Arkadelphia Mural Dedication

Join us for a ....

Celebration of the new 

Arkadelphia Community Mural

Sunday, October 7th

2:00 - 4:00 pm

705 Main Street

Arkadelphia, Arkansas

more information at 

http://midamericamuralproject.blogspot.com/

Brownback Print CENSORED!

*UPDATE* The Blue Planet informed me that they did not agree to censoring this piece and do not condone or support its being taken down. The piece was taken down by Greg Ready of Gizmo Pictures as you can read below.

C E N S O R E D !

This print was taken down by the owners of Gizmo Pictures today. If you care about free speech especially when it involves criticism of those in power, please call and or visit Gizmo Pictures (upstairs above the Blue Planet) and let them know how you feel. Below is the text of the email I received from, Gizmo co-owner, Greg Ready informing me that the piece was to be censored.

"Dave,

This is Greg Ready. I'm not sure if we have met or not, but I am part owner of Gizmo Pictures and the Thacher building where your artwork is being displayed in the Blue Planet Cafe. We have chosen to take down the picture of Sam Brownback burning out of respect to his daughter Liz, who works for us. This decision has nothing to do with politics or our belief in your freedom of speech through art. Liz is a valued employee and friend to us and I (we) felt strongly against subjecting her to having to look at a picture of her father burning at her place of employment. It should also be noted that this decision was made by me, with the backing of my business partner Jeff, and not at the request of Liz.

I hope you will understand. If you wish to discuss this further, feel free to call either phone number listed below, e-mail or drop by my office at Gizmo (upstairs from the Blue Planet). 

Thanks."

Contact the owners here:

Jeff Carson and Greg Ready, owners of Gizmo Productions

785-267-7878  

greg@gizmopictures.com

jeff@gizmopictures.com

110 SE 8th Avenue, Topeka, KS

Read articles about this story at these links below.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/04/kansas-artist-dave-loewen_n_1940225.html

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2012/oct/04/lawrence-artist-miffed-after-topeka-restaurant-tak/

http://cjonline.com/news/2012-10-03/artist-miffed-censorship-brownback-print

 

New show at the Blue Planet in Topeka

I've got a new show of stencil prints at the Blue Planet, 110 SE 8th, in Topeka. It'll be up for the whole month of October. The work comes from two different series I've been working on over the last couple of years. One is a series of portraits of Kansas politicians gone awry, including...

Secretario De Xenofobia

Inspired by the new Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach who is best known as the architect of anti-immigration laws in Arizona. Back here in Kansas, he’s been fanning the flames of immigrant paranoia in legislation that would require proof of citizenship if someone looked “suspicious.”

 The Feral Senator 

Another Kansas original, state senator Virgil Peck who, during a March 14, 2011 senate hearing, said (when referring to a state program to manage feral hogs) that "If shooting these immigrating feral hogs works, maybe we have found a [solution] to our illegal immigration problem." 

 Reject Brownback

After enduring one horror after another, from a draconian tax-cut plan that will cripple the state to the elimination of the Kansas Arts Commission,  I came to the conclusion that our governor was powerless to stop the destruction he is wreaking. Like some giant movie monster, he flails around pleading for someone (us) to stop him from doing more damage.

The second series in this show comes from work I've done in support of the Occupy Movement. These prints were used in rallys, protests, and as illustrations related to Occupy. I'm proud to have been a contributor to the Occuprint  group which has been the main venue for getting my posters out to the public. 

My poster as an illustration for a Barbara Kingsolver 
essay in the Occupied Wall Street Journal.

The most widely circulated of these was "Tip of the Iceberg." This was my response to the dismissal by many of Occupy as just a New York thing. It’s based on both a metaphor, that Zuccotti Park is an iceberg, and on a veiled analogy to the Titanic disaster. What’s not spelled out in the image, but helped drive my process, is the story of the Titanic and the hubris that led to its sinking. In early versions, I had a little ship about to hit the Zuccotti iceberg, and even tried out text like “Beware Captains of the 1%”. In the end I felt like I was complicating my main idea – that the movement is much larger than the encampments -  so I took out the Titanic references.

 

 

Kansas arts funding in jeopardy - AGAIN

Artists, Educators, Arts Advocates, and Arts Administrators, 

The future of public support for the arts in Kansas is in jeopardy. Your action is needed now.

In order for Kansas to receive funding in FY14 (July 1, 2013-June 30, 2014) from the National Endowment for the Arts and Mid-America Arts Alliance, the Dept. of Commerce must submit an partnership application to the NEA by October 1st. If they do not, Kansas will not be eligible for this funding until FY15 at the earliest. We must demand that Secretary of Commerce, Pat George, submit this application by October 1st.

There is a second problem. Although the legislature appropriated $700,000, there has been no plan given or public accounting for how these funds have been or will be used. We must demand an accounting for these funds and insure that a large portion is going to non-profit arts programs around the state. If these newly appropriated funds are not used for arts programs, the governor and others may cite this inaction as cause to move the funds to another agency and kill the possibility of renewing public support for the arts in the foreseeable future.

Please contact Secretary of Commerce, Pat George, immediately and urge him to:

1) Submit the partnership application to the NEA by October 1st.

2) Account for the $700,000 appropriated by the legislature for the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission in the current fiscal year. Demand that it be used for non-profit arts programs.

Secretary of Commerce Pat George

email -

pgeorge@kansascommerce.com

phone - (785) 296-3481
 

Kansas Department of Commerce

1000 S.W. Jackson St.
Suite 100
Topeka, KS 66612

Occupy poster featured in Art in America

The June/July issue of Art in America includes a discussion about the Occupy movement and features my poster "Tip of the Iceberg." Check it out here -
http://www.scribd.com/doc/103097469/Art-In-America-Debating-Occupy

Mid-America Mural Project - Arkansas

After a four-day trip to visit with applicant communities in Russellville, Conway, Arkadelphia, Hot Springs, and Fort Smith, the Mid-America Arts Alliance has selected the site for the Arkansas Mural Project.

Congratulations to Arkadelphia, Arkansas!

Beginning in early August, this small town situated at the foothills of the Ouachita Mountains in south central Arkansas will be host to the fourth chapter of the Mid-America Mural Project. Follow the progress of Arkadelphia's mural, and read about the previous projects in Tonkawa, Oklahoma; Newton, Kansas; and Joplin, Missouri on the Mid-America Mural Project blog.

An Artists in Schools program for Lawrence

*Update* A slightly different version of this  essay was published in the Lawrence Journal-World. You can read it here http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2012/jul/06/program-allows-artists-share-talents-schools/


Lawrence, ‘City of the Arts.’ It’s interesting how this slogan has stuck around long after the Convention and Visitors Bureau changed it to the curiously similar rearrangement, Art of a City. The reason, I think, is because we want it to be true. We want to be a city of the arts, and so we measure our efforts against that title. Easier said than done. In a state that completely eliminated its arts funding last year, being a ‘city of the arts’ in Kansas is like being a prime skiing destination. 

One of the late 1990's banners that proclaimed Lawrence as 'City of the Arts.'

But, in spite of the ‘austerity measures’ coming from Topeka, there’s a buzz in our arts community these days. With the success of Final Fridays, a new building for Theater Lawrence under construction, and the integration of art studios and gallery space into the new Poehler development, we are getting closer to living up to the old slogan. This is good news for Lawrence and Lawrence artists, although if we want to maintain the current momentum, we are going to have to develop a more sustainable environment for artists to work in. That means jobs.

But what kind of jobs, where is the need?  Where in our economy can artists be of value that hasn’t already been filled? New opportunities become clear when we refocus our view of what it is that artists do. The problem is that we tend to overlook the potential of our arts community because we see art mainly as an end in itself, existing within the forms we are accustomed to at the gallery, theater, and concert hall, and not as wide spectrum of transformative processes that illuminate and explore the world we share.

Artists encourage curiosity and experimentation, forge new connections between disciplines, heighten our awareness of the overlooked, challenge our assumptions and received knowledge, and reimagine ways of using raw materials. As important as these qualities are in the world of art, they are also fundamental building blocks of creative problem solving, ingenuity, and critical thinking.

If only there was a way to tap into these artist’s insights and methods and share them with a broader audience, especially an audience of imaginative young people. There is, and that’s where new work for artists can be found. For decades across the U.S., communities have been putting artists to work through what are commonly known as Artists in Schools programs.

These programs vary in their reach and focus, but most share a basic structure. Based within a non-profit organization, state or city arts commission, AIS programs serve as connectors or agents between professional artists and schools. After going through a rigorous application process, artists develop hands-on, interactive workshops that complement and enhance established curricula in science, math, history and other subjects. Teachers then choose the artists/programs that best fit with their plans. 

A quick overview of two AIS programs shows their far-reaching impact. In Kansas City, Young Audiences maintains a roster of nearly eighty artists that offer over one hundred fifty different workshops, while the Fayettville/Cumberland County AIS program in North Carolina has a roster of seventy-five artists that offer more than one hundred programs. Check out their websites to see the great variety of  interdisciplinary workshops they offer.

AIS programs work, I know from first hand experience. In 1975, while I was a fourth grader at Miller School in Evanston, Illinois, an artist named Ruth Felton came to visit as part of an AIS program. She was a muralist who led my class in the creation of a mural (see photo below) about healthy food choices for our cafeteria. It made an impression. 

Here I am (middle right - brush in mouth) with my classmates. From the book "Toward a People's Art."

Many years later I find myself on the other side of the equation working as a teaching artist in AIS programs across the country from Tempe, Arizona to Greenville, Mississippi. And like me, many other Lawrence artists have worked with AIS programs elsewhere. I think it’s time that we benefit from their work here at home.

An Artists in Schools program for Lawrence makes sense, if for no other reason because we have one of the highest concentrations of working artists in the country. Let’s draw on the talents of Lawrence’s exceptional artists and inspire our young people to achieve greater heights. A Lawrence Artist in Schools program would help keep talented young artists in town, boost our local economy by creating jobs, and most of all fuel the creative young minds that will soon become the heart and soul of our community – a place we all hope to embrace as a true city of the arts.