WE BROUGHT ART TO A COMMUNITY THAT LACKED IT?

[rmd]

BROUGHT ART TO A COMMUNITY THAT LACKED IT

Oh, bitch, IT IS ON. I'm sorry, have you MET Somerville?

I am *not* going to stir up shit about this in the actual dslj post because Ron is right - it is a distraction from the main point, which appears to be "sexism, street harassment, and rape culture are alive and well", but oh man, did that line ever get my blood pressure up.

Comments

[cz_unit]

Somerville has art? Wait, you guys junked the DAMN HUGE ELK THAT TOLD ME WHERE FANDOM HOUSE WAS! What kind of art is left there?

Ok, maybe the one way street sign with two arrows or the STOP sign with the blinking green light under it would qualify as art....

:-)

C
(More to the point, it sounds like this person had a REALLY bad experience in the park. WTF?)

[rmd.livejournal.com]

I lament the loss of that elk on a regular basis. I assume the Elk's club took it back or something.

On the intersection between public art and phones... The city has been doing some amusing things with the remnants of dead payphone installations. here's one Rachel Mello did (http://www.rachelmello.com/media/installation/this-is-a-long-distance-call/). There's another one (http://www.somervilleartscouncil.org/phone/hutchison) down the street that I really like, too.

[i-leonardo.livejournal.com]

the elk moved up to rt 128 ! if you're nostalgic, it's easy to see again.

[clauclauclaudia]

!!!! I did not know this!

[rmd.livejournal.com]

WHAT? WHERE?

[totient]

128 in wakefield.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

Oh! I didn't realize it was the same Elk. I figured there was, you know, some kind of standard elk statue that the Elks ordered or something. YAY ELK! I will wave to it when I drive by, from now on.

[mangosteen]

To give the benefit of the doubt, they could be defining 'community' in a way where that was true, but I have no idea what that is.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

Also, that park is not an epicenter of Somerville arts. But still. Flames, on the side of my face.

[irilyth]

Yeah, I wondered about that too -- "community" is pretty vague, maybe they meant "the community of people who like to see plays performed in public parks", and not "the City of Somerville".

Or, "lack" -- not as in "zero", but as in "not enough".

Still, I definitely get that the comment would be annoying. Poor choice of words for sure, perhaps ignorance about other theater in Somerville. But probably not malice or deliberate insult.

[lifecollage.livejournal.com]

Thank you - I wish the other person who did bring that up had showed the same restraint.

For my part, I'll just say that I was so angry at what had happened and how little support they'd gotten from a city government that theoretically supports the arts that I either didn't read or didn't notice that phrase.

But on your point - I wonder more than ever if this is a student/resident divide? Or age = community, as Mangosteen poses? I want to know how long she's been here, and how tied in to the local arts scene she was before she started staging shows? *sigh*

Thank you for making a post where I can make this comment, too.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

Yeah - that's part of why I brought up other outdoor performances as a contrast. I'm *really* surprised at the level of not-give-a-fuck they say the city had for them.

If they try another outdoor performances as they suggested, I wonder if they'll reach out to existing arts groups and try and, say, recruit chicks from T@F who might want to help or at least hang out and be bouncers. Or, you know, ask folks who've got experience for pointers on engaging with the city.

[clauclauclaudia]

I'm not sure they're locals at all. Other productions have been at the Boston Playwrights' Theatre. http://www.maidenphoenix.org/about

Not that that means they shouldn't have police and community support, but it does mean that I suspect there was genuine ignorance behind that particular phrase.

EDIT: Oh, I see she said she's lived here four years.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

I had not previously noticed the "lacking in arts" line, either, also because I was too upset by the rest of the post. I have to admit, though, having now noticed it, it makes me wonder whether some of the other things in the post are similarly hyperbolic. It's just such ab absurd statement. :/

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

It's an absurd statement, but I don't think it's grounds for deciding that the harassment they experienced couldn't've been so bad as all that... I think doing so plays into the "people who claim to have been sexually harassed or assaulted have to be perfect or they're not credible" idea that weaves poisonously through our culture.

I believe the report of harassment. I also think that was a fucking asinine statement.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

That's a fair point. Oddly (or not?) I wasn't actually thinking of the harassment as an "other thing" I was questioning, but rather the descriptions of complete lack of support from the City. I never thought the harassment didn't happen as stated because it seemed so very normal. :/

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Iggh, I know. I was reading the account and going through a bingo of "had an experience like that, saw someone have an experience like that, had a friend describe an experience like that..."

I should probably tamp down my native cynicism towards city and town governments and not believe so readily that Somerville was so unresponsive. (But I can believe it.)

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

I don't know all the details, but the scuttlebutt is that Somerville has been pinched for revenue since the recession began, and it's not a particularly well-off town even in the best of times. Conversely, really fixing the problem would require having a cop there whenever anyone in the company was there, which is not at all cheap. And it's not clear exactly how the cops could manage it, if as the city said, it's a public park and every member of the public has the right to walk or sit anywhere in it. I suspect that there is some sort of procedure that lets some part of the park be dedicated to the production and the public excluded from it, but I've no idea what it is, it may require action by the City Council. How have other groups managed productions in the park?

[tb]

Poor choice of words fer sure. Thanks for recognizing the huge derail potential and not adding to it there. I also have to give kudos to Ron for shutting it down.