put a show like Double Exposure together and to know that it will continue on as a multi-part show in 2009 at Rowan Morrison and possibly 2010 at another venue.
Double Exposure
Exhibition runs Oct. 25 - Nov. 17
Sunday Tea: Nov 16, 3-5pm
Kevin Chen, Jen Elia, Narangkar Glover, Peter Glover, Eleanor Harwood, Daniel Healey, Carrie Lederer, Michelle Mansour, Nicole Neditch, Margaret Tedesco
go to blankspacegallery.com for more info and links to all of their venues.
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It made me very happy to see how quickly the Oakland art scene mobilized a couple of weeks ago when the City Council was threatening to eliminate the arts grants funding already promised for the 08/09 fiscal year, as well as putting the entire Cultural Arts and Marketing dept on the chopping block. Two of the Council members met separately and came up with this plan themselves the Thursday night before the monthly meeting the following Tuesday. Essentially giving the other Council members and the public 4 days notice. In those 4 days we were able to come together for a meeting of the minds, gather over 300 ipetition signatures, send over 2000 emails and phone calls to the council members and to show up enmass at the Council meeting with over 300 people, 200 of which went on to take their speaker card minute at the podium. ( I am happy to report these efforts resulted in success with keeping the grants for this fiscal year and within the Cultural Arts dept.-the dept was saved and instead of laying off everyone or even 2 people, jobs were saved and people made very selfless sacrifices by opting to split one full time position into 2 part-time positions).
(images of the City Council meeting at City Hall)
This mobilization, not only sent a very strong and clear message to the Council about the importance of the arts in Oakland, it also , I think, showed the members of the community that working together for a greater cause, actually works. This has always been the underlying belief that the Art Murmur was built on. I hope members of the greater community walk away with this burned in their minds.
Riding on this heartwarming show of support, this past First Friday, I picked-up an EastBay Express and to my pleaseure and surprise there was a full page advertising First Friday, paid for by EastBay Express, pretty awesome show of support!!!..if this was not enough they have gone on to create this amazing pledge of support for people to spend $100 shopping at locally owned establishments this holiday season. By pledging your support of the local economy you could win $1000 in goodies. I am so happy to see a local paper ( who for those who do not know the EastBay Express was recently bought back by a group of employees, so it truely is a locally owned and operated weekly again, so support them when you can) showing so much support for the local economy. EBExpress has even gotten other weekly's around the country to create their own local shopping pledges...my heart is warm and fuzzy right now just thinking about it.
Well, I have so much more to say about the idea of community, but will wrap up with this: I think the Presidential election and the City Council meeting both had a great impact on the national and local levels to re-energize people and help re-awaken the idea that your small contribution can make a big difference.
So support small business and shop local.
-k
Here is the info, with great economic statistics:
East Bay Express readers,
by pledging to spend $100 of your shopping dollars at locally-owned stores, you will have a potential $58.8 million dollar impact on our community, an estimated $8.75 million dollars more than if it was spent at a non-local big box retailer. YOU can help the local economy this Holiday Season.
E-mail "I PLEDGE" to eLerts@EastBayExpress.com and the Express will automatically enter you to win $1000 in gift certificates from independent locally owned merchants and restaurants.
MAKE THE PLEDGE!************************************************************
PS: Please remember to personally thank Ignacio De La Fuente (district 5) and Jean Quan (district 4) for their lack of support next time they are up for re-election by voting them out of office...
PSS: I am still new to blogging and have not figured out how to get comments to show up on the blog, so if anyone has any suggestions or can walk me through it, please email me at info@blankspacegallery.com
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COMMUNITY NOTES:
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John Casey has a great book out, published by Rowan Morrison, the book is available through both John and Rowan Morrison gallery.
I (kerri) have some new drawings up at the Compound Gallery in their artist of the month gallery.
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blankspacegallery.com
6608 san pablo ave
oakland, ca 94608
galelry hours: sat-mon 12-5pm, first fridays 7-10pm
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