3.1.2006
Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley
THERE’S NOTHING INFORMAL ABOUT IT
Participatory Arts Within The Cultural Ecology Of Silicon Valley
by Maribel Alvarez, Ph.D. with research assistance by Lisa van Diggelen

Visibility and Leadership
The title selected for this report, “There’s Nothing Informal About It,” was spoken by a grassroots arts advocate at a meeting of about 20 nonprofit arts organizations, the majority of which started out as informal/amateur groups, and eventually decided to seek legal nonprofit status as a means of acquiring access to grants and “more stability” for their activities. In expressing his dislike of the term “informal,” this person touched upon one of the key elements that drive people to move from being isolated arts-lovers and avocational artists to come together with other like-minded people to create social participatory opportunities for art-making— the desire for respect and visibility.

Intrinsically connected to this aspect is the need for someone to become a leader, to formally take the initiative and call the group together. Leadership in this context means more than making the logistical arrangements to convene other artists, it also implies becoming, sometimes reluctantly, a sort of public intellectual or “knowledge worker”55 who can speak to the semantics and protocols that the informal arts encompass vis-à-vis the established dominant arts infrastructure. Often, individuals cast in these roles of leadership must act as translators between the language of the community of practitioners and the language of the world of arts, granting, and administration.

Leadership and the kind of wherewithal required to summon an arts experience or creative community out of obscurity toward visibility are premium qualities admired by informal arts practitioners. At the same time, we heard informal arts practitioners repeatedly express a critique of the existing arts delivery systems and bureaucratic exigencies of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit model that fed their own sense of singularity within the arts ecology of the region. Unincorporated practitioners believe themselves to be, and in most cases truly are, carriers of a radical vision: arts programs should not be “for” the community; they should be “by” the community. The amateur and avocational artists who embrace this philosophy beyond their own personal sphere become more than informal artists, they turn into informal cultural agents among circuits of like-minded people, and as such they are called upon to act on that conviction and “make something happen.”

One group that exemplifies the multiple dimensions of these artistically independent and counter-organizational push-and-pull factors is the San José-based Pacific Art Collective, or PAC. Comprised of a group of young, hip-hop-influenced independent artists and producers whose chosen medium of work is what is known as an “event” or “happening,” or, in this case, a “PAC Session.” PAC describes itself as an organization that is “catapulting a contemporary collaborative arts movement.” One of the things that make PAC unique in Silicon Valley is the youth culture in which it is cemented. Hip-hop events and practices have proven resilient in some instances to efforts to discipline them into codified traditional nonprofits while at the same time operating at complex levels of organizational capacity. PAC is especially intriguing. In addition to crafting one of the most sophisticated local public stages for individual informal artists through the idioms of urban, hip, and alternative aesthetics, PAC also makes the audience’s participation interactive and, hence, informally and spontaneously creative in its own right. The very idea that the informal arts can generate specifically animated and participatory audiences—not because the audiences get up and play the instruments necessarily, but because they are charged through the format of the event with an explicit role as suppliers of energy for the artists, and are therefore considered co-creators— opens up a number of promising possibilities for reinvigorating arts communities.

PAC was established in 2002 by local DJ Will Rowan, a former Silicon Valley software and hardware sales manager. More than 50 live events have occurred to date where more than 300 artists—most of them non-professionals (i.e., they do not make a living from their art or they are self-taught, independent, amateurs, or avocational)—have presented their work in a setting that is unlike anything one is likely to have come across before in Silicon Valley. The main characteristic of a PAC Session is the staging of multiple artistic happenings simultaneously under one roof, often at a bar or nightclub. A kind of symbolic excess glues the vision together. A May 2005 PAC Session, for example, included four live music bands, four DJs or Turntableists, two visual artists creating works on site, a spoken word open mic session, and a photography exhibit. PAC boasts about the democratic policy that underwrites their events; according to their website (www.pacificartcollective.com), they highlight “artistic genres equally.” PAC performances have included fashion shows, comedy, light shows, dance performances, and featured interior designers, and video artists, among several others.

According to Will, there is an infinite amount of “great, undiscovered art Silicon Valley is producing,” but from his point of view, “there’s a lack of organization within the arts community” that prevents it from seeing it all for the treasure that it really is. On any given night, a PAC Session might feature an Aztec dance group, a new painter, an unpublished poet, a relatively well-known music band, a dance performance presented by members of the local ballet company, and an amateur comedian bent on political humor who works as an accountant during the day. Whatever the mix, there is always a host who keeps the audience and artists unified on an explicit declaration of what they “are building together” that evening, and beyond. As a collective performance, a PAC Session touches all the raw buttons of being artistic, and at the same time selfconsciously disenfranchised.

Judging from the comments posted on the website by those who attend PAC Sessions in San José, one would almost get the impression that, before PAC, the “Capital of Silicon Valley” was an artistic ghost town. It wasn’t, yet PAC convenes people from such invisible spots within the region’s creative community that it seems as if they all appeared out of nowhere. The range and enthusiasm of the postings are extraordinary: “One of the best things to happen to San José’s cultural scene in the last five years;” “A great service to our creative community;” “I used to think San José had no culture, but now I see that they do;” “What you guys do is a blessing in our current cultural climate that marginalizes artistry and creativity;” “I have lived in San José all my young life and have not, until the past couple of years, seen any movement in the arts.” On the part of artists/participants, the comments express a similar tone of discovery, validation, and social critique: “Thank you for giving us the opportunity…it was a large boost to our confidence;” “I believe in hard work and dedication in what you aspire to have...A PAC Session is the door for that longing in expressing art and talent;” and, “We experienced some really provoking and interesting moments last night in paying witness to the creative process unfolding.”

One of PAC’s co-founding members described this conspicuous mix of art and grassroots democracy as the result of tapping into an unacknowledged reservoir of talented artists and enthusiastic aspiring artists and audiences, and labeled it as a “true subcultural event.” Established arts organizations such as the San Jose Repertory Theatre and the San Jose Museum of Art have sought collaborations with PAC in order to “cultivate more meaningful dialogue with younger lovers of art,” as a Museum press release stated recently. Will Rowan has maximized this interest to the benefit of PAC, as these large organizations often serve as venues for the PAC Sessions. Introducing a deliberately managerial voice into his otherwise casual tone, Will states, “By fostering interactive environments…both artists and venues draw new demographic and economic stimulation.” The assimilation of nonprofit artspeak seems to be an inevitable result of PAC’s huge success over the last several years, thus raising serious questions about the actual sustainability of the arts as an informal experience once it breaks into a more public and more visible terrain than the small communitarian contexts in which these artistic impulses are first cultivated.

As of June 2004, PAC was earning all its income at the events, except for free publicity through the calendar sections and occasional feature articles in the local newspapers. A year later, the need to receive grants and tax-deductible donations to sustain their activities had grown, and PAC has already incorporated as a nonprofit. Will had accumulated a large personal debt subsidizing the events with his personal credit card, and the same success that PAC had enjoyed for months had grown to the point of needing a full-time coordinator. Will also had another concern in mind, “We need to generate income for people, for the artists.” The more Will described his goals about taking traveling ensembles of artists to other regions and wanting to “focus on youth programs, get into school districts, and do assemblies for kids,” the more PAC’s organizational needs began to parallel those of the conventional nonprofit structure. Many venues ask for proof of liability insurance before agreeing to host a PAC Session, and some ask for an advance deposit for food and drinks. Sponsorships have become increasingly important under this scenario. Silent auctions and raffles of work donated by featured artists are used to close the gap in the cost of the productions. Although all these elements are business-as-usual for nonprofit arts organizations, Will still affirms an alternative location within the arts scene: “We are striving for cultural change, in the way people think about art, and the way people interact with each other,” he says.

This excerpt was taken from the book: THERE’S NOTHING INFORMAL ABOUT IT; Participatory Arts Within The Cultural Ecology Of Silicon Valley click hear to read the entire book in PDF format. (This book is a must read for anyone interested in starting an art and/or cultural organization in the Silicon Valley)