Monday, June 1, 2009
Horray For Art Side
Sometimes stories have a happy ending. The Buffet has been monitoring and even directly connecting with a set of circumstances in the New York City art community. The staging and storage space for an important repository and advocacy group of independent film was going to lose space to a studio for creating a studio to put on a magzine style arts related podcast in Tribeca.
In the only world that matters, it is obvious that the heritage of the moving image would overule the creation of another new media aggregate comodity. But I obviously don't rule the world. It seemed like all one could do is hope that the Film-maker's Cooperative would be able to find a home. This is an organization founded by Jonas Mekas, one of the last of a great generation of visual arts in this country. Mekas, now 87 is a film writer, cultural figure, filmmaker, central and foundational to the world of film artists who dedicate themselves to exploration of all aspects of the medium.
I was astounded when I read the story in the Feb 11 NY times about a forced eviction of the hundreds of films and the work of the Cooperative. What kind of world do we live in where a man of Mekas' stature has to defend the legacy of the work of culture preservation and advocacy of cinema in such a way.
So I wrote to the arts group that was scheduled to take the space as well as the the Co-operative. The arts group sent one line message that said thank you for your thoughts or something like that. On the other hand, MM Serra, the Co-operative's director and I exchanged a couple of e-mails.
Like I said, this story has a happy ending. An article in the May 28 New York Times began:
After months of uncertainty, the Film-Makers’ Cooperative, whose future was threatened early this year when it received an order of eviction from a city-owned building in TriBeCa, has found a new home, and on terms that are likely to make it the envy of other arts organizations and tenants across the city.
Not all real estate developers are douche bags. Charles S. Cohen is a developer who loves film. He was one of the producers of Frozen River. He has arranged the group to move into over 3000 feet of prime NY building on Park Avenue S and 32nd. as well as a 15 seat scholar's screening facility near by.
In the Times article Cohen said “I was in a position to help, and I thought that I should. They are a wonderful group doing important work, and there is no other place to go and see this kind of thing. They needed a storage space for their archives, and this meets their needs.”
You rock Charles S. Cohen. I think I might just e-mail my close personal friend MM and tell him congratulations.
posted by well-executed buffet at 11:15 PM
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