New Bohemia revisited.
written by Julie R. Neidlinger 2 comments link this postOn my old blog, I wrote about New Bohemia. If it weren't for Dustbury.com, I'd not remember what I said at all. I give it a brief mention here, but that's it. I should probably try to find that old post somewhere on my hard drive...
One thing that always drove me nuts about New Bohemia was the lack of a seriously professional email list system. The emails from the North Dakota Council on the Arts drive me crazy, they being massive forwards with glean-able recipient email addresses. The emails for the early New Bohemia list were almost as annoying. It looks as if that has been dealt with at this point.
The other thing that caused me consternation was the lack of a web site. It seemed silly to have not serious web site in this day and age. There is now a web site: New Bohemia, North Dakota.
I'm not sure I'm Bohemian enough, though technically speaking, I have the genetics.
I have a stack of notes from a recent arts/community conference in Langdon (one of the rare moments I ventured out of the house as an "artist" and took part in such a thing) and as I page through them, I realize I'm not a joiner. I'm not involved in any of the arts groups, clubs, organizations or communities in this state. I just don't take part. I don't try to connect to any artists around me any more, nor do I offer to teach others about art. I don't want to take part in excessive conferences or conversations or dialogs or discussions or anything that floats theories and possibilities. I don't want to be mayored-over in the imaginary town of New Bohemia. I don't want to haul around art to set up for mildly interested looky-loos. I don't want to "celebrate" the arts. I don't want to be part of a hierarchy. Total loss of any interest whatsoever.
Jaded? Bitter? Lazy? Uncooperative? Mildly misanthropic? Deaf to all the 'what-ifs?'
I don't know. I've learned that if you express interest in something and show that you can help, eventually, you...end up doing all of the work. And I've long since stopped seeing North Dakota as the place or market where I will sell or make money off of my art.
My concern is that by making art so special, it will never become every-day. I will likely work on that theory more in the future, but suffice it to say that if something is up on a pedestal, people get tired of looking up all the time and pretty soon turn back to what's directly around them. Phrases like "New Bohemia" and "artist colony" scare or annoy the crap out of some people while bringing in their exact opposites via tourism. The decision comes as to whether art becomes a sort of festival or irregularity, or if it becomes every-day and nonthreatening enough that it can be found next to the baking soda (though I can't imagine why it would be put there).
Despite my virulent distaste for wildlife art, I'd like art to become less "extra" and "special", and more every-day. I'm undecided as to if I think New Bohemia is proposing that or not.
Meanwhile, I'm going to hole up in my studio and not talk to anyone.
Labels: art, north dakota
Copyright (c) Julie R. Neidlinger 10/09/2007 12:01:00 AM
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2 Comments:
I think it's important to make art special and out of the ordinary so that people will want to buy not only it, but buy into it. Making art common would be like the junk you buy at Walmart -- made in China or something.
By 
, at
October 09, 2007 12:46 AM
That's an interesting possibility. Kind of the exclusive "country club" draw, where people want in on something uncommon.
On the other hand, I think of how, when things are tight financially, the purchases that are considered extra or unnecessary are the first cut from the budget, whereas people still buy the "baking soda." I'd rather see art thought of as necessary. Kind of a Northern Renaissance line of thinking, where every home would just have some original art.
