DIY Spaces, Economy, and Residencies with The Blue House

In Episode 3 of Bottleracks & Fountains, ECA’s Julia Oldham is at a residency at The Blue House in Dayton, Ohio, and interviews Nicholaus Arnold and Ashley Jonas about their project.

They talk about creating a viable way of life as artists and what their journey has looked like so far, moving to Dayton after completing their MFAs and figuring it out. The appeal of making the move from the big city to a small town: affordability of space, longevity, solidarity, and a more immediate community.

Conversation topics include: the role of the city, how the economics of a place impacts and is shaped by arts initiatives, supporting each other by going to each other’s events and sharing resources, performative viewership and the white cube vs alternative spaces. The balancing act of prioritizing accessibility and avoiding intimidating your audience by creating a welcoming environment, while still maintaining intellectual rigor beyond the pleasant, the quaint, and the novel.

After the interview, we discuss amongst ourselves and respond to the topics that were brought up. We relate Nick and Ashley’s insights to our own experiences and our situation in Eugene, and talk about the residency Julia runs out of her own house: Opossum House.

Links:

The Blue House, Dayton, OH: http://thebluehousearts.com/

Opossum House Artist Residency: https://cargocollective.com/opossumhouse

Entire First-Year MFA Class Drops Out in Protest at the University of Southern California: https://hyperallergic.com/207235/entire-first-year-mfa-class-drops-out-in-protest-at-the-university-of-southern-california/

Theme music by Das Verlin.
Mixed by Pinball Jukebox.
Bottleracks & Fountains is a project of Eugene Contemporary Art.