Lexington, KY - February is a big month for community arts advocate Bruce Burris. Not only is he is spearheading his first "(un)conference" this month -
"(un)dressing Normal" on Feb. 10 -
he also is headlining a retrospective art show at Institute 193 a week later. In the midst of all that, Latitude Artist Community, the community arts center Burris co-founded, is settling into its new home on Manchester Street and gearing up for a grand re-opening gala to take place on Feb. 17.
The new location is more spacious than the Saunier Alley space that housed the center for the past seven years, and includes a courtyard area as well as a gallery and workspace. As an added bonus, it is also connected to the new location of Mecca Live Studio and Gallery, a dance studio that has been closely aligned with Latitude since Burris and his partner, Crystal Bader, started the organization 11 years ago, utilizing Mecca's former North Limestone studio during the day.
While Latitude, a therapeutic art studio geared primarily toward people who are perceived to have a disability, is Burris's primary focus, he is constantly embarking on new community-oriented projects, including an ongoing "small projects accelerator" called ELandF Gallery. The organization, which is considered a Latitude program, creates opportunities for the public to participate in intimate arts projects, utilizing public spaces and usually including an overarching social element. Past projects have included hiring a "town crier" to publicly mourn the loss of the buildings on Main Street that were demolished to make room for the CentrePointe project; commissioning a DJ to spin records amidst the trees of McConnell Springs park; and paying two participants to watch clouds for an hour.
"You might say that ELandF sets the table for something to occur which might not ordinarily occur," Burris said. "I am usually long gone before the piece is over because I feel it's important to allow the performers room and trust so that they may create interactions which might not have occurred were I observing."
Burris recently took some time to chat with us about his community work and projects he has on the horizon this month.
Many of your endeavors seem focused on challenging the traditional notions of art and performance. Tell us a little about your general philosophy on art and how it should function in society and the community.
I'm not really convinced that I have ever challenged much of anything -- but I take it as a compliment that you think so, because as an artist if you feel that you are not challenging some notion, then you probably need to consider doing something else. I don't necessarily feel that artists should be serving their community in any particular way -- as if artists have some particular responsibility beyond anyone else -- but should an artist do something from which the community benefits, well, so much the better.
Along with a group of Latitude artists, you spearheaded a successful advocacy organization called PEAL (Project Easy Access Lexington) seven years ago to draw attention to and address local accessibility issues for people with disabilities. Tell us more about what this group has accomplished.
Initially, our intent was to draw attention to street level accessibility difficulties in downtown Lexington -- poorly maintained sidewalks, missing ramps, that sort of thing. As our scope grew, we acquired some great organizing skills and after many public rallies, op-eds and the like, we are able to say that we have made some positive impact on Lexington's new streetscape. We approached this problem from many angles -- we created what we called the Bricksquad, which filled a canvas bag with a trowel, paving bricks and sand to repair the downtown sidewalk by hand. During this time, PEAL successfully advocated for the creation of the Mayor's Commission for Citizens with Disabilities, which has been a very important forum for council members, disability advocates and organizations, and for anyone.
Who are some local artists who have piqued your interest lately?
Robert Beatty comes to mind immediately. He works in a variety of media, which makes his work very difficult to pin down. His work is a very fluid and subterranean type of expression. It makes sense in a way that his work may be better known in NYC than in Lexington, though a recent exhibit at Institute 193 did much to change that.
At Latitude we want to do as much as we can to support artists. With that in mind, we recently created an initiative called I.D.eaWorks for which we fundraise with various artists in mind, commissioning them to create new work without very limited obligations or hoops to jump through. We recently hired a great fundraiser to help guide this venture and Robert is the first artist we will work with in this way.
Latitude artists have exhibited from Cincinnati to NewYork to London, Moscow and Berlin this past year, but two up-and-coming artists I'm really interested in are Tony Dunn and Paul McGurl. Both will be exhibiting at Institute 193 later this year. They both have an uncanny knack for creating seemingly spacious artworks which are actually quite dense.