Post by sleepboy on Aug 5, 2009 21:22:19 GMT -8
Saw this on Animal.
Dear Collaborators, Co-conspirators, Friends and Inspirations,
One thing that is for certain in life is that change is a given, always happening never taking a break. Over the past few years, and especially over the past year, there have been some tremendous changes on the global landscape. Especially with the gross negligence as of late, including {but not limited to} the economic shakedown as well as theft and manipulation from the highest places. The cumulative tolls of this malfeasance are amply felt at home and abroad.
We at Ad Hoc Art have felt the effects significantly. To say the art market has taken a substantial hit puts it lightly. While we are a resilient and fiesty bunch, we are certainly not recession proof.
Going back a few years, in 2005 we were the third business on our block of Bogart Street and the first gallery in the hood. Burnt-out cars were not yet uncommon in the lovely concrete jungle of the East Williamsburg Industrial Park, fondly referred to as Bushwick. What began as a desire to cultivate community and showcase the underrepresented, amazingly-rad art of our peers turned out to be a seed of change that helped spur the growth of the most off-the-hook creative neighborhood in New York City, bringing Bushwick to the forefront of the global art scene.
Ad Hoc Art has enjoyed showcasing luminaries such as Keith Harring and Robert Williams, contemporaries like BAST, Judith Supine, and Swoon, and being the first gallery to break open the careers of the next generation’s groundbreaking artists like Gaia and Imminent Disaster. Our focus has been supporting artists that are as passionate and inspirational as they are talented. Big hearts + big minds + big spirits + big skills = Big Ad Hoc Art love.
It has been a true pleasure to bring you bleeding-edge art and inspiration as well as maintain a community space and creative node in Brooklyn, but we can no longer carry it all ourselves. Fostering community, connecting nodes, and previewing culturally relevant art freaks of brilliant genius has been unforgettable. What an honor to participate in this artastic life experience with you, as we definitely could not have done it without all of the appreciation and support.
While we are incredibly excited about our very robust future plans, we cannot avoid the very present fiscal realities that face us and it is with much regret that we are giving you the head’s up that the next exhibitions of Chris Stain, Armsrock, and Ezra Li Eismont will be the last exhibitions with the current layout at 49 Bogart Street. While we are open to new opportunities presenting themselves, as they often do, at this point in time the creative endeavors that are sustainable (art, design, & production) cannot support those parts that are not sustainable (the gallery).
We must be dynamic in confronting the circumstances before us in order to shine the light of human vision beyond the challenging passages of these times. To remain on this path, we are choosing to significantly modifying the structure and layout of the gallery and studio.
We are very fortunate to have invitations and opportunities to showcase our artists and vision along other avenues and in other venues, which will allow us to expand the visibility and impact of the art we love while simultaneously liberating ourselves from the overhead expenses that have migrated from being somewhat challenging to downright unbearable.
Projects such as our recently-opened Willoughby Windows and a current seven-city nation-wide tour have us more than occupied in the months ahead.
Fall of 2009 and spring of 2010 have us embarking on a truly long-term and sustainable visionary art project. We will be renovating an historic but outdated and dilapidated 1840’s farm house and barn in Vermont and developing a artist residency, education center, and creative think tank. At less than 5 hours from New York City, we will have one foot in the city and the other in the beautiful Green Mountains. The site has years of personal history as an old family homestead in addition to being the home and studio where one of the fathers of modern-day screen printing, WPA artist Harry Shokler, lived and wrote the first seminal how-to screen print text in the 1940’s. His text, Artists Manual for Silk Screen Print Making, served as the benchmark text for decades, paving the way for generations of printers. We are proud to have the opportunity to carry that pioneering and unyielding spirit forward into a new era of ingenuity.
Via teaching and using responsible & sustainable building and studio practices, we will move ever-closer to a globally, environmentally, physically, mentally, spiritually, and fiscally sustainable existence. Envision an art studio, print shop, and living space powered by green energy, selling power back to the grid, and growing food for meals. Recycling materials, gray water, and waste. That’s where we are heading.
Small carbon footprint + Huge creative footprint = Good times
We have had some amazing people expressing their interest in being involved in making this project truly revolutionary, contributing their ideas and skills to help make this vision manifest. If you would like to participate in this endeavor, please let us know. We have a lot of work to do . The fall is lovely in New England, for sure.
What will be happening in the coming months:
* August 26th - Webster Hall, NYC; Ad Hoc Art prints live at Webster Hall with DJ Clinton Sparks and The Bravery
* September through December: serious work action getting Vermont in gear.
* September 25th, we will be ceasing our current AHA floorplan. Keep your eyes open for closing ceremony announcements. Before the gate rolls on our current manifestation and the phoenix is rebirthed, there will be a shindig or two. Those details will come shortly.
* October 9th, Ad Hoc Art’s Alison and Garrison Buxton have an exhibition opening in Norman, Oklahoma. It is all about singularity and unified consciousness.
* The shows for September-October at 49 Bogart are canceled. Our fall restructuring is in full effect.
* In November, we will reopen at 49 Bogart with a much leaner and greener studio space and lil’ art space.
* Our art exhibitions will resume in mid-November with a two-person show of Joe Vaux and Gilbert Oh. Not at 49 Bogart, but very close.
* Mid-November will be Phase II of Willoughby Windows with 12+ new artists & installations.
We’d like to end by sending a special thank you about how truly thankful we are for your continued support and interest in our endeavors over the years. This whole experience results from combined and multi-pronged dreams, efforts and visions of all the artists, staff, interns, volunteers, and community that have participated in the AHA era, both past and present. It would not have been so radiant a light without these integral participants. We are forever humbled and grateful for the opportunity to have made some fun on planet earth with you and look forward to more in the times to come.
If you think our era is ending too soon, please share your ideas on a solution. While we aren’t going away, we are not staying the same.
If you or someone you might know are planning on buying art from Ad Hoc Art (artists from the current show or another, now is an excellent time to do so. It will help inform, support, and sustain the artist as well as us, allowing for more educated decisions about future paths to travel.
If you have realistic solutions, ideas, advice, or suggestions you think we should entertain, please share them.
Whether the coming month fares fuller or leaner, we have had an incredible time bringing you what we feel represents some of the world’s most talented and inspirational people; beings that are a true pleasure with which to work. We have enjoying each lesson taught through their vision and talent and will continue bringing the deepest visual grooves to you, be it in NYC, Vermont, and beyond yonder. The future bears good fruit. Help grow it.
Talk with us if you, or someone you know, would like to rent some of our space (around 2400-3000 square feet available).
Thank you for all the outstanding times.
Infinite gratitude and respect from all that is us to all that is you,
Garrison Buxton
Owner/Co-founder - Ad Hoc Art & Peripheral Media Projects
Dear Collaborators, Co-conspirators, Friends and Inspirations,
One thing that is for certain in life is that change is a given, always happening never taking a break. Over the past few years, and especially over the past year, there have been some tremendous changes on the global landscape. Especially with the gross negligence as of late, including {but not limited to} the economic shakedown as well as theft and manipulation from the highest places. The cumulative tolls of this malfeasance are amply felt at home and abroad.
We at Ad Hoc Art have felt the effects significantly. To say the art market has taken a substantial hit puts it lightly. While we are a resilient and fiesty bunch, we are certainly not recession proof.
Going back a few years, in 2005 we were the third business on our block of Bogart Street and the first gallery in the hood. Burnt-out cars were not yet uncommon in the lovely concrete jungle of the East Williamsburg Industrial Park, fondly referred to as Bushwick. What began as a desire to cultivate community and showcase the underrepresented, amazingly-rad art of our peers turned out to be a seed of change that helped spur the growth of the most off-the-hook creative neighborhood in New York City, bringing Bushwick to the forefront of the global art scene.
Ad Hoc Art has enjoyed showcasing luminaries such as Keith Harring and Robert Williams, contemporaries like BAST, Judith Supine, and Swoon, and being the first gallery to break open the careers of the next generation’s groundbreaking artists like Gaia and Imminent Disaster. Our focus has been supporting artists that are as passionate and inspirational as they are talented. Big hearts + big minds + big spirits + big skills = Big Ad Hoc Art love.
It has been a true pleasure to bring you bleeding-edge art and inspiration as well as maintain a community space and creative node in Brooklyn, but we can no longer carry it all ourselves. Fostering community, connecting nodes, and previewing culturally relevant art freaks of brilliant genius has been unforgettable. What an honor to participate in this artastic life experience with you, as we definitely could not have done it without all of the appreciation and support.
While we are incredibly excited about our very robust future plans, we cannot avoid the very present fiscal realities that face us and it is with much regret that we are giving you the head’s up that the next exhibitions of Chris Stain, Armsrock, and Ezra Li Eismont will be the last exhibitions with the current layout at 49 Bogart Street. While we are open to new opportunities presenting themselves, as they often do, at this point in time the creative endeavors that are sustainable (art, design, & production) cannot support those parts that are not sustainable (the gallery).
We must be dynamic in confronting the circumstances before us in order to shine the light of human vision beyond the challenging passages of these times. To remain on this path, we are choosing to significantly modifying the structure and layout of the gallery and studio.
We are very fortunate to have invitations and opportunities to showcase our artists and vision along other avenues and in other venues, which will allow us to expand the visibility and impact of the art we love while simultaneously liberating ourselves from the overhead expenses that have migrated from being somewhat challenging to downright unbearable.
Projects such as our recently-opened Willoughby Windows and a current seven-city nation-wide tour have us more than occupied in the months ahead.
Fall of 2009 and spring of 2010 have us embarking on a truly long-term and sustainable visionary art project. We will be renovating an historic but outdated and dilapidated 1840’s farm house and barn in Vermont and developing a artist residency, education center, and creative think tank. At less than 5 hours from New York City, we will have one foot in the city and the other in the beautiful Green Mountains. The site has years of personal history as an old family homestead in addition to being the home and studio where one of the fathers of modern-day screen printing, WPA artist Harry Shokler, lived and wrote the first seminal how-to screen print text in the 1940’s. His text, Artists Manual for Silk Screen Print Making, served as the benchmark text for decades, paving the way for generations of printers. We are proud to have the opportunity to carry that pioneering and unyielding spirit forward into a new era of ingenuity.
Via teaching and using responsible & sustainable building and studio practices, we will move ever-closer to a globally, environmentally, physically, mentally, spiritually, and fiscally sustainable existence. Envision an art studio, print shop, and living space powered by green energy, selling power back to the grid, and growing food for meals. Recycling materials, gray water, and waste. That’s where we are heading.
Small carbon footprint + Huge creative footprint = Good times
We have had some amazing people expressing their interest in being involved in making this project truly revolutionary, contributing their ideas and skills to help make this vision manifest. If you would like to participate in this endeavor, please let us know. We have a lot of work to do . The fall is lovely in New England, for sure.
What will be happening in the coming months:
* August 26th - Webster Hall, NYC; Ad Hoc Art prints live at Webster Hall with DJ Clinton Sparks and The Bravery
* September through December: serious work action getting Vermont in gear.
* September 25th, we will be ceasing our current AHA floorplan. Keep your eyes open for closing ceremony announcements. Before the gate rolls on our current manifestation and the phoenix is rebirthed, there will be a shindig or two. Those details will come shortly.
* October 9th, Ad Hoc Art’s Alison and Garrison Buxton have an exhibition opening in Norman, Oklahoma. It is all about singularity and unified consciousness.
* The shows for September-October at 49 Bogart are canceled. Our fall restructuring is in full effect.
* In November, we will reopen at 49 Bogart with a much leaner and greener studio space and lil’ art space.
* Our art exhibitions will resume in mid-November with a two-person show of Joe Vaux and Gilbert Oh. Not at 49 Bogart, but very close.
* Mid-November will be Phase II of Willoughby Windows with 12+ new artists & installations.
We’d like to end by sending a special thank you about how truly thankful we are for your continued support and interest in our endeavors over the years. This whole experience results from combined and multi-pronged dreams, efforts and visions of all the artists, staff, interns, volunteers, and community that have participated in the AHA era, both past and present. It would not have been so radiant a light without these integral participants. We are forever humbled and grateful for the opportunity to have made some fun on planet earth with you and look forward to more in the times to come.
If you think our era is ending too soon, please share your ideas on a solution. While we aren’t going away, we are not staying the same.
If you or someone you might know are planning on buying art from Ad Hoc Art (artists from the current show or another, now is an excellent time to do so. It will help inform, support, and sustain the artist as well as us, allowing for more educated decisions about future paths to travel.
If you have realistic solutions, ideas, advice, or suggestions you think we should entertain, please share them.
Whether the coming month fares fuller or leaner, we have had an incredible time bringing you what we feel represents some of the world’s most talented and inspirational people; beings that are a true pleasure with which to work. We have enjoying each lesson taught through their vision and talent and will continue bringing the deepest visual grooves to you, be it in NYC, Vermont, and beyond yonder. The future bears good fruit. Help grow it.
Talk with us if you, or someone you know, would like to rent some of our space (around 2400-3000 square feet available).
Thank you for all the outstanding times.
Infinite gratitude and respect from all that is us to all that is you,
Garrison Buxton
Owner/Co-founder - Ad Hoc Art & Peripheral Media Projects