Some more Cultural Alliance thoughts

I'm coming back to my thoughts on the Cultural Alliance of Milwaukee. I would like to report that I'm posting a podcast today, but my "cat ate my homework" excuse has to do with a 2 1/2 year old discovering the joys of clicking a mouse. So, no podcast of our meeting with the Cultural Alliance a few weeks back, but here's the start of a new round of thoughts.

The Cultural Alliance of Milwaukee is extraordinarily welll intentioned. This was proven in the meeting that they agreed to with me and Artsy Schmartsy readers. Artists at this meeting asked tough questions, and, for the most part, the representatives from The Cultural Alliance (Executive Director, Christine Harris, and Board Chair, Paul Matthews) answered all questions with a straightforward, "let's get some stuff done" attitude. I am impressed by their ambition. I am cautiously optimistic that The Cultural Alliance of Milwaukee is going to have a positive impact on the arts and culture sector in Southeastern Wisconsin.

But let's talk about caution for a moment. This is becoming a time in our country's history when we are all cautious. Cautious about having jobs, health insurance, dribbles of our once comfortable retirement accounts, and and a basic sense of hope for the future.

I encourage the Culutral Alliance to recognize this caution. I also encourage them to not be too cautious. Now is a perfect time to start to act on forming plans, for now is the time when all the cautious men and women in our world need brave, innovative work that helps to fuel new ideas and initiatives.

The Cultural Alliance folks talked about how in their initial impact as an organization could be characterized as inert. I think that all we need to hear. Now let's thank them for that acknowledgment and urge them to get busy. I know they are busy forming their plan, but some demonstrable actions would do great things for an arts and culture scene in peril. I know I said I wouldn't mention it again, but we saw the demise of Milwaukee Shakespeare this week, and that probably could have been avoided with different approaches to advocacy and infrastructure with the organization. But that is aided only by a stronger, more aggresively demanding public conciousness of the value of all arts in our lives. The Cultural Alliance can be a major force in creating the culture of thought for Southeastern Wisconsin that breeds the idea that good arts aren't just a nice thing to have for a cozy quality of life, but they are, in fact, essential to the lives' we demand as concerned citizens seeking better lives.

I came upon this article about an Arts Alliance in Michigan. This is an economically desimmated area that we are talking about, and the Ann Arbor based alliance is actively pursuing some arts strenghtening efforts. That's inspiring. I know that our Milwaukee based Cultural Alliance will show them up soon.

Read on. Believe in this stuff. Get involved. It's the best way to contribute to a healthy arts scene.

Give arts a future, plan says

Some mirth for you today

Full disclosure: I'm starting rehearsal for THE PRODUCERS at The Skylight on Monday.

More full disclosure: The musical version of THE PRODUCERS misses out by canning the film version of THE PRODUCERS character Lorenzo St. DuBois, the aptly named L.S.D. manically played by Dick Shawn. Talk about subversion. Talk about gloriously tacky brilliance.

From time to time I need me some "Love Power."

So do you. Enjoy!

What to do this week (and for the next four years)

I'll admit some laxivity (I'm creating this word, right now, call Webster's) on my opinionating (another creation, I am on a roll this morning) about what art you should see around town on a weekly basis. There. Done. Now I've got some thoughts.

Have you heard, there's an election coming up next Tuesday? I think it's like for dog catcher or something. Or maybe Prom King and Queen? Anyway, people are voting on Tuesday.

Seldom do thoughts of performance art and the first Tuesday in November go hand and hand, but this year, things are different. This year we've got the most important election ever in recorded history (yeah, I'm being hyperbolic, sue me), and a little performance art is just the thing to make the voting process all that more potent.

You want to check this out:




And you don't need to buy a ticket. You don't need to get dressed up. All you need to do is be a citizen.

My Vote Performs is a "taking-it-to-the-people" way to inject some non-partisan art into the political system. Or some non-partisan politics into the artistic form. Kind of the my peanut butter in your chocolate, your chocolate in my peanut butter kind of thing.

My Vote Performs is an organization of artists who believe in getting out the vote and making the polling place just a little bit more lively with live performances on election day at twelve different polling spots around Milwaukee. The performances offered on November 4 don't force any candidate over the other on the voting public. They are simply a means by the artistic community to say, "Hey, we're all in this together, here's some art for you."

The good people behind My Vote Performs want to encourage people to vote, and remind them that voting is the benchmark of being a citizen in this country. They also want to make voting a great experience for all us citizens, hence the free performances. It's kind of like the supermarket giving you free samples. Okay, bad example, but you get the picture.

There's a lot more I could say about My Vote Performs, but you should really check out their website. They have great information about all their performances, the polling places that are hosting them, and superb information about being a voter.

I can't encourage you enough to check out My Vote Performs because I can't encourage you enough to vote. I really hope your guy wins, because soon enough he'll be our guy. Vote. Cuz if you don't you aren't allowed to bitch even one time in the next four years.

When forced to respond...

...I can only say, poo.

I've gotten many prods about saying something about today's big arts news, but poo is all I'll ever say.

And if you don't know the arts news of the day, check out this link:

http://www.milwaukeeshakespeare.com/

Happy Halloween? Huh?

I will never, ever, ever understand why we here in Milwaukee Trick or Treat on a day that is not Halloween. Never. Ever.

I imagine the reason is that some kid got hit by a car or witch on a broom on Halloween one year, and the city council decided that it was safer for kids to Trick or Treat on a Sunday afternoon. And lamer.

Last night my kids and wife and I did the night time Trick or Treating in our neighborhood. Sure, better because it was darker, but still ridiculous that it wasn't on the actual, scare the bejesus out of your, devil worshipping day of blood curdling Halloween. Then, today, there was daytime Trick or Treating as a kind of sloppy second follow up to last night's candy grabbing. No one came to our house, so we threw the crappy candy that we had left from last night's scavenging in our trash.

We did however win most spirited family (of dorks) with out Family of Dora The Explorer outfits.



I'm telling you that my outfit would have absolutely been more slimming on October 31.

You are summoned to The Milwaukee Show!

Tonight there will be 90 minutes of film being shown by Milwaukee film people at a Milwaukee Theater. This one.



That's The Oriental for all you suburbanites too afraid to bring your Navigators into the hood.

You all should come to The Oriental tonight for The Milwaukee Show. It's the first big happening of Milwaukee Film, the new organization that is essentially taking the place of The Milwaukee International Film Festival.

And, okay, I have a big hammy performance in one of the films. An award winning student film written by Emily Downes and directed by Tate Bunker. I play the baddie. That acting master Richard Halverson plays the nice guy. It's a sweet little film

The show is at 6:30 tonight at The Oriental, 2230 N. Farwell Avenue. Tickets are $10. It's about 10 films all in 90 minutes. And you get to eat popcorn and candy. What could be better.

See you tonight! My glasses on the big screen...I'm swooning right now thinking about it.

I's back...

I've been a bad blogger. Bad.

I come back in short form today with many thoughts coming down the pike.

My absence for the past few days (okay, ten) has been due to the fact that I needed to complete writing my book that will soon be published by Arcadia Publishing called Milwaukee's Live Theater. I had to finish the thing or face the wrath of my publisher. Actually, they are very nice publishers and I suspect there would not have been torture or anything if I hadn't finished the book on time, but I think I would have felt like I had let my dad down or something and that would have just sucked.

In any event, I'm posting something quick today because I just got an e-mail from that pot stirrer Rex Winsome about an article that appeared in The Stranger called Ten Things Theaters Need to Do Right Now to Save Themselves, and it had fresh significance for me after finishing a book about 150 years of theater history in Milwaukee.

The article makes the assertion that theater is broken right now. Terribly, terribly broken.

Well, I'm ready to tell you all one shocking thing that I can firmly assert after spending lots of time in archives, reading notes from producers from 50-75 years ago setting up institutions or seat-of-your-pants upstart theatrical brigades, and discerning the state of theater in Milwaukee and the nation over the past 150 years (the scope of my research). Ready? Here's the big shocker:

THEATRE HAS ALWAYS BEEN BROKEN!

It's time to fess up folks. Theaters have always struggled. There was a German theater movement in Milwaukee that thrived for over 75 years but faded away because audiences no longer felt the need for German theater. Same with a Yiddish theater scene. Also, a lady named Laura Sherry did Shakespeare, Pirandello and some whacked out experimental shit from 1899 to 1940 in Milwaukee and thrived until she no linger had the energy to thrive (thanks to Konrad and John for helping me see this important moment in theater history). All of these theatrical discussions share one common link: it was never easy for the people involved in the producing of the art to figure out what worked best to keep the art interesting for regular Joes and Janes. In other words, there's never been a perfect solution to selling a ticket.

Blame it on the internet and television now. Years ago they blamed it on those new fangled automobiles and moving picture shows with sound. There's always going to be an excuse, there's always going to be an obstacle.

Ten Things Theaters Need to Do Right Now to Save Themselves is primarily a humor piece. It is quick, funny and doesn't offer any suggestions that are all that radically different from what all theaters are trying right now (and when I say all, I mean all, no whatever what size). I applaud Brendan Wiley for his wit.

There is one really important thought that popped out at me in those ten points, however. The author suggests to "Treat your plays like parties and your audience like guests."

This is smart. Really smart.

Cover your ears if you're not used to curse words, because I'm going to use a well placed swear word right now. I also believe that a case could be made for the theater history of Milwaukee or any other city to be defined as theaters saying, "Yes, theater going public and anyone with a dollar in your pocket, I will lay down for you so that you can fuck me wherever you want."

Pardon my potty mouth, but there has been a tendency to cave in even the most well intentioned theatrical situation. The caving comes from not treating the art like the greatest thing in the world. The caving comes from thinking of plays as widgets.

Plays aren't widgets. Plays are unique. Each one is unique. And they don't need to be new (though I'm a huge fan of the new ones). If you want to do a production of Ibsen's ROSMERSHOLM, by all means, do it. But treat it like it's a party. And as my mother has always said, make sure you have too much of everything. Excess doesn't need to come in the form of stuff. It just needs to come in the form of attitude and intention. If you treat it like a party, all of a sudden it is a party.

What theater needs more than anything right now is excited leaders. Leaders who like producing plays. I tend to believe that you don't throw out things that are broken and start from scratch. Instead I believe that you use what you can from the past, and patch together the rest with new parts.

Party on playgoers. It's as simple as that.

Officer Sausage

I LOVE, I repeat, LOVE Milwaukee.

You should read this because Brenner is so damned smart.

I'm not necessarily of the opinion that people read the comments on this blog, so I'm posting this one just left by Mike Brenner. Smarty. That's Brenner, pink hair and all:

Mike Brenner said...

the initial concept for the Cultural Alliance was an arts council for Milwaukee. the idea came from a very talented guy who moved to Milwaukee from out of state. he had been an active member of the arts council in Columbus. he was involved in all of the initial planning of the Cultural Alliance, but was convinced to leave the board so he'd be eligible to be hired as executive director. then the Cultural Alliance decided to grow to seven counties and include zoos and historical societies, and the job was given to the wife of some wealthy man who had a vested interest in the organization. the man who's brain child was the Cultural Alliance has since given up on Milwaukee and moved to Chicago.

there was also a point where i met with the Hertzfeld Foundation (a major supporter of the Cultural Alliance) to ask for funding for MARN. i was told MARN would never get a penny from the Hertzfeld Foundation unless we did all our programming under the name of the Cultural Alliance and met with their director (then Tony Forman) on a regular basis for guidance.

a lot of pressure was put on us to hand over our mailing list to the Cultural Alliance and to persuade our members to join their organization as well. i never saw the benefit for individual artists in doing that.

in the end, i gave up on MARN because the team of consultants we hired was told (earlier this year) that none of the funders in town would give money to MARN's arts incubator 'because of the failure of the Cultural Alliance.'

i guess my failure was my inability (lack of desire) to get the 'right' people on MARN's board. all i ever wanted to create was an organization for artists by artists that could be honest about our situation here and make things better for artists. unfortunately, there's very minimal financial support for organizations not run by Yes Men.

what i don't understand though, is how an organization, like the Cultural Alliance, that seems to be well funded, doesn't do anything that's apparent to any of us. to me it reads like an offshoot of UPAF... same funders, same administrators and serves the same organizations.

what they HOPE to do is great. if they do it, great. but until then Milwaukee remains one of the only major cities in America without a full-time (PAID) staff person working to make the arts a priority... which was what the Cultural Alliance was supposed to be in the first place when it was formed in 2003.

Cultural Alliance brief, brief update

This is gonna be brief because I have more things to sort out about what I want to say about the meeting that took place between me, about ten engaged artists, and The Cultural Alliance on Monday. Also, other pressing things like sick family members and deadlines for books on the history of live theater in Milwaukee are pressing, and I know you all want my children's fevers to break and for me to finish my book so that you can buy multiple copies of it, of course.

But, basically, meeting wise, I give it a big thumbs up. I appreciated a great deal of candor from Executive Director, Christine Harris, and Board Chair, Paul Matthews. Their agenda is huge (maybe too huge), but certainly well intentioned. And if you believe that they can do everything they hope to do without the help and support of their constituents (i.e., artists and institutions they serve), then you probably also believe that it doesn't matter whether or not you get involved in helping to elect the next President of the United States because it will just kind of happen. Yes, both things can just kind of happen, but the "New" cultural Alliance (and I would really characterize it as something with a new vision) is one that wants artists and institutions to help set the agenda for what it is gonna to focus it's organizational priorities on as they go forward. And that ain't a bad thing at all.

I also taped the entire two-hour meeting and will offer it as a free downloadable podcast in a slightly edited form later this week. Watch for that. Good talking went down. And I'll follow up with some more thoughts on the whole big package of culture and alliances.

And I'll finish my book, and my children will frolic and play again. All goodness shall be restored to the land.

In honor of the debates tonight...

...another "flattering" Sarah Palin parody video. It's like they picked her just for the humor.

(Isn't it thrilling to think that tonight's debate really has the chance to be the best comedy/drama/experimental/reality/game show/infomercial on television ever. Hyperbole and me are loving each other today.)

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Cultural Alliance Meeting Coming Up! You need to come!

The Cultural Alliance of Milwaukee meet up where Artsy Schmartsy Readers and other interested parties (though everyone reads Artsy Schmartsy, right?) get to ask the The Cultural Alliance of Milwaukee what in the heck they've done for arts lately is quickly approaching. And, on the flip side of evaluation and discernment, "What have artists have done for the The Cultural Alliance of Milwaukee?" might be a somewhat unpainful question for we artist types to jabber about with the The Cultural Alliance of Milwaukee powers-that-be who will be in attendance.

You've got the invite right in front of you. You're reading it now. Here's what you have to do. RSVP by e-mailing me at jonathanwest@artsyschmartsy.com. In that e-mail tell me who you are, if you are coming alone or with a date or two, and throw any questions that you might have about The Cultural Alliance out to me just so I can get a vibe about what we're going to be yapping about.

Again, here's the site specific details about what is going on:

DATE: Monday, October 6
TIME: Noon-2 PM
PLACE: Marcus Center for The Performing Arts 4th Floor Rehearsal Hall A (enter from the Marcus Center Office entrance on State Street)

If you're feeling little uniformed about cultural alliances in general, I'm giving you a list of websites of other Cultural Alliance around the country so you can do a little self education. Maybe someone can find some kind of "best practices" jibberish in this info that will help generate even more questions. Here's your weekend reading list:

Cultural Alliance of Milwaukee


Cultural Alliance of Greater Birmingham


Community Partnership for Arts and Culture



The Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City


Greater Columbus Arts Council



Arts Council of Indianapolis


Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance



Springboard for The Arts


Arts Memphis