It seems the Washington Pavilion’s Arts Night is in lock and step with SculptureWalk, which I’m sure shares a few jurors (I’m guessing Paul Schiller and Lynne Byrne – both multi-millionaire hobby artists). They seem to thinK keeping jurors secret is ok, or should I say, business as usual. It’s no mystery to me that these supposed jurors are just rich board members who contribute to the Pavilion. Even if the jurors need to remain secret, why would they reject donations at all? Would they reject a check from Annabelles or Scarlet O’ Haras? Doubt it.

Like other ARTS institutions in Sioux Falls, the Pavilion has conveniently set up their non-profit status so that they receive both public and private money which exempts them from being accountable to the public. I’m not going to mince words; this is bullshit. Every year the Pavilion, SEAC (part of SculptureWalk) and the VAC (Visual Arts Commission) come before the city council and mayor and ask for money from the taxpayers, and when the taxpayers ask for something in return, or want to give advice, or heck even donate a measly painting, we are told a resounding FUCK YOU! This needs to end. Either these orgs stop taking money from the public (which probably won’t happen anytime soon) or they start listening to the public.

We have several examples of how the public is left out. Remember the State theater? Look at that building now. Makes you wonder where that $100,000 went. How about the Orpheum? The Belbas? The Arena? The Great Hall? Most of these facilities sit empty 75-90% of the year. Why? Because local bands, musicians, theater companies and artists are not allowed to use these facilities at a discounted rate. Pretty stupid. They would prefer they sit empty and bring NO revenue.

The art orgs have successfully pissed off several artists and art groups in our city for their anti-art policies. Trust me, I’m not the only one who thinks this. I have had several local artists and patrons approach me over the last several months commending me for speaking out. I have had no one from that same group condemn me, As a matter of a fact, I haven’t heard a peep from any of the art orgs (they tend to ignore problems instead of fixing them).

The management in these groups are always sucking up to big business and the wealthy. Sure they are great for private donations, but by treating local artists like shit, you are in effect eliminating the ONLY cheerleaders you have in your community, and if local artists are bad mouthing local art orgs, the public is going to know not everything is on the up and up.

I speak out for several reasons:

1) Censorship and Secrecy have no place in the public art forum.

2) I’m a concerned taxpayer that thinks government should be fiscally conservative while still providing benefits to everyone in the community.  The key word is ‘Everyone’.

You don’t have to be a local artist or even like art to be concerned about this matter. This is about non-profits taking our taxmoney and squandering it on programs the elite in our community want.

The irony of all this is another well-known non-profit art/music organization that does almost the exact opposite of these orgs, takes very little from the public and puts on a free 2 day, outdoor music festival and several concerts and events for the community and pays local bands to play. So why is it that they can afford to put on these very successful events with minimal staff, and volunteers, take little from the public and pay local musicians what they deserve? Because they are in tune with what people want in our community; Art and music that is affordable to the public.

The art orgs in our community need to make some hard decisions. Do you want our money or not? Keep ignoring as and we’ll start ignoring paying you.