The Day After
Posted by ben on 16 Mar 2008 at 11:49 am | Tagged as: arts organizations, possibilities, responses/reviews
I’m still collecting thoughts and reactions from Luminaria, but here’s my initial post-event take on how it all turned out. While a lot of my pre-Luminaria criticisms still stand, I think these problems need to be put into perspective. First of all, I think for most people who made it downtown (and there were a lot of folks out there), the organizational problems were not really apparent. The events flowed well, there was a lot of good energy and big crowds, but it was never difficult to get to where you wanted to be, and there seemed to be plenty of strategically located food and drink stands, port-o-potties, etc. The event planners and promoters did their job, and everyone I talked to seemed to really enjoy the night.
As expected, there was a pretty big range in both the style and the quality of art presented. As I pointed out earlier, I think Luminaria could benefit from more competitive funding opportunities. I’d like to see a process in place that would allow museum-quality artists to create new work specifically for Luminaria — site-specific installations, sculptures, projections, etc. There’s no way this will happen unless a bigger chunk of money is available to participating artists. But I also think Luminaria needs to keep the inclusive feel that was achieved last night. Things felt very open, with the symphony playing across the street from fire dancers and around the corner from an open-mic poetry reading, work by Chuck Ramirez and Katie Pell across the street from student art.
One criticism I made earlier was that the city didn’t try to build on existing, grassroots art events like First Friday or Contemporary Art Month. Last night I realized why this would have been a bad idea. Luminaria is really a different beast from these events, which mostly rely on independent venues to do their own thing, and have very little central organization. But at the same time, these existing art events have a lot of interested parties who would probably feel that the city was hijacking their event. Luminaria needed to start fresh, and put something together that isn’t identified with a singular community, but represents the diverse artistic talents that exist throughout San Antonio. And they also needed to be able to have a strong, central organizational structure that these other events, for the most part, lack.
Overall, I think Luminaria was clearly a successful event, with plenty of room for improvement. Many of San Antonio’s best artists were not represented, but I think people got a good sense of the diversity and energy that exists in San Antonio’s artistic communities. And the city spared no expense on capping it off with a great fireworks display off the roof of the Emily Morgan.
We’ll be posting some photos later this afternoon. Stay tuned…
Those who know me know about my involvement with the event and I think what last night proved for me is that I’ve been sucked into a certain scene in this town for way too fucking long. It made S.A. seem a lot smaller than it actually is. So I had to concentrate on the work of the event while hearing and sometimes believing (and sometimes levelling) criticism surrounding the event. It wasn’t until the few weeks before the event that I really got a sense for all the work that the people at the CE Group (logistics) were putting into the event and exactly what the scope of the event was. Emily and Janet and all the other people at the CE Group and all around San Antonio were doing exactly what I was doing by giving up virtually every free weekend they had in the weeks and months leading up to the event. Felix and his staff and even (gulp) Henry Munoz deserve a lot of credit for what happened last night. I’m extremely proud to have been part of it.
There were undoubtedly people who went out of a morbid curiosity about just how bad the city would fuck this one up frothing at the mouth in anticipation for an “I told you so” scenario. I could almost pick those people out in the crowd, but then I had conversations during the evening with some of those people who were like: “Holy shit. They pulled it off.”
It’s the inferiority complex talking. The town has a lot of work to do to overcome that and overcome this stupid romanticization of Austin, but I think last night was a step in the right direction.
I attended Luminaria with my family. I found it to be an overall successful event. The parking was easily accessible, the crowds were controlled, the weather cooperated, the arts and exhibits were wonderful, the lighting was extraordianary, fireworks were orchestrated beautifully and for the most part the entertainment was top notch! Bob Gallarza and Roger Velasquez had the crowds dancing and took us on a musical journey extraordinare (in my opinion the best entertainment of the night) followed by the Blues Cats also put on a good show , and then there was the same old SA Henry Brun that is always monopolizing every SA event from New Years to Fiesta–come on, that is not what San Antonians want to see–Salsa 101? The street performers in front of the Kress building were of a much better caliber–and then he was insulting other performers on stage! Please, where is the professionalism!!!
I agree CE Group, the steering committee, Mayor Hardberger, and the fundraising commitee–KUDOS, hat’s off to you! Bravo! Definately, the event of the year!
i have always been here before