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A City of Expression
Early 1990s, Jacksonville, FL USA

A City of Expression was an arts organization started by a futurist named Michael Miller in Jacksonville, Florida, in the early 1990s.  Under Michael's leadership, A City of Expression created several local arts events including the annual Explosion of the Arts street festival, music festivals, and even a sidewalk chalk art festival geared towards young children.

These arts events created another means for the people of Jacksonville to enjoy the local arts environment, allowed participating artists to sell and discuss their artwork in an atmosphere where direct communication thrived, and led to an enhanced culture for the city through improved arts awareness.  Michael is pictured below (left) with iD Magazine Creative Director Clair Mead Hartmann (the painter of Miss iD).

A City of Expression published three issues of iD Magazine.  This arts magazine evolved from a program named SPARK that served as the schedule of events for the first annual Explosion of the Arts street festival in fall 1990.  SPARK evolved into iD Magazine with the introduction of the first issue, known as the Yellow Edition.  After the name change to iD Magazine and an addition of a poetry section and short stories, the publication quickly grew to become a full-fledged arts magazine with the Red and Green Editions.  You can view these publications on the View iD page.

The Red Edition of iD Magazine witnessed a size change from folded 11 x 17 paper to folded 8½ x 14 paper;  a growth of the number of pages; a growth of the number of advertisers; and a growth of content, which now featured artwork, poetry, cartoons, short stories, a calendar, a classified section, and more.  Evan Chanacki (Managing Editor of the Red Edition) teamed with Clair to create spectacular graphic design that made iD the strongest visual publication in the market.

With the help of Steve Gelsi (Editorial Editor, writing under the pseudonym of Matt Chelsea, shown above right with Clair), this should have been an award-winning publication.  However, iD was never entered into a competition and we don't know if it was even eligible since there was really no business behind the magazine and because the publication lasted less than two years.

A City of Expression improved the Jacksonville arts culture by exposing the public to artwork and music created by talented artists of all ages and types.  Steve Gelsi moved to New York, Evan left the organization, and Jim Minion (the man who named iD Magazine and who worked extensively on each publication) became Managing Editor of the final issue (the Green Edition).  Everyone worked together to build a dream.  A City of Expression's idea of what an arts magazine should be proved successful with a small staff, low circulation, and a VERY small budget in a mid-sized city.  Nobody seems to know why A City of Expression disbanded.  Hello to all involved.

The Renaissance 2001 is a network of artists formed by collaborators from around the world in 1996.  Pursuing artistic activity and bringing it to a global level using the Internet, we seek a way to set art free and reconstruct the relationship between art, culture, and the world. We believe that in a world where art is able to move around freely as information, a new consciousness is emerging.  We work to enable people throughout the world to cross borders and share this consciousness to transport it into our daily life.  Overcoming differences of race, age, sex, culture, time, style, technology, and ideology, and placing every kind of art in a paratactic form, we believe it becomes possible to present this as a model of a sincerely democratic world.

British critic Lawrence Alloway noted that "all of us are looped together in a new and unsettling connectivity."  R2001 is an example of one type of possible connectivity.  The arts organization promotes alternative exhibition venues and diversified fields of art expertise accommodating various types of arts and different cultural tastes.  R2001 projects are synthetic, crossing aesthetic boundaries by producing eclectic works characterized by hybridization.

R2001 had some experience in collaborative projects involving all kind of artists and audiences, such as the shows held in August 2001 at the International Art Biennale of Vila Nova de Cerveira in Portugal, in December 2001 at San Francisco (RhythmONE), and the CafeLinks performances in Tokyo during Spring 2002, where Ututu and eARTh workshops were developed.  Ututu/eARTh performances used software that is easy to manipulate; users can modify or participate as author, audience, and critic.  Building on the general knowledge of Internet users, who are likely familiar with online communication and basic functions like uploading and downloading data, Ututu/eARTh performances sought to dissolve boundaries between art production and audience.

"Ututu" is a Japanese word with many meanings and interpretations.  It can be used to signify both dream and reality, but may also be understood as the path between the two.  "eARTh" is an ongoing collaborative work that illustrates the use of art as communication through mapping.  Visitors to the shows draw or paint pictures on square pieces of paper or in collective drawings.  These images are posted to a wall and photographed with digital cameras.  The digital images of these drawings are then uploaded to the R2001 Web server, where they can be accessed by R2001 artists around the world.

What is artday?  Artday is a worldwide celebration of art scheduled to take place each year on the second day of July.  Why July 2nd?  Because it's at the very center of the year just as art is at the very center of the word "earth" as well as a central element in so many events in our lives.  Another neat trick:  Take the "h" in earth and put it up front and what do you get?  Heart!  Art's got to have a heart!  Art's in our hearts?  The creators of artday, R2001 and the artday network, are dedicated to democratic principles and faithfully ignore all differences in age, sex, race, religion, and nationality.

The reason for artday is to give an idea to non-artist to spend a day like an artist.  In order to do so, we need the power of art that comes from each and every individual artist.  This is why the artday network can not be an art group with its own way of thinking.  Networking is the whole idea.  Anyone can become a member of R2001.  Simply visit the Web site listed above and join the mailing list.  We welcome your participation!

Click the image below to link to the artday site.

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