Items of some note from 1/9 – 1/15

Friday, January 6th, was Ben McGovern’s last day as associate director of studio programming at the Guthrie. The Star Tribune ran a short item on Ben’s amicable departure from the theater. ___ Playwright and arts journalist (and contributor to this here magazine) Max Sparber recently wrote a piece for his MinnPost ‘Max About Town’ column about whether or not artists in Minnesota can make a living just through their art. Sparber alludes to artists leaving the Twin Cities because they can’t earn a living solely as artist and laments the fact that living in Minnesota means choosing to have to find other forms of income. ”Should I stay or should I go?” By Max Sparber While I think Max raised some important questions that journalists and artists should be talking about I have to say I strenuously object to what I view as the overarching premise, that artists in Minnesota are uniquely financially under-supported. Most artists aren’t making a living purely by doing their art no matter where you are in the country or the world. There is nothing unique about how artists are compensated in Minnesota. To make a living as an artist in California or New York or Chicago or Minnesota an artist more than anything needs to constantly hustle for work and diversify the ways in which she can generate income from her art. If you can make a living solely by doing your art kudos to you, you’re literally exceptional. But you’ve probably had to adapt and adjust how you define your art. I would love it if everyone in Minnesota could earn their living simply by doing what they love. But even engineers and doctors don’t always get to work on the kinds of projects they’re most interested in, they take the work they can get and try to focus on the parts of their work they love as much as possible. People don’t move to Minnesota or stay in Minnesota because they can make money. They stay because Minnesota offers small town charm and big city culture. The title to Max Sparber’s column about making a living as an artist in Minnesota was “Should I stay or should I go?” In what has to be viewed as a direct response to this question two days later Sparber posted an article announcing he is leaving Minnesota and moving to Los Angeles. Perhaps Max will prove his point about artists being more able to make a living on the East or West Coast than in Minnesota by making his living in LA purely as a playwright and artist. Or maybe he’ll do what he’s done in Minnesota, work as an arts journalist to fund his artistic goals. ___ A great representation of the kind of artists who does good work in the Twin Cities without solely making his living from his art is Craig Johnson. Craig was recently featured in a Star Tribune article in connection to the opening of Torch Theater’s production of “LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES,” which Craig is directing. Read the article We ran an article featuring Craig Johnson a while back and actually talked with him about why he likes being an artist in Minnesota. ___ The History Theatre in St Paul is opening a new production in a few days called “1968: The Year that Rocked the World.” The show is made up of seven different 10 minute plays written by seven different playwrights. Unsurprisingly, the plays are all about big events or movements from 1968. The playwrights commissioned to write for the show are Reginald Edmund, Christina Ham, Kim Hines, Kevin Kautzman, Dominic Orlando, Mat Smart, and Rhiana Yazzie. Somewhat connected to the various controversial events and activities from the year 1968 there has arisen a bit of controversy in the writing and producing ot the 1968 play. One of the 1968 playwrights, Rhiana Yazzie, recently posted on her website that her work for the 1968 play was being censored by members of the American Indian Movement (AIM). The story, as laid out by Rhiana, is that she wrote a play about police brutality and various injustices against Native American people that took place in a bar called The Corral in 1968. The AIM, led by co-founder Clyde Bellecourt, then threatened to protest the pull if Yazzie’s play was included. You can read Yazzies full account on her her website. The conflict really seems to be part of a larger struggle within and amongst various American Indian communities. This is built on deep and complex issues that are beyond my current knowledge and understanding. But the question I come away with as an artist is why would the History Theatre decide to be bullied into altering their production, especially when the 1968’s play is so focused on controversy and struggle? There’s a good chance a lot more information has gone into things done or not done by the History Theatre than simply letting members of AIM dictate their artistic choices. UPDATE: TC Daily Planet's Sheila Regan wrote an article on this story - Read it UPDATE: The Star Tribune's Graydon Royce followed up to clarify whether the original play would be produced - Read it ___ Something fun- Recently Laura Zabel, executive director at Springboard for the Arts (and, full disclosure, my beautiful wife), posted an entry to the Springboard blog called “Love Something. Do Something.” The premise of the entry is as simple as it sounds, figure out what you love and take action based on that love. It’s pretty much the motto in our house and not a bad way to go about being an artist. Read the whole thing here: Love Something. Do Something. --- Here’s my question for the week: What do you love and what are you doing about it? Respond to this weeks question or let us know of any news we should mention in the comments section here or on Facebook or Twitter Have an artful week! -Levi