In a ridiculous video posted on Twitter this week, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that performance art is coming back to entertain besieged Gothamites that still simmer in a useless blockade. Among pictures of masked men on a cold street engaged in modern dance, everyone’s favorite, the mayor assured us that culture, the beating heart of New York, is coming back, baby! It is called the Open Culture program.
Having produced theater in New York City for more than 15 years in my previous profession, I had a pretty good idea of what this mess really was, so I investigated it and made no mistake. The basic idea is to build stages or, at least, stage areas in locations across the city where people can come and watch a show, dance or some slam poetry or something. He promises to take bad art to the streets – but, on the other hand, there will be no one to watch.
The whole world is a stage, so we’re bringing live performances BACK to New York City! Our streets will be full of music, performances and dance thanks to our #OpenCulture program. Applications open on March 1: https://t.co/lp0DfJiK7X
– Office of the Mayor of New York (@NYCMayorsOffice) February 15, 2021
The city has set aside funds for the project to allow artists to apply for one-day slots to perform on location, but all artists are not created equal in this process. Investigating the entry requirements, I discovered that artists or companies must be affiliated with the Cultural Institutions Group. This is a group of 33 large artistic and cultural organizations that, for some reason, the city pours funds and resources year after year. If one of these organizations, all of which are to the left of Bernie Sanders, does not approve of you, there is no vacancy.
Think about it. At a time when New York City does not allow anyone to create public presentations, they are transferring the monopoly to the Group of Cultural Institutions to produce all presentations in what, until recently, was the most vibrant art city in the country. And we have a good idea of what this art will look like.
Expect diversity, and by diversity, I mean struggles against the horrible white supremacist society in which we live. Expect an experimental performance, by which I mean incomprehensible bullshit that even the weakest have to work hard to pretend they like. The video gives us a clue of this. And finally, expect empty seats, as these presentations are not guided by what the audience really wants, but by what their superiors think they should have.
This is not the way to bring the arts and culture back to New York City. There is a very simple and much better way to do this: it is called opening. Artists have come to this city like me 20 years ago because it is, or was, the center and hive of talent. It was the place where you could create your own work and fight for an audience. Now, instead, the mayor and his cronies will choose who will be an artist. It will be an abject disaster.
And these performances, these productions, must last one day, 12 hours in total, including assembly and disassembly. What kind of model is this? How much rehearsal should professional artists put in a single presentation? These are sketches of works that are not very promising to begin with. The mayor may argue that at least it is something, but in reality it is nothing but a gift to the Group of Cultural Institutions. It is also a slap in the face for real New York artists who just want to get back to work.
This is a model for more than just art. As the city opens, as the pandemic passes, the powers that be will not be in a hurry to give up the powers that have accumulated over the past year. They will try to keep track of everything they can. Nothing could do more harm to a city that prides itself on its individuality.
De Blasio is right in saying that New York needs its culture back, its theaters, jazz clubs, comedy clubs and shows, but that is not the way it is done. This is a joke and a bad joke. Open the city, Mr. Mayor. If you want art back, that’s all you need to do, and put an end to the nonsense around the corner. Nobody asked, nobody wants, and we can already say that it will be ridiculously bad.
David Marcus is the Federalist’s correspondent in New York. Follow him on Twitter, @BlueBoxDave.