The Santa Cruz Art List is a forum for announcing non-institutional art events, meetings and projects, ideas and news. A website and email list, to keep in touch, to announce art events, and to document our work. The email list is a low-volume, moderated list sharing information about local Santa Cruz art topics only.
It was inspired by an artist friend who told me that if you don’t document art, any newcomer in town is not going to know that Santa Cruz has a vibrant art community that exists largely outside of the gallery grind. Document, she said, and the artists in town, new and old, will have a sense of momentum — a sense, that in spite of the lack of art galleries, art buyers, art patrons, art grants, art money, that this town has a lively habit of blurring the boundary between art and life.
To that end, we created the Santa Cruz Art List. An attempt to document some of the non-institutional creative efforts of artists in Santa Cruz. We want your contributions and documentation of your creative endeavors in and around Santa Cruz.
But beyond documentation, this is about community and connection. SCArt is really about connecting with other artists, to share a beer or a creative idea, or ask questions about process, or reach out from a North Coast studio or a South County warehouse to make new friends and alliances. This is less about “making it” as an artist, and more about making art. Its all about this elusive something that we have a difficult time describing. A bit of underdogism, perhaps, a sense of struggling together, of changing the world through art, of making the world a fabulous, beautiful, mysterious, and surprising place.
I started the list in 2007 and for several years it enjoyed a popularity among non-institutional Santa Cruz artists to communicate events, shows, and happenings.
