I may not be the right person to ask about New York City. I've been known to have personal conundrums with the lifestyle and overall attitude of artists and the culture of arts there in general. I realize that much of this is due to the blatant overabundance of people there making art, as well as a living by a wide multitude of crafts and skills, and because of this, there are some people in the city's art scene that are catering to this fact. The key to this is one magic word that'll get any New York City artist to perk up their ear and stop talking about themselves for just a few seconds, and that word is "Warehouse."
There's a million warehouses in New York, and they all have the capability to serve a mass population of people in different trades if they end up in the hands of the right people. We met up with a few different warehouse owners and organizers during our short stay who have started their own spaces in the hopes of providing difference walks of artists in New York with a place to practice, create, and market their work.
Tom Beale started the Honey Space studio in 2006 when he saw an ad for a warehouse and got a handful of artists together to go in. The warehouse soon became a collective art studio for which they were able to pay their rent in art, and was only supposed to last for two years but due to the recession was able to last six. Unfortunately, NYC's millionaires need their loft apartments, and though they knew the space wouldn't be permanent, it is still a shame to know that it'll be getting torn down in the coming year.
We met also with Jon Williams, who although is a recent adopter of a space, is no stranger to collective efforts. His studio, which was still in the building stages when we plopped our media station down in his living room, has the space to host eleven people, with rooms that can be used for studios. The house itself runs what they call a "no-no-noise ordinance," meaning you could very well have the loudest sex of your life there and policy says that no one can tell you to shut up.
Perhaps one of the most successful examples of this is the corseted world of the House of Yes, started by Anya Sapozhnikova and Kae Burke who also head the troop of circus-arts goddesses known as the Lady Circus. They use the House of Yes as not only a living space for some, but as an aerial acrobatics workshop space, as well as a performance venue. When they're not teaching anything from aerial silks to stilt walking or putting on elaborate performances, the girls get hired for VIP events all over the city.
I may not be the biggest fan of New York City, but I can recognize and appreciate when certain people are doing it right by focusing on the potential success in group efforts. It's hard to get your foot in the NYC art scene door, but sometimes it's just important to know the benefit of association.
Also, as I wrote this, the cap of an apple juice bottle exploded off at no less than a zillion miles an hour at Zelde's chin. Let's all pray for a speedy recovery, yes? Thank you.
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