On Aug. 20, 2008, I posted a blog entry about the South Carolina Art Commission’s $100,000 grant to implement the Leveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC) program in South Carolina.
I’ll admit my comments were jaded and pessimistic, but they are based on my 20 plus years of experience in our art community and dealing or not dealing with the SC Art Commission. They have not given me much reason to be optimistic. I still have hope for a different kind of art community, but not to come from them. I can assure you, they feel the same about me. So be it.
That said, it doesn’t mean that has to be the same experience for everyone. I’m always telling artists to apply for their programs, because if they don’t – they have no right to complain when they give rewards to the people who do apply. I also ask these same artists to watch what the Arts Commission does – don’t just listen to what they say or write in a report. And watch who they do it with. What they say is not always what they do.
A fellow Carolina blogger, Christopher Rico, has offered on his blog, Machinations of a Distracted Mind, another view on the LINC program and his experience. (http://machinationsdistractedmind.blogspot.com/2008/08/kind-of-blue.html) It’s good reading for all artists.