The Value of Community

Our former gallery in Liberty, NY

A message from MARGARET:

Artists tend to be a solitary bunch. We spend a lot of time in our own heads, nestled in our studio, lost in the “flow” of our creative process. While uninterrupted solitude can be vital to an artist’s productivity, real value can also be found in stepping outside of our selves and connecting with others.

When I was a graduate student in the Art Institute of Boston’s low residency MFA in Visual Arts program, one of the first things I was directed to do was to “tap into” my local art community. Instructors shared frightening statistics regarding the percentage of MFA graduates who no longer practice their art. The phenomenon is often attributed to the loss of structure and accountability graduates face upon completion of their degree and subsequent exit from the academic environment. AIB’s theory is that if participants of their low residency program connect with their local art community while they are pursuing their degree, they are more likely to continue as working artists after they graduate because their support system will remain in place. It’s a good theory and probably quite effective when properly implemented. I say, ‘properly implemented’ because I didn’t work hard enough to connect with artists near my rural home when I was in graduate school. Instead, I traveled thirty-plus miles to participate in neighboring art community activities. I was willing to do this as part of my graduate studies, but once I completed my degree and began teaching full-time, I found myself less and less willing to invest the travel time. As work and parenting responsibilities crowded my agenda, my art slipped lower and lower on my list of daily priorities. I was in danger of becoming a statistic, but one small connection kept me from slipping over the edge completely.

In 2007 I began to show select works at the Catskill Artist Gallery in Liberty, New York. Unlike some of the other venues and organizations I had become involved with during graduate school, the Catskill Artist Gallery was only about fourteen miles from my home. So as my schedule became more complicated it was easy for me to maintain a relationship with CAG while others fell by the wayside. This connection helped me to remain engaged in my art practice and stands as a testament for the value of community.

According to Baumeister and Leary’s Belongingness Hypothesis, “humans have an almost universal need to form and maintain a least some degree of interpersonal relationships with other humans.” In addition to providing a sense of structure and accountability, being part of a group or organization of like-minded individuals provides one with a sense of self worth and determination. These truths have become increasingly clear to me, as I have become more involved with the Catskill Artist Gallery and its recent transition to becoming a “gallery without walls.”  As I meet with the seven other members of our group to discuss our plans, I find myself more and more motivated to engage in my art practice. In recent weeks I have been more active on Twitter and Facebook and I have finally published a personal website.  Being part of CAG has renewed my ambition and I suspect it has done the same for the other members of our group... There truly is strength in numbers. Visit our Events page to learn more about the good things we have planned for 2012.