The Urban Demographics of Art

I can't see the forest through the trees.

I am in The East Village Art's District in downtown Long Beach, California, founded by Phil Appleby in the 80's. The concept of the district in theory is great; a community - an actual "district" legally speaking, that supports, promotes, encourages and unites artists in a close knit community - about 30 blocks to be exact -. Free from restriction of creative expression, free from council limitations, and free from......... somehow...anyone interested in BUYING art.

Don't get me wrong. The occasional layaway-bargain-negotiation of "I'll make payment number two on this $100 piece next week", can be spotted going down in a few highly polished studios; but for the most part, it's crickets. And THAT is a shame. The artistic talent here is insane and to know that ANY one exhibiting within a two mile radius, works a day job, is absurd. I see and hear of the same challenges riding every moderate art community in America and observation of this frustrating factor has led me to support my own theory of what I like to call, "Demographics Destroy". And they DO! An additional problem with the above mentioned scenario "purchase", is that the buyer being referred to, is also usually another local artist, living in one of twenty lofts around the way and looking to derive a little inspiration for their rent money. And so the breakdown of my theory begins:

The phrase "art community", has come to implicate a town (usually seaside or mountain), that serves as a great tourist attraction, chuck full of galleries and weekend festivals lined with the exact same genre of work on every corner, as implied through that region's demographic. Wealthier demographics swallow fine art and contemporary abstract at nausium. Likewise, moderate to lesser earning populations, pump out low brow, mixed media and cutting edge illustration like it's going out of style. It 's cutting edge though. Let's not confuse that through our over kill, with anything remotely capable yet of going out of style. But is DOES! The saying "too much of a good thing", applies to my theory in that recent attempts to segregate artists and buyers into their proper "demographic", is destroying the entire purpose. "Location is everything" SHOULD not apply to creative expression.

Ahhhh, the "comfort zone". Like attracts like because of it. Starving artists market their work to the community in which they live - which is also starving - and occasionally to an outside starving community where starving vacationers can afford (barely and they certainly don't have extra cash to buy art) to frequent, all the while producing artwork that embodies and expresses images of all of this. It appeals to the demographic from which it came and is priced to sell in that demographic. Inspiration is not outside of the box and money, not inside of it. The comfort zone is as it should be and marketing outside of that would be very, very, well...uncomfortable.

Not only do high brow artists market their work to high brow communities, they custom create it for that buyer. A question within my theory is, "When did the word inspiration begin to indicate that which you see everyday?" High end tourists frequent high end communities and buy the art that is available to them there. Thus, no one has been forced to leave their demographic and risk becoming... uncomfortable.

Even the poor adventurous artist who risks it all to bring fine art to an unsuspecting pop culture area will fail based on the theory, but ONLY because of failed marketing!! Ask Linda McKracken of the recently re-located McKracken Vision Gallery. Being a needle in a haystack was not enough to keep her afloat and as the ship went down, she reached as high as she could within her district for some collaborative outside marketing efforts which upon request alone seemed to make everyone very, very...uncomfortable. As a self-proclaimed marketing moron, I will not pretend that I know better than the geniuses who have arranged the system into what it is, but I will say this:

If the very premise of creating and buying art is to serve us all with the inspiration we need to elicit new thinking, what better means of introduction to new thinking is there than through new territory? There must be SOME marketing guru out there who can send up a smoke signal leading us to a space in time where high end buyers can fearlessly experience and then decide for themselves whether a subscription to Juxtapoz is in order or not. Like wise to a reality in which an artist like Linda can expect to find art COLLECTORS whom have sought her out through proper marketing REGARDLESS of where she resides. I don't believe for a second, that anyone passionate enough about indulging their senses through exchange of money for art, would ever be so narrow minded as to not try everything on their plate. I'm just saying they need something new to sink their teeth into.

Stephanie Hills