Around the Coyote: Is it Dead? by Norbert Marszalek
There is an interesting article in this week’s Chicago Reader: The Endangered Coyote: After a disappointing benefit, the Around the Coyote arts org contemplates extinction by Deanna Isaacs (here) which states that the 20-year-old organization is in dire need of money and will probably face extinction. I say what’s the big deal if Chicago loses ATC? I was part of one of their fall exhibitions many years back but always thought the ATC was full of mediocre artists with mediocre work…at best. So I would like to ask a question to all artists, curators, etc. that have been or still are associated with ATC: How have you benefited from ATC and what has ATC done for the Chicago art scene?
Category: Articles, Essays 23 comments »
January 11th, 2010 at 5:09 pm
i covered a juried show of their’s a short while back. there was one juror. she showed up. she made a quick decision and departed. no one appeared to have known what was going on. it was sad and bizarre.
January 11th, 2010 at 5:19 pm
It is a good question that relates to what is/was fashionable in the arts. At the time “the coyote” came around, I was involved in a movement against gentrification of the Wicker Park neighborhood; I was also doing some work with NWCA @ the Flat Iron Building in conjunction with Beacon Street gallery in a youth mural project so I had the opportunity to see the unfolding of “the coyote” . I thought- at the time- that “the coyote” presented a good alternative to the Chicago art community and to artists whose artwork would have not had exposure otherwise. Since then though, “the coyote”became “fancy” and became waving the hat of “exclusive… at the edge… showing what was considered hot and THE artwork…”, etc. But like everything else in life, what goes up goes down too. In my opinion similar transformation in taking place in CAC …
So…. to answer your question Norbert- yes, I think “the coyote” is dead as it was known- Beatriz
January 11th, 2010 at 7:33 pm
Thanks Beatriz….one thing though – when did the coyote ever show anything that was considered “hot”…?
January 11th, 2010 at 8:28 pm
ATC had some high ambitions back when it started in ’90, but quickly descended into a street fair. First, it was with the itinerant artists that worked the suburban fairs and such. Then came bar and cafe artists. Not all of this work is bad, but there was always a kind of rag-tag feeling to the show. The mediocre work, combined with mostly make-shift display doesn’t do anyone any good. Maybe the ATC model could work somewhere else where there might be a robust interest in art, but has anyone’s career benefitted from being in it?
January 11th, 2010 at 9:30 pm
DOA
January 11th, 2010 at 10:49 pm
A lot of artists have positively benefited from being in Around the Coyote, and I commend Allison Stites for the work she has done.
I won’t name them here, but I know of more than several artists, who now show in major nfps/museums who banked at ATC at some point in their early career.
Sure, it has been a mixed bag (I worked there between 2006-08), but in the years I was there we managed to put together a pretty fantastic mix of artists. Sure, there were some Sunday painters, but we also had some really solid artists and we managed to bring thousands of people to their booths.
This was bolstered by public art installations, public performance, film screenings, theatre and music and a healthy mix of sponsorships from local businesses plus larger corporations. This was GOOD stuff!
Similarly, our gallery mounted really good shows- anyone who cares to defy this, just look at the exhibition history on the website. Standouts include Caroline Picard, Haseeb Ahmed, Burtonwood and Holmes, Steve Reber and REading the Remains (SAIC Visual Critical Studies graduate exhibition).
Anyone who dismisses Around the Coyote lacks the understanding of what it takes to mount anything, or to sustain a non profit organization. Too give artists a platform (i.e. walls, advertising and thousands of attendees) – a platform that, in its best years was pretty decently curated– for a fee of $100 or less is, really, a valuable service.
Art centers like New York (especially Brooklyn) and Los Angeles are healthy, in part, because of their grass roots, festival and event-producing non profit scene. We should really mourn the loss of what Around the Coyote was, and could have been.
January 12th, 2010 at 7:55 am
The ATC Gallery seemed to be a separate entity from the fair and, indeed when it was set up a few years into ATC’s existance, it was to highlight some of the better (more established) artists. — a more appropriate venue for their work than a sheet of plywood on the porch of the Pulaski Park field house.
I agree that running something like ATC is not easy and a very thankless job. From a distance I witnessed the fighting that went on in the original board. Fighting, that escalated when Jim Happy Delpech became ill. I saw first hand the bullshit that artists heaped on the show organizers as they fought for the prime spaces in the Ludwig Drum Factory. Also I was involved with a start-up FOR-profit gallery. Trying to run anything in the arts is not for the squeamish. I commend those who tried to fix it.
The grass roots and non-profit scenes in NY and LA do well because of the art scenes in those cities, not the other way around. The public has more interest in art. Also, the emerging artists that the non-profit scenes support, have something to emerge into. This is lacking in Chicago. Most ATC artists (those that aren’t mall artists) wind up showing in bars, cafes and art walks for their whole careers.
Twenty years is a good run. Maybe it’s time to dump the fair and concentrate on the gallery.
January 12th, 2010 at 9:16 am
“The grass roots and non-profit scenes in NY and LA do well because of the art scenes in those cities, not the other way around.”
Good point Bill.
January 12th, 2010 at 11:12 am
I was in the first few ATC’s and they were fun when it was mostly an open studios tour. When artists got priced out of having actual studio space in the neighborhood, it became more of an art fair type set-up and I lost interest.
I did benefit from ATC with a few sales, meeting fellow artists and arranging other spin-off shows.
Anyhow, I think it’s life cycle is complete….r.i.p. ATC
January 12th, 2010 at 11:38 am
It would be a shame for Chicago to lose the Coyote. Perhaps the city and the Art Institute could blow some money and new energy into it. With New York loosing its artists due to a high cost of living, Chicago could steal the crown. I agree with Norbert. The Coyote was always a collection of bad outsider art peppered with nice couch paintings. I don’t remember much that was “hot” either unless that happened within this last 8 years after I left Chicago. I suspect it was just a higher percentage of the couch paintings. Still, as it is with small town fairs, there were always a couple of gems that made it worth going. Someone needs to get Daley’s attention. It could really be something. I’ve always thought that.
January 12th, 2010 at 12:21 pm
Hey Diedre, it’s nice seeing you here (I miss you)…if there is an opportunity to steal the crown, the Chicago art scene is in no position to do it right now….maybe a belt buckle but not a crown…& Daley is too busy wheelin’ and dealin’ to give a shit about art
January 12th, 2010 at 12:43 pm
‘maybe a belt buckle but not a crown’…i LOVE that!! i’m gonna use it..i swear!!
February 3rd, 2010 at 7:34 pm
Carla W’s recollection jibes with my memory of the early years of ATC when it was a fun and informative experience. After a few years the vultures descended on it to see how they could profit off of the event. You are now witnessing the aftermath, R.I.P.
February 3rd, 2010 at 8:40 pm
reading all these comments makes me think that there is more protectionism in chicago than art
February 4th, 2010 at 2:09 pm
I don’t know about that Dan. On a whole, I think it’s apathy….
February 11th, 2010 at 10:39 pm
I’ve been volunteering for Around the Coyote since 2006. Every time i’ve volunteered for an ATC event, I’ve reluctantly become more and more disappointed and embarrassed to be apart of it. Working for them for free (interning) has given me absolutely no leg up on my career especially when everyone is disgruntled. I can’t believe how badly this organization has run themselves into the ground!
This last time i volunteered, Fall of 2009, was curated so badly and so cheaply it was straight up disrespectful to the artists that step up their games invariably while the curators invariably slacked, blaming their poor, poor “budgets” and the bad economy on their shoddy event coordinating. If you’re curators, be creative and find a way to throw a good show or don’t bother at all. It’s just depressing to the rest of us.
I’m a very experienced and educated modern artist and modern art enthusiast with a Bachelors degree in Art and Design from Columbia. Since curating is my optimum goal in life, it is my belief that this city needs to invest in youth again. We’ve been on a consistent decline since 2000. I BELIEVE in modern art and that modern art and fresh ideas is pivotal to making this midwestern city from turning us into another Detroit or Kansas City. I know what Chicago is capable of — what happened to our art scene, people?
I’ve worked for and volunteered for 15 different galleries and art community efforts throughout Chicago, designed art festival brochures for neighboring communities, assisted in art auctions houses, represented a River North Gallery (will remain unnamed) for exhibits at S.O.F.A., Merchandise Mart, Bridge Art Fair and many, many installations for other galleries in the last 5 years alone.
I’m a world traveler that has had the luxury to contrast and compare what other cities are doing for their art communities and unlike Chicago they seem to care: Phoenix, Melbourne, AUS, New York, London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Portland, Toronto, Seoul just naming a few on how they nurture their young, budding artists. They offer free monthly trolleys riding you from one gallery to the next, including free entry to their modern art museums that offer a variety of entertainment for the young, old as well as families. You should see their well designed fliers and easy to follow routes to get from one gallery to the next — crowds in the thousands EVERY SINGLE MONTH and growing constantly!!! They offer such variety: incentives such as free art raffles, dance performances, and fun for kids like puppet shows, cultural hoopla’s and tours through their historical districts. ALL FOR FREE every month, all in one evening. They’re keeping their cities art enthusiasts coming back for more all the time and increasing population in the long run regardless of the loom of our bleak economy which seems to be the consistent excuse for why Chicago has been nose-diving. Keep your city happy and investors and money and business will follow.
I can’t believe that out of the 6 gallery districts Chicago has to offer not 1 of them can get it right much less listen to how other cities are thriving artistically. I mean really, do you enjoy bringing in zero profits monthly, gallery owners? I’d say 85% of other major cities art organizations leave Chicago’s gallery scenes in the dust.
The Around the Coyote events have been consistently getting cheaper quality-wise, less coordinated. The standards of the events have predictably been getting worst while the artists they’ve showed (the artists have to pay booth fees to show their work in a 5″ X 5″ space, too) have been consistantly getting more and more incredible.
I want the roster of the artists that showed at that last ATC festival 2009, for i need to start my own permanent gallery in Chicago and show America what we’re capable again. My huge venue will be focusing on modern art and talented youth. They deserve it. We ARE that good.
Every one that works for Around the Coyote are all unpaid volunteers anyway, and they obviously don’t care, much less know how to run a public art festival. The ATC venue I was in working in specifically, on Milwaukee Ave in Wicker Park in 2009, had leaky cielings (water falling on artwork), was filthy, the bathroom was beyond rogue, tiles falling from the cieling, yellow stained walls and empty beer bottles on the floor from the party that was held there the night before. The store front itself looked like an abandoned shabby, broke down free health clinic. A disgrace.
Charge for entry to get in the half ass thrown event, a fee for groups that had taken a bus from Iowa to witness what Chicago modern art has to offer, made me feel acquired. Half the other participating ATC venues involved weren’t even open on time, probably because the unpaid volunteers for ATC were severly hung over from the ATC party thrown the night before – and there was a fee even to get into that. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy.
As a person that’s in their 30′s and seeks cutting edge art done the right way, as a Chicagoan that’s sick of the stuffy, exorbitantly over priced art created by dinosaurs and owned by dinosaurs (I’m pointing in your direction, River North) ATC deserves to die. They’ve lost their vision and focus on don’t care what quality artwork and curating means.
February 12th, 2010 at 9:04 am
Gozimus, thank you for your heartfelt response…much appreciated. My opinion is: if you are concerned with your career you should never have involved yourself with ATC in the first place. Since its origin, ATC was never a high caliber event…and that’s going back to 1989. Sure, it was a fun party for some and maybe a good way for a young artist to get some kind of experience but it was never high quality. That was obvious all along.
Artist community events are also a bomb: http://neotericart.com/2009/08/26/wtf-community-art/
I think one of Chicago’s problem is that it pays too much attention to young artists. The West Loop scene gets most of the attention and that scene is all about “youth”. Apartment galleries, Pilsen, ThreeWalls, etc…it’s all about the “youth”. Before it closed recently, The Contemporary Art Workshop only showed young artists. Any artist that is in an MFA program in Chicago thinks that “they have made it” already. And the sad part about all this is that a lot of this art that I see is complete shit. What is “cutting edge”?…bullshit pseudo intellectual charged statements to go along with shitty drawings pinned to a wall…
You talk about “dinosaurs”. In Chicago, if you are in your mid 30s you are a “dinosaur”….!!!. Actually, using the term “dinosaur” to describe anyone is wrong. And that’s another problem with Chicago, they “forget” about their more seasoned artists. There are plenty of artists over 35 still working in Chicago, still making “good” stuff who never see the light of day in Chicago…they go elsewhere to to be seen.
I am all for “cutting edge” art done the right way. The artworld needs it! And Chicago is paying enough attention to this. What I think would make Chicago stronger would be to pay more attention to its lost “dinoauars”!
February 12th, 2010 at 10:24 am
Around the Coyote was too makeshift. It always felt kind of junky as a whole. DIY, grassroots stuff doesn’t have to be thrown together. For those artists that want to participate in the community art fair/art walk world there are and can be nicer ways to do it. There are a few art bazaar places in Chicago that display work in a more professional fashion. A poorly put-together festival gives the impression that the artists don’t care about their work. Maxwell Street was incredible as a cultural experience, but its model doesn’t work well for art.
Chicago does have a vibrant scene for young artists. There are plenty of alternative gallery spaces available. Unfortunately, it’s artists showing to other artists and their friends. It’s more of a social scene. For most of these artists, I suspect that after a couple of years, the pressures from life events and day careers force these artists out of the art world.
What Chicago needs is a scene that supports mid-career artists; something that the young artists can graduate into, rather than fall off; something more than cafe shows and ATC/CAC-style events. Chicago needs more interest in its own art from people outside of the field of art making and exhibiting.
February 21st, 2010 at 4:24 pm
I participated in 5 ATC festivals, beginning in Fall ’07. The Fall ’07 and Fall ’08 shows were particularly beneficial. When I think of the talented and kind artists I’ve met, the curators and sheer numbers of people that have seen my work, the experience has far exceeded anything I would ever have accomplished showing in art fairs and restaurants. The exposure means something. Groups like ATC and CAC do provide valuable services to artists. It’s up to the artists to make decent work and present it in a thoughtful manner.
Putting together a festival covering so many art forms at so many venues, on a non-profit budget with mainly volunteer help requires talent, time and dedication. Whatever happens with Coyote, Chicago is lucky to have folks like Allison Stites, Jessica Cochran and the many others, including some really great volunteers, who pulled it off.
February 21st, 2010 at 10:13 pm
Thank you Doreen for your comment. You say that “the exposure [at the ATC] means something”. So what exactly has that exposure done for you? Also, it’s interesting that you mention the ATC experience “has far exceeded anything I would ever have accomplished showing in art fairs and restaurants”. I would suggest that you set your bar a little higher.
March 24th, 2010 at 2:18 am
I participated in ATC in 96-98 when it was a wide open non-curated extravaganza. Wicker Park was packed with art and studios, it was our bit of Bohemia.
ATC and Wicker Park was destroyed by the grasping rich. In those years it was studio after studio all open house. Artists did sell art. We partied all night. It was fun, we thought we were as good as New York! Then somebody decided to curate, what a mistake. Curators and galleries have no clue.
I was the guy giving away NOT ART stickers. Most people still do not get it.
March 24th, 2010 at 1:26 pm
Randy,
“We partied all night. It was fun…”
You hit it on the head. That’s all ATC was…a big party. There is nothing wrong with that but if we are talking about the art a lot and I mean a lot was never worth a damn.
May 13th, 2010 at 12:43 pm
http://art.newcity.com/2010/05/08/around-the-coyote-no-more/
It is dead!