Editor's Message
Time For Action
These are Dickensian times in the arts world. Across the boroughs, grand new art centers are being planned, opened, and expanded, but meanwhile, here in Williamsburg at least, artists are being evicted at an alarming rate. Although there is no direct link between these two processes, together they lead in a frightening direction: New York City might become an arts capital without artists.
Such a scenario cannot be wished away, without means that the vulnerable parties here, as elsewhere, have only one recourse: to organize. This idea may run contrary to the artist’s individualist temperament, but consider the alternative. A place to live and work is indeed worth whatever personal “sacrifice” such a struggle might entail. Any alliances in defense of artists’ spaces need not, or make that definitely should not, result in a wave of self-pitying depictions of the “homeless artist.” That’s been done, and nobody we know longs for its return.
A call to join together around a collective interest is another way of saying that it is not inevitable for artists to serve as the advance guard, then victims of gentrification. This is the process witnessed in SoHo, then the Lower East Side, and now in several parts of Brooklyn. Quite obviously, artists are not t he only, nor in any way the most dispossessed victims of gentrification, and it is true that they will more than likely land on their feet. Yet the relatively privileged status of artists vis-à-vis poorer city residents is hardly a reason to sneer at a campaign in defense of commercial living spaces. If Williamsburg and other parts of Brooklyn want to sustain their reputations as places where the arts genuinely thrive, something provocative needs to be done for change. One need only to visit other interchangeably gentrified terrain across the city to know that such is not the legacy that artists want to leave behind.
Some possible directions for action crop up forthwith. Check ‘em out, and get back to us with your solutions. Surviving creatively, whether as an artist, writer, filmmaker, or cultural worker of any sort, is increasingly difficult in this era of ludicrous rent. No matter how uniquely individualist our visions may be, the recession-proof, ever-expanding bottom line on the rent check should hopefully unite us all-a Capraesque ending, to be sure.
With this issue, the print Rail ventures into the worlds of books, theater, and film, of which we promise more in future issues. In the meantime, we invite you to a reading of The Tempest, produced by our pal John Merchant, at Ocularis on Tuesday, January 23rd, at 8:00 p.m.
And, oh, before I forget, Happy Holidays!
-T.H.
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
Artists Space
By Nancy PrincenthalJUL-AUG 2020 | ArTonic
Shocking but true: Artists Space, essential model for a generation of feisty, funky, youth-driven nonprofits, is nearly half a century old. More surprising still, initially it depended entirely on government support, at a time when both the governor of New York (Nelson Rockefeller) and the US president (Richard Nixon, newly re-elected) were Republicans. Promising to make up for a dearth of opportunity for young artists, Artists Spaces founders rounded some up and offered them the chance to call the shots, all on the states dime.

MORE TIME LESS
By Sophia MaDEC 20-JAN 21 | ArtSeen
This second ensemble show for Cathouse Proper, curated by David Dixon, invites viewers to examine cultural and informational exchanges across time: these allusions, both hidden and on the surface, draw connections between the works and within the works themselves.
Yuji Agematsu: Times Square Times (Kodak All-Stars)
By Peter BrockDEC 20-JAN 21 | ArtSeen
The orgy of artificial light and advertising causes most visitors to tilt their heads skyward as they drift through Times Square. Despite, or perhaps because of this maximalist effort above our heads, Yuji Agematsu remains attuned to the peripheral drama unfolding at street level. Over the course of four years during the mid-2000s, the artist took hundreds of 35mm photographs during nightly walks through Midtown Manhattans most exalted intersection. The resulting images form the basis of his third solo exhibition at Miguel Abreu Gallery.
Don Voisine: Time Out
By Robert C. MorganSEPT 2020 | ArtSeen
Time out would not constitute time away from painting. Rather it meant a serious re-adjustment: the paintings produced during the peak of COVID-19 in New York would come from another environment, namely a living environment.