Electronicle; 109; Artists; SD-Base

<v Speaker 1>?inaudible? Are we rolling? Electronicle program, number nine, full program. <v Speaker 1>[Intro music] <v Steven Buyer>I can't survive here as an artist. <v Steven Buyer>I cannot continue to grow if I only stay here. <v Steven Buyer>[Intro music] <v Roberta Davis>Because <v Roberta Davis>people that are really doing what's me, do not get the <v Roberta Davis>kind of financial gains to keep them going or to allow them the time <v Roberta Davis>to not worry about their rent. [Intro music] <v Michael Boyle>Hello, I'm Michael Boyle. <v Michael Boyle>This week, Electronicle takes a look at part of a very large topic, the arts <v Michael Boyle>in Minnesota. It's clear from this report that the arts contribute substantially <v Michael Boyle>to Minnesota's much touted quality of life.

<v Michael Boyle>We're in the forefront nationally when it comes to supporting the arts. <v Michael Boyle>Only two states are ahead of us in funding individual artists. <v Michael Boyle>But what's the story when you move away from Minnesota's most prominent artists <v Michael Boyle>and most prestigious arts institutions like the Guthrie, the Walker and <v Michael Boyle>the Minnesota Orchestra? What is life like for the new, young <v Michael Boyle>and often nontraditional artists who live and work here? <v Michael Boyle>To find out, we'll talk with a jazz singer, a metal sculptor, a paper artist <v Michael Boyle>and a commercial illustrator- all of them struggling to succeed in this community. <v Michael Boyle>The question that we're posing in this program is, can these relatively undiscovered <v Michael Boyle>artists make it? Can they survive in the Twin Cities? <v Michael Boyle>Now, this piece is by a sculptor from St. Paul named Steven Buyer. <v Michael Boyle>He's had one man shows here and in Chicago last year, at the age of 26, he <v Michael Boyle>became the youngest visual artist to receive a coveted Guggenheim Fellowship. <v Michael Boyle>Obviously an artist on the way up.

<v Michael Boyle>How did the Twin Cities respond to Steven Buyer and what's his response? <v Steven Buyer>[Squeaky door] [footsteps] I was raised in Brainerd, which is a small town in north <v Steven Buyer>central Minnesota. <v Steven Buyer>[Piece of metal being moved] After high school, I came moved to St. Paul and <v Steven Buyer>uh was a student at McAllister College. <v Steven Buyer>I graduated from college in 1973 with a uh degree in art. <v Steven Buyer>That same year, I rented a studio here in the ?Ross Moore? <v Steven Buyer>building and uh began making sculpture. <v Steven Buyer>At the same time, uh I'd also taken a job

<v Steven Buyer>with uh Dayton's department store. <v Steven Buyer>Working a 40 hour week and making sculpture at night was very difficult. <v Steven Buyer>It was quite a grind and my personal life suffered from that. <v Steven Buyer>[Large metal crash] I guess the time in college and the time afterwards was spent <v Steven Buyer>discovering what it was that I wanted to do. <v Steven Buyer>Even though I knew it in the back of my mind, I knew there was there was a <v Steven Buyer>feeling that I wanted the work to have. <v Steven Buyer>And that feeling was one [welding noises] of enclosure, one of alienation, <v Steven Buyer>one of discomfort. <v Steven Buyer>I went to New York City to show uh my work to various gallery dealers <v Steven Buyer>and museum curators. <v Steven Buyer>Their response was not very positive. <v Steven Buyer>At worst, I was told that I was stupid and immature and that I didn't fit, <v Steven Buyer>I didn't fit in any of the pigeon holes that had been developed <v Steven Buyer>to talk about the visual arts. Uh specifically, what was said was that

<v Steven Buyer>I was a hybrid between minimalism and constructivism- they're two <v Steven Buyer>isms in the art world. Um I was very crushed by that. <v Steven Buyer>I wanted to fit. I wanted to be a part of it. <v Steven Buyer>I wanted it to be able to take part in in what goes on in a in the art world. <v Steven Buyer>So I came back to St. Paul and <v Steven Buyer>uh struggled with what I had heard in New York for a couple of months, and <v Steven Buyer>out of that struggle, I realized that I was probably very fortunate that I didn't fit. <v Steven Buyer>That I wasn't any of those things. <v Steven Buyer>Uh, in fact, it was quite an awakening. <v Steven Buyer>[Car driving] I was a Midwest person. <v Steven Buyer>I'd grown up and uh then raised in the Midwest, uh I knew it had <v Steven Buyer>to do with coming from a small town. <v Steven Buyer>I knew it had to do with uh I guess corny things, <v Steven Buyer>playing in the woods as a child, [metal clinking] playing uh

<v Steven Buyer>along the Mississippi River as a child. <v Steven Buyer>Uh growing up, you know, [others talking] and I guess, what would be called <v Steven Buyer>a healthy middle class family. <v Steven Buyer>I've been ashamed [footsteps] of that, until that time. <v Steven Buyer>And sometimes I still am ashamed of that. <v Steven Buyer>But every now and again, I get uh an inkling that I'm pretty lucky, you know, that <v Steven Buyer>[others talking] that that's what I am. <v Steven Buyer>And that's where my strength lies. [Cash register noises] I can't survive here as an <v Steven Buyer>artist. I cannot continue to grow if I only stay here. <v Steven Buyer>The Twin Cities are lacking in some of the components that it takes <v Steven Buyer>to make a healthy arts community. <v Steven Buyer>I don't get the nourishment. I don't get the uh I'm <v Steven Buyer>not being fed. <v Steven Buyer>Uh there's not the kind of activity that I need. <v Steven Buyer>[Torch ignites] I'm not getting the

<v Steven Buyer>criticism personally that I need to continue to grow. <v Steven Buyer>Second of all, there is no market here for what I do. <v Steven Buyer>A good deal of the collecting that is done revolves <v Steven Buyer>around New York and collecting New York work. <v Steven Buyer>Uh New York has a kind of uh stranglehold on the marketplace <v Steven Buyer>for art, that if you are a local person, if you come <v Steven Buyer>from here, you are not as interesting <v Steven Buyer>or collectible or <v Steven Buyer>any number of lackings. Both <v Steven Buyer>the Walker and the institute suffer from that problem, that they also have those <v Steven Buyer>prejudices about what a Midwest artist is. <v Steven Buyer>Uh, given those prejudices, if <v Steven Buyer>I did not fit their mold of what a local artist should be like and subsequently

<v Steven Buyer>am not shown, I am not labeled a serious artist. <v Michael Boyle>OK. But the question is, is Buyer's work any good? <v Michael Boyle>I mean, if it is, then we should pay serious attention to what he had to say. <v Michael Boyle>If it isn't, then his remarks come off sounding like sour grapes. <v Michael Boyle>Well, his recent show in Chicago got good reviews. <v Michael Boyle>His steel pieces are direct and intellectually and visually tough. <v Michael Boyle>I do not doubt that it's truth to materials and uncluttered approach will win the artist <v Michael Boyle>a larger audience. <v Michael Boyle>You know, Steve Buyers', comments about the arts environment here don't stand in a <v Michael Boyle>vacuum. Many of the artists we spoke to complained about the lack of nourishment <v Michael Boyle>for the young and undiscovered. <v Michael Boyle>Many of them pointed, as did Steve Buyer, to the absence of meaningful criticism <v Michael Boyle>and media attention. <v Michael Boyle>We asked a number of Twin Cities journalists whether they agreed that there wasn't enough <v Michael Boyle>attention being paid to new arts. <v Dave Moore>There is no arts coverage in terms of ?news television?.

<v Dave Moore>There has been some in the past, very precious little. <v Dave Moore>But there is none now because this new force <v Dave Moore>in all of commercial television known as the consultancy, has turned the head <v Dave Moore>of local entrepreneurs and indicated to them and told them that surveys and research that <v Dave Moore>they have taken have borne out the fact that any coverage of the arts is a direct turnoff <v Dave Moore>of the last public of its television ?set?. <v Dave Moore>I have uh, I've given up. <v Dave Moore>I made myself obnoxious around here for many, many years trying to get <v Dave Moore>some kind of coverage of the arts. <v Charles Bailey>We cover the arts, but we're not doing more than we're doing because it doesn't seem to <v Charles Bailey>us justified in terms of serving our readership. <v Charles Bailey>Our total readership. <v David Hawley>Well, traditionally, uh many studies that have been done in newspapers, they list uh <v David Hawley>sports up at the top in terms of reader interest and they list ours somewhere down <v David Hawley>toward the bottom. <v Stan Turner>There is not anywhere near an overwhelming appetite. <v Stan Turner>They're not clawing at the TV sets or pounding on our doors for more uh but <v Stan Turner>I suppose it could be said that uh that we ought to take the measure

<v Stan Turner>of what we're doing. And if we feel that uh we ought to be doing more, we ought to do <v Stan Turner>something about it. <v Charles Bailey>We have a number of obligations and we don't feel a special obligation <v Charles Bailey>to the local artists because I don't think we can afford to, in the sense that I don't <v Charles Bailey>think that's our business. <v Stephen Isaacs>I don't feel the Star has any obligation to anybody. <v Dave Moore>Maybe the guy who uh gets off the assembly line at some plant and goes <v Dave Moore>in and has his beer at Archie Bunker's place uh couldn't care less <v Dave Moore>about Loyce Houlton's new Minnesota Dance Theater. <v Dave Moore>Well, what about 15 or 20 other people who might, multiplying that by a <v Dave Moore>few thousand? <v Stephen Isaacs>I think that we probably covered too much of the highbrow <v Stephen Isaacs>arts that we probably ought to cover far more <v Stephen Isaacs>of the arts that people are interested in on a larger scale. <v Speaker 2>[Synth noise] Ah, this is a great place to start out. <v Speaker 2>You know, it's a great place to learn and work among lightweight competition. <v Speaker 2>But if you're ambitious at all, you're gonna want to move somewhere else at some point.

<v Speaker 2>And you can tell by looking at um look at the magazines that are published here, the <v Speaker 2>city magazines and stuff. <v Speaker 2>It's all it's all copiers. <v Speaker 2>They copy guys like Levine out of Esquire, you know, Newsweek, Time. <v Speaker 2>It's not original. <v Speaker 2>I mean, let's face it, place is provincial. <v Michael Boyle>Some young artists feel that the Twin Cities did not offer the opportunities they need to <v Michael Boyle>grow to be seen and heard, to be criticized and to make a living. <v Michael Boyle>Our next story is about Minneapolis artist David Marquis. <v Michael Boyle>Both David and Bonnie Sussman, who sells his work, are concerned about whether he can <v Michael Boyle>survive. <v Bonnie Sussman>People are going to really be happy with some of these blues too. <v Bonnie Sussman>Let's take a look at this top one now. <v Bonnie Sussman>Cause this is the one I thought we would use for the show in September. <v Bonnie Sussman>What I'd like to do with this. <v Bonnie Sussman>Probably...[continues talking]. I've been working with David for about three years. <v Bonnie Sussman>He originally came in one day with his bundle of paintings

<v Bonnie Sussman>or works under his arm, and uh we hit it off. <v Bonnie Sussman>We liked each other, I guess. <v David Marquis>I mean, even right now at the prices we're asking now, I couldn't hope to live on that, <v David Marquis>but.. [continues talking]. <v Bonnie Sussman>And it's very difficult to sell art. <v Bonnie Sussman>It's something that takes the cooperation of everybody <v Bonnie Sussman>who's working toward a common end and I think it's really tough to <v Bonnie Sussman>try to sell art here, though. <v Bonnie Sussman>It isn't until a gallery is is cl- on the verge of closing that <v Bonnie Sussman>the majority of sympathizers even come forth and say, hey, we're <v Bonnie Sussman>really sorry to hear about that. Do you really have to close? <v Bonnie Sussman>Before that, you could probably die and <v Bonnie Sussman>a lot of people wouldn't care. <v David Marquis>It scares me when a gallery goes out of business, especially a reputable gallery cause i- <v David Marquis>it frightens me that the galleries won't make it in this town. <v David Marquis>An- and I'm dependent on them for more than one reason. <v Bonnie Sussman>We don't have enough collectors and it's collectors <v Bonnie Sussman>in the community that really- it's it's a small number of people

<v Bonnie Sussman>who keep coming back that keep the galleries going. <v David Marquis>Well, selling art, I think, is a full time job. <v David Marquis>And if I were to do that myself, I wouldn't have <v David Marquis>time to work. So um I prefer to spend my time working <v David Marquis>and have Bonnie take care of that end of it for me. <v David Marquis>And um I like having someone who believes in me and <v David Marquis>truly likes my work. <v David Marquis>And and uh to handle it. <v Bonnie Sussman>It's time, after all, what we have here is is virtually a half years work <v Bonnie Sussman>on your behalf. <v Bonnie Sussman>I think we have to in order to to make <v Bonnie Sussman>things come out for either of us, up the prices a little bit. <v Bonnie Sussman>I think that uh certainly to talk realistically about it...[Continues talking] For the <v Bonnie Sussman>most part, I do survive on on just local <v Bonnie Sussman>sales, not very many of them, a few are made <v Bonnie Sussman>out of town. But, uh yes, surviving.

<v Bonnie Sussman>But it depends on what you call surviving too. <v Bonnie Sussman>And we're still around after nine years, I guess that's survival. <v Michael Boyle>In public funding for individual artists, Minnesota ranks high in the national averages <v Michael Boyle>behind only two states, New York and Massachusetts. <v Michael Boyle>The State Arts Board has a budget of 3.4 million dollars this fiscal year. <v Michael Boyle>Even so, that amounts to less than one tenth of one percent <v Michael Boyle>of the state's total budget. <v Michael Boyle>And that's much more than it used to be a couple of years ago. <v Michael Boyle>The most sought after plums of the state's public arts funding are the six individual <v Michael Boyle>fellowships of 10,000 dollars apiece. <v Michael Boyle>There were 180 applicants for those fellowships this year. <v Michael Boyle>Producer Bill Handly looks at the process by which the state decides who gets these <v Michael Boyle>six fellowships through the eyes of a winner and a loser. <v John Ondov>Minnesota has, I think, um a strong commitment <v John Ondov>to individual artists.

<v John Ondov>We felt that a way to attract artists to Minnesota or <v John Ondov>to try to entice, if you will, artists living <v John Ondov>in Minnesota to stay and work here is to give direct support in two ways: project grants <v John Ondov>and fellowships. <v John Ondov>10,000 dollars even today probably doesn't buy an artist all that much time, <v John Ondov>but it is a it is a of a real statement that that public sector <v John Ondov>agency says for a number of artists who are determined to be <v John Ondov>qualified at a certain level of artistic output, "Take <v John Ondov>this money and and do your craft." [Someone counting off] [Piano playing] [Woman Singing] <v Roberta Davis>Well, it was my first experience with the State Arts Board or applying for

<v Roberta Davis>any kind of grant or fellowship or law. <v Roberta Davis>And I'll tell you how it happened, I had the Gospel Music Workshop of America, <v Roberta Davis>which has a choir of about 150 voices. <v Roberta Davis>And I was trying to find some money so that we could do some projects with gospel music <v Roberta Davis>in the community. And they sent me the book about <v Roberta Davis>that, you know, uh uh applying for grants and so forth. <v Roberta Davis>And I read through it and I had missed all the deadlines <v Roberta Davis>up to, you know, at that point, but there was one there that just really stuck in my <v Roberta Davis>mind. It was an individual fellowship for artistic development to the tune <v Roberta Davis>of 10,000 dollars. I went in there with my eyes ju- I filled it out <v Roberta Davis>and I said, OK, Lord, you got it. <v Roberta Davis>Cause all I can do is fill it out. <v Roberta Davis>Say nothing else. And I just hoped and crossed my fingers. <v Roberta Davis>And I felt that I that I was good enough to make it. <v Roberta Davis>But you know something? I was so surprised when I got it because <v Roberta Davis>it changed something in my mind that I thought.

<v Roberta Davis>And that was with something like that going on, they would never, <v Roberta Davis>never give ten thousand dollars to artistically develop <v Roberta Davis>in the state of Minnesota, where they say that people don't like jazz, <v Roberta Davis>you know, to me. <v Narrator>But in any grand program where there are limited funds available, there will be winners <v Narrator>and there will be losers. Janice Helleloid is one of the losers. <v Janice Helleloid>I've applied for three years in a row and I've never gotten a grant from the state. <v Janice Helleloid>And I feel that um if you have 10 people on board. <v Janice Helleloid>And most of them are conceptual artists, let's say, and they get a lot of uh <v Janice Helleloid>applications from from realist artists who are doing um <v Janice Helleloid>reproductions of of real objects. <v Janice Helleloid>You know, it's not distorted or abstracted in any way. <v Janice Helleloid>Uh, there's gonna be some some decision making going on there as far as what <v Janice Helleloid>what is to be funded if their own personal interest is in conceptual artwork. <v Janice Helleloid>[Ensemble music]

<v Narrator>The critical decisions over who does and who does not receive state funding are obviously <v Narrator>subjective and therefore somewhat controversial. <v Narrator>But for many Minnesota artists who sit on the review panels that make those decisions, <v Narrator>the process seems surprisingly even handed. <v Warren MacKenzie>Well, I tell you, I was suspicious of the problem of uh trying to <v Warren MacKenzie>equate, uh you know, a musician or a poet or a <v Warren MacKenzie>painter or a sculptor. An- and how do you how do you make a judgment when you're only <v Warren MacKenzie>giving five grants? And it seemed to me to be an almost impossible situation. <v Warren MacKenzie>But as a developer, starting out with the media panels, making their first election <v Warren MacKenzie>and then going to larger panels and then finally going to the entire group, it worked <v Warren MacKenzie>very, very well. And the thing that surprised me was that there was absolutely <v Warren MacKenzie>no question of the five awards.

<v Warren MacKenzie>I mean, they were just tops in their field. <v Narrator>Another criticism of the arts board and one that is acknowledged even by its director, is <v Narrator>that funding is often centered among Minnesota's most middle of the road artists. <v Janice Helleloid>The artists who have gotten the grants in the past have been um this election <v Janice Helleloid>has been of moderate artwork, uh provincial or conventional <v Janice Helleloid>or whatever the word is. <v Janice Helleloid>It's been more on a conservative level and th- the range of artists that are selected for <v Janice Helleloid>the granting of funds is very limited. <v John Ondov>I will say this about funding in the arts, whether it's private or public- <v John Ondov>I think the competition and ironically, it's because of the health of the arts in <v John Ondov>Minnesota- the competition is so, difficult, so <v John Ondov>stiff that panelists placed in a position of having to make choices <v John Ondov>are extremely conscientious, perhaps to a point <v John Ondov>where they may not feel as comfortable in taking a a risk or as a large

<v John Ondov>number of risks as they would of either with more money <v John Ondov>or less competition. One of the two. <v Roberta Davis>All right, now, a B, [Singing and piano playing]. <v Roberta Davis>And you know? And, b- but that even seems fast, doesn't it? <v Roberta Davis>That se-... [continues talking]. If I sounded like Sarah Vaughan, I wouldn't be putting <v Roberta Davis>me out there, see? And that's why I think that is important, because people that <v Roberta Davis>are really doing what's me do not get the kind of financial <v Roberta Davis>gains to keep them going or to allow them the time to not worry <v Roberta Davis>about their rent. <v Roberta Davis>So that they can sit down and say, here I am, you know, my rent's paid for, I don't <v Roberta Davis>have to worry about a thing. My mind is free. <v Roberta Davis>I can sit down and I can paint what I want. <v Roberta Davis>I can sculptor what I want. I can choreography what I want.

<v Roberta Davis>I can sing what I want. <v Roberta Davis>Where I want. <v Roberta Davis>That's that's what it is. <v John Ondov>As subjective as the program is and <v John Ondov>as prone to criticisms of its process and procedure, <v John Ondov>it's a risk. It's a risky program. <v John Ondov>But 10 years from now, another answer to the question is this <v John Ondov>if that program doesn't exist here, I think the individual artist community <v John Ondov>is going to be in tough shape. <v Michael Boyle>There's a paradoxical ending to this story. <v Michael Boyle>Singer Roberta Davis, whose state fellowship is now over, has spent the past month in New <v Michael Boyle>York looking for work and peer association while she intends to maintain <v Michael Boyle>her home in the Twin Cities. She concedes that in jazz, there's more inspiration

<v Michael Boyle>and more work in New York than in Minnesota. <v Michael Boyle>Beyond the states support to the arts, there are a number of other governmental and <v Michael Boyle>institutional programs designed to help artists and the arts. <v Michael Boyle>But many individual artists complain that these programs are so complex and bureaucratic <v Michael Boyle>that only an expert in funding can understand them. <v Michael Boyle>Enter the arts administrator, in this satire by Garrison Keillor. <v Jack Schmidt>[Synth sound] The arts business is no different from any other business, including the <v Jack Schmidt>business I was in before, which you can read about in "The Blond in 204" and other <v Jack Schmidt>books. And if you have read them, you know, I'm not big on ballet. <v Jack Schmidt>When I became an arts administrator, I switched to filter cigarettes and traded my 38 <v Jack Schmidt>snub nose on a potted eucalyptus. <v Jack Schmidt>But otherwise it comes down to the same thing. <v Jack Schmidt>And that's hustle and muscle. <v Jack Schmidt>What's your arts organizations need, is a guy who can ask people for large amounts of <v Jack Schmidt>cash without him blushing and twistin his hankie.

<v Jack Schmidt>This is what I do. I'm able to dial a telephone correctly, and a few weeks later, large <v Jack Schmidt>checks begin arriving in the mail. <v Jack Schmidt>Nowadays, any gimp who knows how to spell the word innovative can apply for a <v Jack Schmidt>grant. But that doesn't mean that the bozo who reads the application is necessarily <v Jack Schmidt>going to burst into tears and rush down to the Western Union. <v Jack Schmidt>You need some incentive, he needs to know that this is no idle request for money typed <v Jack Schmidt>up by someone who happened to find a blank application form down at the post office. <v Jack Schmidt>He needs to know that you need this money, that you expect to get it, and that <v Jack Schmidt>if you don't, you're capable of putting his fingers in a toaster. <v Jack Schmidt>Arts administration is tough. It's no job for ?a keiki? <v Jack Schmidt>to scrape up some pushovers. <v Jack Schmidt>I got 150 thousand clams from the National Endowment for the Arts for a third floor <v Jack Schmidt>walk up tap dance school run by a dishwater blond by the name of Bonnie Marie. <v Jack Schmidt>We renamed the school the American Conservatory, a jazz dance. <v Jack Schmidt>I got a one year Folk Arts residency for a guy who tells Scandinavian jokes and a

<v Jack Schmidt>pile of money from the Teamsters for some poets to write an ode to the open road. <v Jack Schmidt>I could go on and on. <v Jack Schmidt>How'd I get the money? <v Jack Schmidt>It wasn't by talking about form and function, sweetheart. <v Jack Schmidt>I got it because they knew I was serious. <v Jack Schmidt>They were glad to pay money for the privilege of not hearing from me again. <v Jack Schmidt>Do I just appreciate arts administrator? <v Jack Schmidt>Is the Pope a rosicrucian? <v Jack Schmidt>Listen, I just think money is dirt. <v Jack Schmidt>They want it, but they don't want to touch it. <v Jack Schmidt>They think we're going to exploit them. <v Jack Schmidt>Exploit what? Their talent? <v Jack Schmidt>Two thirds of artists today don't even have enough talent to strike a match. <v Jack Schmidt>I know of guys getting grants and direct plays. <v Jack Schmidt>It couldn't get people to act normal. <v Jack Schmidt>People who call themselves artists who make pots and cut your fingers when you pick them <v Jack Schmidt>up and wabble when you set them down, stuff that nobody in his right mind would pay <v Jack Schmidt>Monopoly money for.

<v Jack Schmidt>And these people look down on me? <v Jack Schmidt>Listen, I don't need to agree. <v Jack Schmidt>Jack Schmitt is no fool. I've been around that block. <v Jack Schmidt>A few days ago,I was sitting at my desk <v Jack Schmidt>in the Acme Building and I got to fooling around with this ink pad and I was making <v Jack Schmidt>thumb prints on the desk blotter and then I sort of smooched them around a little and one <v Jack Schmidt>thing led to another. And when I got done with it, I liked what I saw. <v Jack Schmidt>It wasn't necessarily something that the Walker Art Center is gonna buy tomorrow and hang <v Jack Schmidt>up on a white wall with a baby spot pointed at it. <v Jack Schmidt>But it looked good. <v Jack Schmidt>It had a certain definite quality about it that art nowadays could use <v Jack Schmidt>a lot more of. <v Jack Schmidt>So don't count me out. <v Jack Schmidt>I have a hunch that the next time you see me on public television. <v Jack Schmidt>It'll be in one of those interview type shows. <v Jack Schmidt>Me and some guy in horn rimmed glasses will be discussing my first retrospective

<v Jack Schmidt>exhibition, "All Thumbs." Like it was the greatest thing <v Jack Schmidt>since buttered toast. <v Jack Schmidt>Til then, here's to you. <v Michael Boyle>We can only hope that Jack Schmidt is just a fantasy. <v Michael Boyle>We've spent the past half hour looking at some young and relatively undiscovered Twin <v Michael Boyle>Cities artists, they and other artists we've talked to tell us they're not getting <v Michael Boyle>the kind of financial and creative support they need to grow and succeed. <v Michael Boyle>If that's true, what is today a prospering Minnesota art scene, could <v Michael Boyle>change in the years ahead. <v Michael Boyle>If so, then are we failing to adequately provide for our own communities <v Michael Boyle>artistic future? <v Michael Boyle>I'm Michael Boyle. Join us again next week for another edition of Electronicle. <v Speaker 2>I'm not an artist. In fact, I hate that word artist. <v Speaker 2>I draw pictures. I make a living drawing pictures.

<v Speaker 2>Sometimes I pretend I'm a surgeon. <v Speaker 2>Plastic surgeon with paint. <v Speaker 2>I've lived here for three years. I've learned how to survive doing what I do. <v Speaker 2>But I can only go so far here. <v Speaker 2>And I want to be published in something that's nationally significant. <v Speaker 2>And that. does not exist here. <v Speaker 2>[Outro music] <v Michael Boyle>If you'd like to comment on this edition of Electronicle or suggest topics you'd like to

<v Michael Boyle>see us explore in future programs, write to Electronicle. <v Michael Boyle>KTCA-TV, St. Paul, Minnesota, 55108. <v Michael Boyle>And if you'd like a friend to see this program, Electronicle is repeated on Channel 2 on <v Michael Boyle>Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. <v Narrator>Electronicle is a presentation of the Public Affairs Department of Twin Cities Public <v Narrator>Television.