Mass Humanities’ Wes DeShano, communications manager, speaks with Jonathan Mirin of Valley Arts Mentors and Jason Montgomery of 50 Arrow Gallery about “Revolutionary ArtStories,” a new art exhibition examining the 250th.
Wes DeShano (WD): Jon, Jason, thanks for joining me. Why don’t we start with a quick introduction to Valley Arts Mentors? Then we can dig into VAM’s new art exhibition, “Revolutionary ArtStories: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Equity.”
Jonathan Mirin: Two or three years ago, we started having culminating exhibits at the end of the cohorts, and the artists seemed to appreciate that. It was kind of a nice way to bring people together get some publicity for their work. When I saw the call for the “Promises of the Revolution” at Mass Humanities, I thought this could be an opportunity to have our first themed cohort. There’s never been any thematic suggestions at all on our part. So we thought this could be an opportunity to try that, especially given the 250th.
Jason Montgomery: When Jonathan approached me with the opportunity, it was an interesting time for me around how and what I was curating and the opportunity to essentially work with artists to talk about not just where we are as a society, but where we come from and how those two time periods are really in dialogue with one another. Having this opportunity to work with 14 artists from across our region and knowing that they were working in these pairs, it felt almost like a community organization practice where we were bringing people together and saying: “let’s have a discussion.”
And this discussion can be historic or it can be contemporary, but let’s enter into a discourse about these promises that were made to each and every one of us and how they are–at least for most of the artists–how they are being lived today. Being able to take those conversations and turn them into artifacts for the larger community to come in and engage through the artwork and have a context of the 250th just seemed like, “wow, this is a great opportunity.”
WD: What are some of the experiences that stick in your mind from working with such a diverse group of artists?
Jason Montgomery: For me, it’s how many of the artists are very aware of and are engaging with public space as both memorial and as literal memorial. Because we do have a lot of memorials from the time period of the revolution in this area–how many people are dealing with public space as both living artifact and as symbol for the larger community.
One of the artists, a young artist that I actually have the pleasure of mentoring through this, has become really fascinated with the ruin of building in our area and how that happens and through the time period, how that reflects back on those promises of life, liberty and the pursuit of equity for everyone and how that’s reflected in our architecture.
Jon Mirin: One of the exciting conversations I’ve had recently was with Melissa Stratton Pandina. She’s doing a triptych where it is this “sweep of history.” The centerpiece is loosely inspired by what’s happened in Minnesota, a sign from one of the Minnesota protests. And then to the left of that are leaders of different social movements throughout United States history–Sojourner Truth, Alice Paul, John Brown. And then to the right is Thomas Paine…a real kind of pre-Revolutionary War thinker. I’m not a visual artist, you know, I’m a theater artist. But for me, that’s what gets me jazzed to collaborate with visual artists because there’s no words needed. The viewer can just make their own connections.
WD: It seems to me that your exhibit is very much saying that art has the ability to spur thinking and provide critiques of what’s happening in the here and now. I think that there is always merit in times of cultural and societal upheaval to generating spaces where art can spark conversations.
Jason Montgomery: And I think a lot of what’s happening right now is based around this idea of who has the right and who has the agency to utilize public space, and to what degree. And so just by saying, well, we are utilizing space here to have a conversation about these things, and some of them will be very upfront and very easy to decode, while other pieces may actually ask you to enter into a larger conversation with them. But I think at the core of it, the act of taking up public space in that way is very much related to those core principles that we’re talking about.
WD: Valley Arts Mentors pairs emerging artists with more experienced mentors, i.e. artists who might be able to share guidance on the “business” of art. What were those dynamics like for this project?
Jason Montgomery: I also served as a mentor on this project. And in that regard, there was something very grounding about having a subject matter on which to focus our conversation. We’re learning something together about how our art works right now in this context. And we’re figuring it out together. That part of the process has been very interesting because it’s turned this from an exhibition I have to get through, to a process that I get to do. And I get to do it with someone else.
WD: Was there at any point where you were pleasantly surprised by the process? A conversation? A question?
Jason Montgomery: Mia’s work surprised me in that it’s colorful abstraction. It feels as though it took that idea of the pursuit of happiness to its umpteenth degree. Because it’s very joyous work. As a mentor I was very surprised by how much I have learned from my mentee, and how much I have come to value the conversations that we have, because we are two colleagues having a conversation around a project that I think has very different meanings for both of us.
Jon Mirin: I had a conversation with an animation artist named Amaya Bass from Springfield who’s paired with Kathryn Taccone, who has her own animation business.
Amaya’s project is basically about a young woman who is kind of experiencing, maybe for the first time, the emotional impact of “not being chosen” in the sense of the promise of equality is made to everyone, but it’s actually different for everyone. The lived experience of what that promise really is, is different depending on where you’re coming from and who you are in America today.
WD: That’s such a great point. We titled our grants for this year “Promises of the Revolution,” but we fully expected our grantees to explore how those concepts of life, liberty, happiness were (and still are) experienced inequitably.
Jon Mirin: So the title of her piece, her animatic, is The Priority System. I think it’ll be the first time that we’ll be hanging storyboards. People will just have to imagine.
Jason Montgomery: That’s what has also struck me as really interesting, is how many of these artists have used this to open the door to much bigger conversations that they’re having with their own work.
WD: What is your read on how this project has contributed to the art scene in Western Massachusetts?
Jason Montgomery: Maybe this is going to sound a little negative, but I also run a gallery space, curate work, and work with a lot of artists over at 50 Arrow Gallery. Right now, I have seen an unfortunate lack of people wanting to have a civil discourse around where we are contemporarily in the art scene. It has surprised me how much that conversation has not been happening. And so I’m hoping that people utilize this as an opportunity to say, oh, we need to have these conversations, and we need to have them in our art spaces, because our art spaces are places for civil discourse.
WD: Where can people see the exhibit?
Jon Mirin: It’s going to be up through July 16 at Holyoke Media with open hours of 12 – 7 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. But one of the conversations that we’re going to be having soon is: can this move somewhere? So that’s definitely my hope. And I think it’s also Jason’s hope. So for all you gallery owners or exhibition space caretakers out there who might be reading this, this is a cool exhibit. You should come see it and you should reach out to us about moving it. Absolutely.
WD: People can visit the Valley Arts Mentors website for updated information. Okay, one final question. Do you see any connection between art and civic life?
Jason Montgomery: As a working artist, I do try to do at least one public exhibition every cycle that I show. I do feel as though, as an artist, you have a responsibility to engage in the public conversation. And the only way to really do that, I think, is to have public showings that are removed from some of the other confines of showing or selling work for private consumption, whether that be gallery shows, etc. I know it sounds a little strange to say that artists have a responsibility, but I think everyone has a responsibility. Artists in particular have been gifted with the ability to articulate their inner selves and their inner thoughts in a way that’s compelling and interesting for others. And so that responsibility is compounded.
Jon Mirin: It makes me think of the first meeting we had in February with the two scholars who are on the project, who placed the project in a historical frame for everyone in a pretty concise, compelling way. That arc of history idea that we were talking about before, like, these are two women who have basically devoted their their professional lives to understanding history, and, particularly, American history. You know, Tracy Parker is a professor of African American studies at UC Davis now. But I met her when she was at UMass. And Barbara Matthews is a historical consultant who’s really focused her life’s work on the Revolution itself. For me, that was a cool moment. That’s a very “Mass Humanities moment” where, you just typically wouldn’t have the resources to have these two experts available for the artists to help them address what you’re asking.
WD: That’s a great way to put it–we’re always looking for ways to bring people together and help them think about the many different contexts that overlap when it comes to history, literature, art, culture, anything, really. Any concluding thoughts?
Jason Montgomery: I’d just like to thank Mass Humanities for providing the opportunity and the funding to have this conversation and to allow these communities to come together. It’s important for each and every one of us to find our community and to stand in our community right now. And Mass Humanities provided that platform. So thank you.
Jon Mirin: I’d like to echo that. Piti Theatre, which is my day job when I’m not doing Valley Arts Mentors, has received a lot of significant support over the years. And it’s just really been kind of amazing to, what you call the requirement to work with scholars, has just been a boon for us. It helps us think more deeply and actually have, when we’re making something that connects with local history, actually have an expert who can help frame it. The scholars we’ve worked with over the years have said, I’m going to help translate my deep understanding of history to your public communication. They’re trying to help make something understandable for families, for kids, etc. But I also just want to give a shout out to Scott McPherson, the executive director of Holyoke Media, who’s moving. He started this program with me, Valley Arts Mentors. It was 6 or 7 years ago. So having Holyoke Media as a partner all these years has been huge.
