Art Melt’s problem

Overcrowding is a good problem to have, and as awareness of Forum 35’s Art Melt has grown steadily in its first four years, so has congestion. Unfortunately the city’s largest, most talked-about juried exhibition is facing a more deep-seeded issue, one that could threaten its reputation as a premier art event in Baton Rouge.

A significant number of the city’s most talented artists are not submitting their work. And according to some, this silent boycott will continue until Art Melt makes significant changes.

Painter Hunter Roth calls the event a “horse-and-pony show” held in a space—Brunner Gallery at the Shaw Center for the Arts—that is too small for the crowds Art Melt attracts. Roth’s work has been shown at Art Melt before, but he chose not to submit this year.

“The judges are just looking at (submitted) images on a computer, not at actual pieces or resumes, so you get a lot of stuff that’s like craft design senior projects,” Roth says. “It’s a complete turn-off, really.”

Photographer and film editor Britt King says Art Melt must do a better job of drawing a distinction between fine art and work that results from crafts and hobbies.

“It’s an editing problem,” King says. “Art Melt needs to have a higher standard and let fewer submissions in. It’s great that you have 3,000 people coming, but if the quality isn’t there, that’s 3,000 people you’re telling that this crap is art.”

According to King and Roth, a certain group of local artists don’t want their work shown on the same walls with some other Art Melt pieces because when different works are exhibited together the curators are presenting them as equals. A sizeable percentage of work accepted, they believe, is artistically questionable.

Other Baton Rouge artists would speak with 225 only on the condition of anonymity. They say Art Melt is merely a social event where few in attendance take the work seriously, or none take the time to really experience it. One even suggested that Art Melt establish a thesis to hold the entire exhibition together.

Demond is a local painter whose work has shown each year at Art Melt. He entered again this spring because he likes seeing his output up against that of other artists, even if he thinks Art Melt has its faults. The exhibition, Demond says, is far too conservative. “The cutting-edge pieces are not the ones that win,” he says. “I think it has been older people who judge, and they are not looking for anything new.”

The 2008 juror is Sean Ulmer of the Cedar Rapides Museum of Art. Ulmer is a University of Toledo graduate with curatorial experience at Cornell and the University of Michigan. Forum 35’s Art Melt Committee, chaired by Chris Brooks, John Jackson and Dr. Ashley Stokes, chose Ulmer as this year’s sole juror in an effort to streamline the judging process.

The committee sets guidelines for the juror and a quota for selections, which this year is about 70 pieces. Stokes says she wouldn’t want to limit entries to much fewer than that, because one goal of the event is to showcase a variety that will appeal to a wide array of people, a necessity, she says, when more than 5,000 attend.

“I’ve talked to these artists, and called some to ask them to submit,” Stokes says. “They all have their different reasons, but if they don’t submit then the community loses out. We want art to be the focus of Art Melt, and we’re working hard to make it better each year.”

Stokes says rather than wholesale changes to Art Melt she favors starting a new juried show for the fall, one that is smaller and more selective and might appeal to the Art Melt holdouts.

But even if a separate event blossomed, Roth still has doubts.

“If Forum 35 backed an LSU School of Art show, they’d get the same response,” Roth says. “Their events bring their crowd, and then the artists bring their own crowd. And those social circles have very different ideas about art.”

Art Melt is going to be popular this year. There is little reason it shouldn’t be. On July 11, Brunner Gallery will overflow with art lovers, socialites, musicians, performance troupes and craftspeople selling their creations. But when talented artists in the city refuse to participate or criticize Art Melt as they do, they are making an argument that Forum 35 is not listening to the entire community and not fulfilling the event’s obligation to promote the very best of Baton Rouge. If these artists are right, then perhaps both an art form and a culture are being cheated.

And no matter how many thousands attend Art Melt, that is a problem that must be addressed. artmelt.org

For a list of Art Melt’s selected artists, click here.