tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3005036960552905065.post8862218574463316572..comments2023-11-20T08:20:05.776-05:00Comments on Syracuse Loses Again: Daily Orange Article -- Megan SauckeWhats this?http://www.blogger.com/profile/05945637836886470547noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3005036960552905065.post-56626759049115716602007-09-19T17:41:00.000-04:002007-09-19T17:41:00.000-04:00Well, I'm astounded that for the last 2-3 years th...Well, I'm astounded that for the last 2-3 years the university has given SO much time and SO many resources and SO much emphasis on The Arts, and withholding resources from other departments, and now this is what we get? Backbiting and fly by night firings and nonsense? Get your acts together, people. I have been part of the University community for 25 years and I have watched as this new regime has fallen all over itself tooting up the culture of the arts (not a bad thing) and totally trying to change the culture and THEN when push comes to shove this is what the rest of us have been suffering for? An administration with no backbone to even support what they've been relentlessly promoting? <BR/><BR/>You people at CMAC and the Warehouse, ALL of you, are an embarrassment. Shame on you. You are like a bunch of kids in a candy store, spoiled brats running around with your new toy - your new toy being Syracuse University - and then something like this happens. <BR/><BR/>How about getting off your duffs, coming up to campus and doing some performance art protests on behalf of this fired director? or do you only care about art if it looks good on your resume or if you get a big budget to do it or if it impresses the people in New York City?<BR/><BR/>Do you have the GUTS for real political art??? Do you have the NERVE? One wonders.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3005036960552905065.post-57649026749029448262007-09-19T13:15:00.000-04:002007-09-19T13:15:00.000-04:00P.S. Actually, I should've clicked on Anonymous's ...P.S. Actually, I should've clicked on Anonymous's "hard and long" link first. It appears I was mistaken in believing Jeff was a founder of Lightwork; apparently he was hired in 1980, "only" 27 years ago (long enough!), but 7 years after Lightwork's founding in 1973, a year before Hallwalls' founding in 1974.<BR/><BR/>1980 was slightly before my time in the field (though not by much), so Jeff was director of Lightwork well before I got to Hallwalls, which was my entry into the field.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3005036960552905065.post-5833862993537224172007-09-19T12:43:00.000-04:002007-09-19T12:43:00.000-04:00I'm intrigued by the comment of Anonymous (the fir...I'm intrigued by the comment of Anonymous (the first one on today's date). Not being part of Syracuse's art scene, but of Buffalo's, I'm not in a position to judge the validity of Anonymous's characterization of Jeff Hoone as "the Art Tsar." However, I DO know that for an arts community to have an "Art Tsar," or for anyone to aspire to be a community's "Art Tsar" would be a bad thing. (I guess I'm an Art Bolshevik that way, though not to the point of execution by firing squad.)<BR/><BR/>More to the point, I, too, have admired Lightwork, and Jeff's founding and directing of it, for many, many years. Its support for and programming of exquisite photography and photography publications by important emerging and established American and world photographers (including some controversial ones) is of national and international stature, and is unique, even among centers of photography. Buffalo's own equally excellent CEPA is, for example, very different from its fellow photo gallery down the Thruway, just as CEPA and Hallwalls, though born in the same place and time, started out and have grown up very differently, though we still work together very well.<BR/><BR/>So I very much agree with Anonymous here: it would indeed be a bad idea to make the Warehouse a second Lightwork in Syracuse, "Lightwork 2" as Anonymous calls it, if that is what Jeff is up to or has in mind, even remotely or unconsciously. As an Upstate NY colleague, I would very much discourage Jeff from using his position as Executive Director of Syracuse U.'s Coalition of Museums and Art Centers, i.e., an administrator (though he apparently has every authority to do so), to put his own curatorial stamp on the Warehouse, let alone shows he has already curated for Lightwork. I find it works better for administrators (which I am, too) to let curators do their thing without executive interference. And my own more informed curators here at Hallwalls, and my many more informed colleagues across the country, are quickly convincing me that the Warehouse has its own strong curatorial identity, that it is Astria Suparak's vision (and the artists she has invited to show there) that has given it that identity, that it has been a tonic for Syracuse's contemporary visual art scene (and SU's arts departments), and that it would be sorely missed were it changed in the way some people, including Anonymous, fear.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3005036960552905065.post-75263596456424476762007-09-19T10:49:00.000-04:002007-09-19T10:49:00.000-04:00...or another SUArt Galleries for that matter... ......or another SUArt Galleries for that matter... <BR/><BR/>It is unique as it is now and is on a great path! It should stay the course.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3005036960552905065.post-62928786237570876342007-09-19T09:48:00.000-04:002007-09-19T09:48:00.000-04:00He isn't the Art Tsar for nothing.His plan was to ...He isn't the <B>Art Tsar</B> for nothing.<BR/><BR/>His plan was to replace the Yes Men exhibition with an exhibition titled <A HREF="http://designarchives.aiga.org/entry.cfm/eid_1649" REL="nofollow">Gary Schneider: Genetic Self-Portrait</A> which would turn the Warehouse into an exact duplicate of Light Work. The work shown at Light Work is fabulous and has its place. <BR/><BR/>There is no question that Jeffrey Hoone has worked <A HREF="http://www.experimentaltvcenter.org/history/groups/gtext.php3?id=45" REL="nofollow">hard and long</A> to make Light Work what it is.<BR/><BR/>But Syracuse already has Light Work NOBODY needs or wants the Warehouse to become "Light Work 2".Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com