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Welcome to the
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(Corporate control of the arts). No one is organizing to fight it. The media says the US is still moving toward the right, and apparently people accept this as the truth. Sometimes the media says vote right, and people vote right, and they get more prisons, more cops, fewer services, and more reasons for rebellion. Sometimes the media says vote right, but the people vote left, and they get...more prisons, more cops, fewer services, and more reasons for rebellion. And so the US is still moving toward the right, and still no one on earth is doing anything about it. No one is organizing. But fear not - size is not everything... "
--Elliot Cantrell,
from the mail art show at the Second Arts Revolution Festival
For one day, the Festival brings together music, poetry, dance, painting, storytelling, video, animation, sculpture and other work by independent artists. It's an invitation to join together in a space where we can tap into the wide spectrum of independent artistic expression.
Often stories about the arts in Dallas revolve around notions of artists leaving "greener pastures" or "the struggle for support," corporate or otherwise. Dallas has grown to the point where there are a large number of local poets, painters, sculptors, actors, musicians and dancers. Wežve also developed a large number of more unconventional artists, individuals sculpting with bicycle parts or sound and others working with video art. The Arts Revolution Festival exists to celebrate the diverse range of local artists.
The Festival also exists to give artists an arena free of the fetters of corporate control and commercialism.
......22 companies control 40% of all media in the U.S.
............5 companies control 40% of all publishing
...............6 companies control music (world wide)
The monopolies lock-out independent art from the mainstream of the public. Without access to an audience artists have no voice. Because the monopolies ignore local art, we ignore them for a day. We scheduled our last festival January 29 -- Superbowl Sunday and had our largest turnout yet. The Revolution Continues.
...The monopolies ignore local art - let's ignore them for a day
The Arts Revolution Festival is funded by audience donations and the organizers. We receive no government grants, accept no advertising and have no corporate sponsors or large private donors. Although this is not the only way to support the arts, we feel that this is the only way to guarantee that our artists are guaranteed the right to express themselves as artists. We have seen too many people attacked by demagogues, such as Jesse Helms, or asked to revise their art to make it acceptable. That is the price that an artist pays for accepting money from a corporation or government. That price is too high.
Efforts are beginning to happen other places in the country. Left Curve and Negations are journals devoted to exploring the problems of our sold-out, commodified society. Unapack is a political campaign devoted to demonstrating the problems with our present political system through positioning the Unabomber as a candidate in the '96 U.S. Presidential Race.
Those featured at the fourth festival include poets Clebo Rainey (host of the Dallas Poetry Slam) megaha (has opened for New Bohemians) and Ray Hinman, painter Rosemary Meza (exhibited at 500X Gallery), musicians Laura Davis (featured on Inner City Music Videos) and Santiago Villareal (featured at PerformFest '94) and video artist Fran Carris (featured at The San Antonio Museum of Art).
Features at the first three festivals: David Hanners, music -- Michael McMurray, cabaret lecture -- L. A. Dorman, poetry -- Carrol Oliphant, fractured fairy tales -- James Mardis -- Terry Wood, dance -- Jeff Thompson, poetry -- Liza Bachman, short fiction -- Dottie Whiplash, performance art -- Jennifer Thomas, short fiction reading -- Lisa Markley, music -- Jana Long, music -- Kathy Gould, poetry -- Lydia Miller, story telling -- John Held, Jr, performance art -- Rosemary Mezza, performance art -- Steve Joyce, film -- Sandy Abernathy, music -- John Wilke, video -- The End, music -- Kristin Bolotin, painting -- Charles Burley, photography -- Bonnie Forbis, sculpture -- Hayley Walker, sculpture -- Terry Hale, painting -- Art S. Revolution, independent zines -- Gail Winkleman, jewelry -- Alexandria V (Volk), painting -- BLOOM, ambient music -- Scott Loehr, music -- Glen Manuel, dance -- Amy Hatfield, short fiction -- Laura Price, dance -- Dana Davis, Bailey, dance -- Aggie Alexander, dance -- C.J. Brewer, dance -- Sarah McDonough, dance -- Michael A. Colyer, poetry -- Jenni Mansfield, music -- Sam Modica, poetry -- John Wilke, video -- David Jahns, video -- Cozetta Thomas, dance -- Clebo Raney, poetry -- Lisa Neely, dance -- Jason Cohen, accoustic art/performance -- Donna Sherritt and Jim Cable, theatre -- Michelle Rhea, poetry -- Cynthia Hull, sculpture -- Stephen E. Holland, photography -- Rudy Ellis, shadowboxes -- Lynn Lawrence, drawing -- Steven Reneau, photography -- Lacie Taylor, music -- Christopher Soden, poetry -- Michelle Feldman, cabaret -- Jeff Glover, music -- Patty Turner, poetry -- Gene Helmick, story telling -- Lora Cain, dance -- Noel Newnam, dance -- Kendall Brown and T. Daniel Sheppeard, dueling poetry -- Lilah Vandenburgh, theatre -- Jenni Kraus, music -- Marc Phillips, poetry -- Vonnie Gallegos, poetry -- Dave Somogyi, music -- Sandra Autrey, performance piece -- Michelle Washington, painting -- Constance Gooden, photography -- Rachel Pascone, painting -- Beverly Terrell, painting -- George James Dukas, architecture -- Fran Carris, video
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