I recently spoke with John Kluth, owner of The Open Space Art Gallery in Kent, Ohio.  He dedicates one section of his gallery to contemporary and ancient Vietnamese art and uses the remaining section of the gallery to display his own work.  Sales are slow, but I admire his effort to involve the community with his gallery.  Kluth even attends local markets to promote his gallery.  "I have decided that Kent needs marmalade with its art," he says.

Kluth’s methods of art-making and art-curating may be unconventional, but there is a need for marmalade.  Citrus preserves can only improve the art world.  What art does the community want? 

Cultural critic, Dave Hickey, told the Frieze Art Fair last October that real value isn’t being created in the art world because undeserving art is overpriced.  When crates arrive, gallerists make up astronomical prices and send invoices to the next people on the waiting list.  Hickey fears gallerists are unwilling to risk money and reputations, and instead, trash an opportunity to support the art-making that will be important centuries later.  Hickey believes the rules for developing value have disappeared.

"You had artists who worked in their studios.  The artists who worked in their studios took their work to galleries.  The art galleries sold this work to members of the community.  When a community had purchased a critical mass of this work, it was presumed that if most of the community bought a critical mass of this work that work had some sort of public virtue and you had a show at a museum.  So that what we’re dealing with for most of the twentieth century is a transformation of objects of delectation into icons of public significance." (Hickey)

Dave Hickey says the value of art is created this way:

1. Artists create works of art.
2. Artists take their works of art to galleries.
3. Galleries show the works of art.
4. People in the community purchase the works of art.
5. Museums notice that people purchase the works of art, and they hold an exhibition.

And as a result of the community valuing the works of art, prices modestly increase.

Hickey continues to say:

"Now, one of the interesting things about this process of going from the artist to the dealer to the community to the museum is that the museum shows did not depend upon the professionalism of the staff.  They depended on the collective taste and wishes and desires of the community.  So when you were looking at the Frank Stella show you were thinking, ‘what is it about these that turns on bond salesmen?’.  You know, you have things to think about." (Hickey)

I agree with Hickey that community-validated art-making is crucial for art to have any "public significance."  Without the community, art can still have significance, but it remains mainly institutional.  Hickey mopes about the state of the art world, but if you can get beyond that, he shares some beautiful ideas with us.  Does the community want the art that is being created today?  How can artists know what the community wants?  If "valuable" creativity comes from community influence, does the same reasoning apply to all creative acts?  Or do you feel creativity is an isolated activity?

You can download an mp3 of Hickey’s lecture here:

"Custodians of Culture: Schoolyard Art: Playing Fair Without the Referee" (October 29, 2007)

If you’re interested, Edward Winkleman’s blog has some more quotes transcribed from Hickey’s lecture.