latitude
Bruce Burris of Latitude Artist Community.
In the mid-seventies, I dropped out of college and created a job of sorts for myself working with punk music acts in the Philadelphia area. Without actually managing bands, I worked with them to find appropriate venues and to cultivate an audience.
I also made some of the best punk flyers ever — really. I left it up to the band to determine how much my efforts were worth to them. What still resonates with me is just how generous every single band was. Some time later, a local gallery became interested in my work and, in addition to exhibiting it, provided me with a stipend for living expenses; later, a West Coast gallery paid a significant part of my art school expenses (unbeknownst to me), and so on. These are but a few examples of the ways in which I was supported, and thirty years later, I am still buoyed and motivated by them. It is my hope that those who stepped up to provide it feel that on the whole it was a good investment. If you know Latitude Artist Community and if you believe that Latitude is important to Lexington, then I can tell you that Latitude as it is known today would not exist if that encouragement had not occurred. The crucial role of encouragement and support for the non-traditional artist is the reason behind Latitude’s creation of I.D.eaWorks.
I.D.eaWorks: Supporting individual artists and artist-driven projects
Latitude has always supported artists in telling their stories — especially those who have complex messages. We are proud to introduce I.D.eaWorks, a new initiative that will help us grow and strengthen this focus. Through I.D.eaWorks, Latitude will work with and support individual artists and arts programs, particularly those that are involved with avant-garde, challenging or nontraditional media and ideas.
When working with individual artists, I.D.eaWorks will raise funds to support new pieces of work developed in collaboration with artists in our Studio Arts Program. We are excited about giving artists freedom in their creative process, so we won’t have many requirements for the end product. Aside from the component of collaboration with Latitude artists, we only ask that the new work be shown or performed in the Lexington community.
I.D.eaWorks will allow Latitude to introduce artists and their unique visions to the Lexington community, to make more nontraditional voices heard in the community, to enrich our programs for artists considered to have disabilities, to provide a wider range of arts programming and to strengthen Lexington’s cultural identity as a city that values contemporary art.
I.D.eaWorks: Supports Lexington Artist Robert Beatty
Robert Beatty’s artwork takes a range of forms from drawings, record covers and posters to sculpture, video and sound art. Despite the variety of media he uses, Beatty’s work explores relationships between organic and manufactured objects and uses technology in primitive, simple ways. Through his work he creates alternate universes that evoke both a futuristic and a retro feel and that exist entirely outside the world in which we live. In his work with sound, Beatty employs primitive electronics — those he finds, repurposes, or hacks — to create otherworldly soundscapes.
Beatty will work with Latitude on a new sound piece called Astral Duets. He will develop the composition in conjunction with a number of workshops that he will conduct with the artists at Latitude. A contribution to Latitude’s I.D.eaWorks will further our goal of raising funds to support this work. Astral Duets will debut in a performance at Latitude in the Mecca Dance Studio performance space on Friday, June 8. The performance will be open to the public with a suggested donation of $10. All funds raised through the performance will support the continued development of this piece of work.
I.D.eaWorks: Stage 948
Stage 948 is a partnership between I.D.eaWorks and Mecca. There are few performing arts opportunities in the area for youth considered to be “at risk” or adults who have disabilities. This summer, Stage 948 will present an abbreviated pilot program in collaboration with The Arbor (formerly MASH), which provides services for “at risk” youth. All performance workshops take a multidisciplinary approach to theater/performance, with special emphasis on movement, music, essential stagecraft and writing. The final performance for our first workshop will occur at Mecca on July 13 and is open to the public.
It is our hope that we can offer an extensive program of performance workshops (including circus skills) next summer.
How you can support I.D.eaWorks
There is information on how you can support I.D.eaWorks projects on Latitude’s blog at http://latitudeart.blogspot.com/
We are searching for friends who would like to help fundraise and write grants and generally help organize for Stage 948. For further information, contact Bruce Burris at (859) 806-0195 or at latitudearts@yahoo.com.
Bruce Burris is a Lexington artist and activist and co-owner of Latitude Artist Community.