"How are you doing during quarantine? It’s the question we are all asking each other over seemingly endless Zoom calls. In this episode we gather a few artist friends to talk about what life is like on their side of the screen, how their studio practice has changed (if at all), and the shifting thoughts around local arts organizations.In a matter of weeks, Zoom has gone from being a corporate tool for virtual conference rooms to a verb describing our main way of connecting, getting work done, and even managing university and elementary school classrooms. We are all having a range of experiences with this platform - from gratitude to empty dread, sometimes in the space of the same call. Part of our conversation reflects on the nature of communicating, teaching, and staying connected over this now-ubiquitous platform.Art practices have shifted and our guests share the ways quarantine has affected the way they are making work - from hardly noticing the change to moving out of a graduate studio and working on the living room floor. Many artists already work in solitary spaces, but it’s the mechanisms (the institutions and community organizations) that provide those spaces that are having the most impact on where and how artists practices are affected.Lastly, we talk about the meaning of organizations and community in the lives of artists. What do they mean, how are we reflecting on them now that we are separated from the physical. Our group just launched a space in the fall, and had to close it right after our first exhibition and artist member gathering. Does not having a space mean the organization itself ceases to be important? Can artists keep helping locally? This week our guests are artists Dana Buzzee, Michael Boonstra, and Jill Baker.Dana Buzzee’s art creates offerings of resistance and pleasure as methods for revisioning deviance through an autobiographical exploration of queer-femme identity. Buzzee’s artistic outputs function as rituals, transforming spaces for empowered moments of dominance and submission, active and informed consent culture, and a profound understanding of power and control. Buzzee’s work has been exhibited extensively within Calgary, as well as throughout Canada. Their art has also been included in several international exhibitions in Finland, Germany, Iceland, and the USA. Currently, Buzzee is studying towards an MFA at The University of Oregon. Michael Boonstra's creative practice shifts between drawing, photography, installation, and sculpture. He is a founding member of Gray Space, a group of Oregon artists based in the Corvallis, Eugene and Roseburg areas who came together in 2016 to develop site-based projects that foster connections between artists, places, histories, and communities. Recent awards include a Career Opportunity Grant from the Oregon Arts Commission, project funding from the Ford Family Foundation, and Ford Family Foundation sponsored residencies at Playa and the Djerassi Resident Artist Program. Boonstra received his BFA from the University of Michigan and his MFA from the University of Oregon and currently teaches at Oregon State University.  Jill Baker is a visual artist and educator based in Corvallis, Oregon whose work employs drawing, performance, and video to document interactions with landscape and the natural world. These interactions and performances, often raw and improvised on site, rely on chance and natural elements for mark making and image. Recent works explore soundscape, gesture, and intimate relationships with earth and environment. She has shown her work in galleries, museums, and screening venues across the US.Technical note: This podcast session was recording using Zoom, and we experience some microphone issues, which affects the sound quality. Rest assured it’s not you, it’s us. If you enjoy this podcast you can help support what we do by joining us at Patreon.com/bofopodcast.

Bottleracks & Fountains

Artists in Place, Zoom Culture, and the Meaning of Art Orgs on Community

We’re back! Welcome to Season 2. Our last episode aired in May of last year, since then a lot has happened.You might recall our debating over organizational structures, whether or not to go nonprofit, what to do about the lack of money for the arts as a whole, the systemic problems and the essential need as artists to take care of each other and throw the parties we want to go to.The art world, along with everyone else, is now in a different kind of crisis because of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). What is an appropriate way to proceed for a small arts organization like us? As ever, we are using ourselves as a case study to discuss these looming conundrums of an ever-evolving situation.Since you last heard from us we applied for and received a sizable seed grant from the W.L.S. Spencer Foundation to open a brick and mortar art space in downtown Eugene, which we named ANTI-AESTHETIC. We had our first show Dec 14th-Feb 15th, with plans for extensive programming moving forward, as well as an artist member fundraiser sale and exhibition. That is now on hold while we figure out what we can bring online, and what is better postponed indefinitely (scary words for all of us in this industry). Oh, and we have artist members!So we opened a space and very soon closed it. It’s been a rollercoaster. In this episode, we talk a little bit about our structure and our priorities: pay everyone according to W.A.G.E. (wageforwork.com) standards, artist members don’t pay fees, support artists first of all. We’re trying out a work group system where members can help out based on their own interests as an alternative way to approach value and exchange. Perhaps now more than ever, we need community. That’s why we want to maintain mutual artist support by doing things like happy hour on Zoom.  As we stand at this edge of the unknown, we are asking ourselves whether it is ethical to push forward with online programming when people’s lives are at risk, many have lost their jobs, kids are stuck at home, and so on? On the other hand, can this unprecedented situation prompt us to do things differently, and to change our world now that we don’t have the illusion of stability? Is a different future possible?What art forms are going to come out of this period, are we entering another Dada moment? How will art making be impacted following social distancing measures, not to mention the loss of lives not only due to the virus itself but inadequate responses by governments around the world? We have more questions than answers, that’s for sure.Stay tuned. Links:http://wageforwork.comhttp://patreon.com/bofopodcast

Opening an Art Space Just in Time for Quarantine

We don’t have any money, but we want art and culture. What do we do? In Episode 10 of Bottleracks & Fountains, Courtney and Agnese dig into how arts organizations are funded and structured, as always, relying on our own experiences, and with help from some insightful writers. We talk about art-washing and farming creativity, and what we can do about systemic issues on a small scale.

Art's Mission is Culture-Critical

This might get snarky. In this episode we talk to artist and writer Vicki Amorose about the importance of art writing and criticism; who writes it, what does it mean, who is it for, where is it going, and what can it do for small arts communities?

Hey! Let's Write About Some Art! With Vicki Amorose

Does the community want and need contemporary art? And how do you build an audience? Julia Oldham goes back home to Frederick, MD, and talks to Louise Kennelly - Executive Director of Frederick Arts Council - about big public art projects, local successes, and the possibilities for collaborations between the arts and sciences. They talked as Frederick Arts Council was on the cusp of unveiling their new public art master plan.

Building an Audience and Daring to Go Big

Rural outposts may be the most impactful, interesting, and subversive places to make art. In this episode we talk to Stacey Ray, Programs and Communications Manager at Lane Arts Council in Eugene, Oregon. Her passion however - art in rural spaces - is fueled by her upbringing in a small town in Montana. In this episode we talk about engaging with communities, the freedom that comes from working outside urban art center expectations, and her graduate thesis research on experimental contemporary art practice in rural places.

Exploring the rural & putting the urban in its place

No guest this episode, just cocktails and conversation. Join us as we dive into a couple of texts that describe contemporary art in small towns from different vantage points. We get dirty and technical about stats on email lists, ponder speculative investing in art and the academy as a breeding ground for the market, and recount deep personal experiences with Vanilla Ice.

Small town context, big city gallery models, & 1000 true fans

In Bottleracks & Fountains episode 5 we sit down with Jam Jessie Allison, Maddison Colvin, Andrew Douglas Campbell, and JoJo Ruby, of Tropical Contemporary, to talk about life after grad school, and what it means to be part of a collective that puts on exhibitions and art events right here in Eugene, OR.

Starting a collective, Staying Nimble, and Drawing Drag Queens with Tropical Contemporary

What is it like to jump feet first into a successful community arts organization, honoring tried-and-true programming while trying to bring in something new and challenge expectations in a way that isn’t alienating? [Sandee McGee][1] is an artist and Gallery Director at the [Umpqua Valley Arts Association][2] in Roseburg in southern Oregon. She talked to us about creating a space where community arts and more traditional art practices can cohabit with challenging contemporary work, and how they might benefit from each other.

Community, Context, and Educating Audiences with Sandee McGee

In Episode 3 of Bottleracks & Fountains, ECA’s Julia Oldham is at a residency at The Blue House in Dayton, Ohio, and interviews Nicholaus Arnold and Ashley Jonas about their project. After the interview, we discuss amongst ourselves and respond to the topics that were brought up. We relate Nick and Ashley’s insights to our own experiences and our situation in Eugene, and talk about the residency Julia runs out of her own house: Opossum House.

DIY Spaces, Economy, and Residencies with The Blue House

In this episode we talk to Director of Cultural Services, City of Eugene, **Isaac Marquez**, about his journey of becoming director of the city's cultural programming by way of his position as Public Art Manager, the staging of a comprehensive visual arts festival, and the contentions of the art community of a small city. Pro tips? Isaac has them. Other topics include the particularities of public art, how to be a lucrative artist by selling t-shirts and promoting each other, cover bands, and a fiendishly genius move by artist Rebecca Morgan involving a jug and a state fair.

On Persistence, Patience & Getting it Done with Isaac Marquez

In this inaugural episode we introduce ourselves, and talk about our personal experiences and thoughts on making art in big cities and small towns. We talk about the various conversations around contemporary art in places like New York in comparison to towns like Eugene, and the burden and blessing of working in a context where the general public isn’t necessarily keyed in to the discourse.

Big City vs Small Town

A podcast about what it means to make contemporary art and culture happen in a small town. The hustle. The sweat. The DIY tips. An @anti_aesthetic project. Episodes every other week.

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Bottleracks & Fountains

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