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Writer and editor Home > Blogs > Brain Droppings > Archives > 2009 > August > 07 > Entry
Rethinking art and film at the DAI…
What does art mean to you? Tess Cortes has been asking.
“It’s what makes us human,” a man told her.
“It affects your life,” a lady said.
A young man told her about his first visit to the Dayton Art Institute, on a sixth-grade field trip. He recalled visiting the “play room” for children, where the youngsters could make art of their own. It stuck with him to this day. A woman told Cortes her first visit to the DAI was “astounding.”
Cortes has been on a mission lately to capture peoples’ thoughts on art, all as part of an interesting project she’s doing that will soon be put on display at the DAI.
Here’s the story. Cortes is the coordinator of the Robert and Elaine Stein Galleries at Wright State, in the university’s Creative Arts Center. She is also a video artist, creating intriguing little films about landscapes, sky and televised imagery under the pseudonym Netta Bitts. A few months ago, she met Will South, the new chief curator for the DAI.
South, as it turned out, needed some help. He was mounting a large exhibition of rarely seen works from the DAI’s collection to mark the museum’s 90th anniversary this year. The show, “Hello World,” opens in October and runs through January.
As part of it, “I knew I wanted to stress that our visitors are really our greatest treasure. It sounds pollyannish, but there it is. And I also wanted something contemporary, video art.” He asked Cortes if she was interested in taking a whack at a film about the DAI’s visitors. She wanted a challenge and agreed.
She and her friend Mary Anne Kirk, who works at ThinkTV, put up their cameras in the galleries on three days this summer and got some 70 visitors to talk about their first visits to the DAI, their favorite works, what art means to them and such.
“What I got in the end is almost like a love story to the DAI, to art and the art community,” Cortes said. “It’s been really affirming.”
“People were overwhelmed by the size, quality and scope of the collection, and that we have it right here in a city our size. We even found some out-of-towners who said they came because they’ve always seen that great building there by the interstate. It’s such a draw.”
The film will run about 20 minutes, she thinks, and be shown in the galleries continuously during the exhibition. The version she’s leaning toward, one of several she’s tried, runs interviews simultaneously, mosaic-like, with several people talking at once. It sounds confusing until you see it; Cortes has managed to edit it in a way where you can neatly follow all the conversations at once.
She’s pleased that this project has pushed her to experiment with sound and storytelling, and has expanded her ideas about what she’s capable of. South can’t wait to see the final product, and looks forward to adding a new local artist to the DAI’s permanent collection.
Cortes hopes her piece reminds people of how valuable the arts are, especially in a time when they’re financially vulnerable; even the budget for this piece was slashed while she was making it.
“I’d like to make people think about the impact not just of the DAI, but of the arts in general,” she said. “I’m worried about the arts. They’re always the first thing to be cut, and that sets a dangerous precedent. I don’t think Dayton should let that happen, because of our history of invention; the artistic innovation and the creativity the arts spur should be something we’re open to and aware of.
“We could lose a lot.”
So, once more: What does art mean to you?
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By Pattie Stover
August 10, 2009 10:02 AM | Link to this
Thank you for featuring Tess and the work she is doing for the arts. It has always been important to her and I applaud her efforts and those of the Dayton community. Proudly, Tess’ Mom