Let’s get growing (continued)

Dan Ho, founder and publisher of Rescue Magazine:

I think if you really want to support an arts community you need to somehow support the artwork to be bought. I think Portland is already a great place for artists to come and do their thing. We really tolerate and enjoy self-expression. I think the artist is plenty supported in that regard; I don’t think there really is a crisis or an issue in the creation part. I think there is a problem with the selling part of it.

I know that as well attended as these First Friday Art Walks are, very few pieces of the art move. I think that really in order for it to be vibrant, this stuff has got to move somewhere, we’ve got to encourage people to buy it. The quality of arts here in Portland is so high and the price points are so low that there isn’t any goddamn reason why people aren’t buying these things other than just apathy. I think some money really ought to be spent on selling the story of the Maine artist, because there’s plenty of it. Maybe just earmark some of it to bring the art to the people, sort of a gallery on wheels, where the same artists who show here in Portland get to Manhattan at a street fair where the real buyers are. I think this money can be spent to get the cake and to eat it, too.

Susan Danley, curator of contemporary art, Portland Museum of Art:

Whatever the outcome is it should be a successful one, I don’t want to see the money too diluted. I see this as seed money rather than money that could be used to implement some wide-ranging and terribly effective program. I find that other artist communities that remain really vibrant do so because there’s an ongoing exhibition and performance space that grows out of it that keeps the public aware of these artists. I think in Portland, while we have a number of small, private galleries, it would really behoove us to have a large exhibition space that could accommodate both performing arts and the visual arts. I’m thinking of something along the lines of MASS MoCA [in North Adams, Massachusetts].

Although we’re the biggest museum in town, because we have to program on so many levels, it’s hard for us to just focus on contemporary art. It would be nice to have something here in Maine that could fill that niche. Given the complex nature of contemporary art that involves installation art and video and so forth, we don’t really have the best facility. I think it would be really important for Portland to find something like that. To have the kind of impact that you want the arts to have, it has to be on a much more public and recognizable basis. Helping an artist write his resume isn’t going to get at the same kind of public awareness.

Tanja Hollander, photographer/artist in Auburn, honcho-type at the Bakery Studios in Portland:

Work spaces — I think that’s what Portland needs the most. My studios are still in Portland, but I had to move to Auburn in November because I couldn’t afford to live in Portland anymore. And that’s what I think is going to be the downfall of Portland. All the cool creative people are going to move out. I don’t need a place to print out a resume, I need a place to live and work. There are a lot of great buildings in town — unfortunately they’re all going condo. There’s great buildings in Bayside — the Nissen building.

I can’t think of anything else that is as important as a place to work. If you’re talking about what artists need, that’s one thing they need. I would make the studios affordable and some of them condos that you could buy. And not necessarily live/work spaces. I’m getting to the point where I don’t want to do work in my home. I don’t know any lawyer who lives in their office. Both living and working spaces [are needed], but not necessarily combined. When you’re in your twenties and you just graduated college, that’s great, you want to be immersed in [your art]. But as I start to get older, now it’s a job for me. I want my life and my work to be separate.

Greg Parker, painter

The major thing that needs to be addressed is the live/work situation. I think if you’re going to keep artists in Portland you have to be able to help them live and work. There’s been a lot of talk, the city has talked a lot about it, but they’ve never come forward with anything concrete. It might be nice to have some of this money for grants that would help people establish themselves with Web sites or publicity and I suppose it would be a good idea to get artists together to talk about what the needs are there. But I moved to Westbrook about five years ago mostly because there wasn’t the kind of space that I needed [in Portland].

I’ve been working in Portland for more than 30 years and I have moved throughout the whole gentrification process and with each place I’ve been, there’s eventually been a situation where people came in and tore down the building. I basically came to Westbrook, to the Dana Warp Mill, because there wasn’t anywhere else to go. From my point of view it’s the live/work thing that’s very important, you have to have some reason to keep the artists in Portland. From that point of view, none of the other stuff really matters. If you have an arts district that doesn’t have any artists, it’s kind of hard to promote that. Having people working out of town really changes the flavor of things: They’re not living there, they’re just showing there. It has an effect on the [arts] environment.

Richard Lawlor, gayfuninportlandmaine.com, former marketing director of Maine Arts:

I’d like to see some of the things that built Portland up be brought back, like New Year’s Portland the way it used to be. Right now, I think the only strength in the arts district is among galleries. We’ve lost a lot of the edge that made Portland special 10 years ago. New Year’s Portland and the Maine Fabric and Fiber Arts Festival are both gone, the Congress Square series is not funded by the city.

Right now, if you want to explore the arts in Portland, if it’s entertaining arts, you’re stuck with club scenes; there just isn’t any way to expose people to some of the major artists that we have unless you go into a nightclub. So I’d like to see more free events. Increasing free performances is important. Something that would have the best of Portland musicians mixed with the best up-and-coming people. When the Congress Square series was funded by the city, that was incredible. That was three to four shows a week for a 14- to 18-week period, that introduced everyone from the students at the Maine State Ballet to major bands like Babaloo to Portland.

As the age of the residents and the people who come into downtown Portland has been changing you’re seeing more and more of the people who might have come out to a swing dance in Portland 10 years ago now with their kids. It gives them a chance to bring their kids and see something; it becomes an experience for the family.

I personally pity the person who’s going to be handling this money — they’re going to get swamped with requests.