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| Miami Conversation Talking About The Lack |
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by Onajídé Shabaka - 10 May, 2007
Miami Conversation Talking About The Lackby Onajídé Shabaka In some ways Miami Conversation3 is a conversation that seems rehashed from Sept.-Oct., 2000. That was the beginning of Miamiartexchange.com. Do you want to read what it was about? [You'd better read it because it's that important to this discussion.] We still have to same desires for some writing that has a more critical edge, just like we wanted then.
Panelists (l to r): Alesh Houdek,
Joanne Green, Elisa Turner, Omar Sommereyns, Anne Tschida. Podcast of Miami Conversation3 Click here to Listen Now! The problem is and, will continue to be, those that want critical writing cannot or will not do it. Those that would seem best qualified, art historians, want to write for something more prestigious than a blog. Afterall, they need to write for their credibility if they are academics and, writing takes time and time is money. Journalists work for media publications and, they are obliged to write for a specific type of audience. Those audiences tend to be more generalized than one might want, in reality. The only two editors of this site, Miamiartexchange.com have been Franklin Einspruch and Onajídé Shabaka. We worked in our official capacity fourteen (14) months each. By the time those two years had passed, the organization that called itself Miamiartexchange had ceased to provide a single bit of content, even though such submissions were next to nonexistent after the first fourteen months. After thirty months of life, Miamiartexchange.com was non-functioning and, about to die until it was rescued from the throes of death by Onajídé Shabaka. Since that time many attempts have been made to bring this community something of importance, to bring this community a tool with which dialogue can be fostered, maintained, and continued into the future. Many things have happened in various attempts to keep it relevant to our art community. Many of those efforts go unnoticed. So be it. There have been several attempts using several models to gain some financial wherewithal to pay writers, even if only in a meager way, for their efforts. There has been little support for such efforts from the museums and galleries yet, how do we compensate those we feel are a valued resource in our community? Of course, money is not the entire answer. As you should know, the philosophy of Miamiartexchange.com has not changed since its inception. Right at this moment, in fact, we are accepting articles, critiques and reviews, for publication. But, when is the last time YOU offered a written submission (or any kind of submission for that matter)? Spending the large amount of time that a web site and blog take to maintain and update means that a review is more likely to appear than some critical words when it is all from a one person staff. (I do have to praise my occasional staff photographer, Pablo Gonzalez-Trejo, for his generous contributions!) And, everybody wants to be my friend and contributor for Art Basel Miami Beach, Art Miami or, PalmBeach3, while looking for a free pass and not the contribution. Features that Miamiartexchange.com created & fostered for increased dialogue:
The calendar feature had to be moved because of hackers and, moved to our sibling site, Artlab33.com. However, galleries are increasingly using graphic emails with no text for posting. A good press release has become a rare item. Who has time to retype 20 or more postcards in order to have a calendar? Requests have gone out for email press releases that are text based but, those requests seem to be ignored. Is the list above what we think a blogger should do? If this community wants more, it has to give more. Onajídé Shabaka, through Miamiartexchange.com, has given a lot and, continues to give a lot. (I drove to Miami Conversation3 from my place of work in Boca Raton, 45 miles away while I know people that claim driving to Broward or Palm Beach Counties is beyond their capabilities. And, gasoline costs how per gallon at the moment, $2.99?)
The consensus was that improvements in arts coverage (both in quantity and in quality) will happen when the editors of our local publications come to believe that there is a strong demand for it. Here is contact information for those editors:
Critical Miami editor, Alesh, "thinks that paper letters are most effective, followed by phone calls, followed by e-mail. (Feel free to send me more specific information for these folks, or additional names that we should contact)."
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