Phoenix’s greatest challenge isn’t finding talent. It’s isn’t finding motivated people. It isn’t finding get local creatives. It isn’t finding stuff to do.
It’s making them all work TOGETHER. Art Detour, a massively important, once-a-year event, is an opportunity to take the very best this city has to offer and show them all off to the public.
Problem is, no one wants to work together. There were exhibits at the Heard Museum, there were vendors on Roosevelt Row and there were exhibits in the Melrose District. While the sentiment was certainly there, who has the time or patience to travel that far from event to event? Why would event organizers cannibalize crowds from each other?
It’s time for this type of behavior to end. Museums, stop competing with local artists, you’re killing them. Roosevelt Row, stop pretending closing off one little street is going to make anyone want to come. Melrose, well, stop being so far away.
Band together. Advertise together. Make it a festival. Take some freaking OWNERSHIP. Put someone in charge. Stop making us trek from one place to another, diluting the time we could be spending buying your stuff.
We’re all on the same team. It’s time for every website, community group, comedy troupe, artist group and city organization to start acting like it.
My name is Tyler Hurst and I approve this message.
This seems to be a common and re-occurring theme….
Scottsdale Fashion Week
Phoenix Fashion Week
Ring any bells?
For sure one of the things that pisses me off in AZ, everyone has there own agenda.
As always, I wish and hope in my heart that it will change.
Much Love,
Chelsea
(a Phoenix transplant living in Chicago)
Dude, you bring up some good points, but your post seems like one big gripe. Take these ideas and put some substance behind them as opposed to a mere laundry list of things we should do. For instance, how do you propose the working artists and museums work together?
Lou-
There needs to be some sort of master schedule for all events planned. Surely the city has to approve such events, wouldn’t it be a simple matter to inform a third party of these applications? Perhaps ArtLink could take the responsibility, perhaps a news org or even an active citizen.
From there, get the heads of each group into a room and have them create a schedule.
It really shouldn’t take more than that, should it? Who’s in charge of Art Detour? Why isn’t the Events Manager for the Heard (who I assume in a full-time person) the leader for this type of thing?
Would love to hear any suggestions, too. There isn’t a simple fix.
Yeah. Something happened to the Art Detour this year. Of the 12 years I’ve been going I’ve never seen such a small crowd…
Landy- What do you think it was? Competing events? Lack of proper advertising?
I’m not sure really. It seems to me that the whole focus was on First Friday – leaving the rest of the weekend to fizzle out. The artists/studio’s that were open, seemed wiped out from the night before. Where were all the bands and side show’s that you usually see on Art Detour weekend. The audience follows the artists. But they just weren’t around.
The Melrose festival was really happening on Saturday. I don’t think that would have much of an impact on the Roosevelt or Grand scene. It’s a different crowd. There just wasn’t much to do or see during the day time.