:: SoNot Ignites the Arts

:: SoNot Waiting

In January 2000, a close group of Fairbanks artists were having their regular evening of sharing wine and talking about their work. The discussion drifted toward the problems of finding venues and events for their art. Nancy Burnham would later recall Sheryl Maree Reily saying that she was “so not waiting for opportunities to come along, so not waiting for someone to give them to us.” That evening, Burnham, Reily, Rachelle Dowdy, Sue Farnham, Sandy Gillespie, and Tina Shih created the coalition of SoNot.

Since the mid 1800s, when traditional patrons of church, state, and aristocracy began to disappear, artists have occasionally formed small groups based on shared theory or media and the urge to create opportunities for their art. Beyond style or media, other groups relied on friendships as their most cohesive bond, exceptional in competitive art communities.

SoNot is one of those groups that foremostly shares friendship and respect for each other’s art. Artworks by its members range across photography, sculpture, assemblage, and painting in imagery from abstract to representational to word-driven. Burnham and Gillespie both combine painting and mixed media, Dowdy is a sculptor, Farnham and Shih are painters, and Reily manipulates photographic images with mixed media.

In Alaska’s recent art history, SoNot is most similar to Juneau’s Arts-R-Us, which began as three artists in 1985 and disbanded as a group of twenty-nine in 1989 after six group exhibitions. Both SoNot and Arts-R-Us grew out of a frustration with a lack of venues for experimental works, and both visualized their activities outside any formal context, such as incorporating as a nonprofit or managing gallery space. Both groups wanted to create art that provoked joy as well as addressed serious issues and that had the ability to not always take itself too seriously.

But SoNot has distinct differences from other groups, including Arts-R-Us. While the Juneau group emphasized collaboration, SoNot members work individually. Also, SoNot exhibitions often include artists who are not members of SoNot. This drive to help other artists is part of SoNot’s mission to “have fun, to create opportunity for ourselves and other artists, to challenge our perceptions, and to push the boundaries of our art.”

:: The Events

In February 2000, SoNot began with “The Red Chair,” a group performance piece. They kidnapped David Mollett’s chair from the Well Street Art Company gallery and sent ransom notes snipped from magazine words pasted onto Polaroids. Photographs included the chair pulled by two sled dogs across the Yukon Quest finish line on the Chena River, “hitchhiking” Broad Pass near Cantwell, and held hostage in an Anchorage gallery.

What soon followed were “One Night Stands,” Fairbanks art happenings lasting only a single evening. The first of the series was “RAW” on April 1, 2000. Fourteen artists joined SoNot members and almost 500 people attended. “It was incredible. We could never have imagined it being more successful,” stated Gillespie. With a loose theme of ”unfinished, impulsive, uncooked,” RAW included visual art, performance art, music, and readings—a venue totally different from the gallery experience. Artists had to organize and install their own work; “prima donnas should plan to bring their own pedestals,” stated the SoNot press release.

The following November, SoNot organized the second of the One Night Stands—“Bizarre Bazaar,” a parody on the perennial Christmas bazaar, “where the irreverent shop for the holidays.” Seven artists joined SoNot members to create thirteen booths of art activity, such as Shih’s Christmas tree parody, and Farnham’s booth of lush landscapes from her travels combined with fortune telling. Burnham built a “fun house” using mirrors as a means of confronting one’s self identity. Almost 500 people attended this second event. “People didn’t come and go,” recalled Gillespie. “They stayed the whole four hours.”

By then, the popularity of SoNot had increased; some artists even wanted to be members of SoNot. SoNot’s six members decided against growing in size, a decision that was painful because “exclusion is one of the things we fight,” said Burnham. For other members, time constraints and the desire to delve into issues in detail were overriding reasons. “We encourage others to model their own groups on our experience, but to shape the groups in their own way,” stated Gillespie. “Many groups like SoNot would create a wonderful environment for art in which we could network.”

If satisfied to not grow in ranks, SoNot did consider going nonprofit to increase its ability to offer opportunities and events. In 2002, they investigated whether SoNot could become an affiliate to the National Museum of Women in the Arts, which was looking for an affiliate art organization in each state. They found out they did not quality.

“First of all, we were artists,” stated Reily. “That excluded us,” added Burnham wryly. The National Museum was looking for money-raising affiliates run by decision makers such as historians, administrators, and philanthropists that would help to increase the Museum’s national presence and financially sponsor its future activities.

In response to the initial disappointment from the National Museum, Burnham decided to plan ahead on her own. She has begun creating a nonprofit Fairbanks gallery, The Annex, to provide artists with experiences and chances to exhibit noncommercial or installation work “that doesn’t have to go through a long process of portfolio review,” she states.

In March 2001 SoNot exhibited its members’ works at Out North Contemporary Art House in Anchorage. Entitled “SoNot Anchorage,” the card featured a photograph of the six members (one in swim goggles) shampooing their hair in a gym shower. Out North included the card with information mailed to the Winnipeg Art Museum, whose curator responded by email: “if I ever put that kind of image on our promotional materials, I’d be flipping burgers at McDonald’s by day’s end.” Besides exhibiting their art, SoNot members also presented a rare group performance piece that alluded to the celebrity status quo in the Alaska art community and was followed by an open discussion with the audience. “That was a real risk for us,” said Gillespie, who remembers the audience genuinely engrossed in the lively discussion.

In 2001, SoNot also presented a one-night exhibition at the Tok Civic Center, “SoNot. . . on the Road . . . Tok,” a slide presentation and dialogue with local artists that was sponsored by Duct Tape Radio and the Tok Arts and Humanities Forum. During April 2002, they exhibited again in Anchorage at the Alaska Pacific University Carr-Gottstein Gallery. “SoNot Anchorage 2 Or TOO OR II” consisted of the members’ recent works in photography, painting, mixed media, and sculpture.

:: Double XX

In May of 2002, SoNot invited roughly fifty artists to take part in “Double XX,” a group exhibition to open in November 2003 at the Bear Gallery in Fairbanks. It is the largest event they have organized to date. Unlike the One Night Stands, this exhibition includes only women artists, who were asked to submit possible works that were either signature pieces or fresh art. From the submitted slides, SoNot chose one work by each artist. Although the exhibition was invitational, “we also wanted to curate the show,” explained Burnham.

The selection criteria for Double XX was broad. A theme was not suggested or demanded. While performance art was not considered, electronic media was included along with traditional visual media. Although members of SoNot made choices, they thought of the exhibition as being neither a survey nor a judgment. Indicative of their mutual respect for each other’s opinion, each SoNot member was allowed to invite an artist that no one else could dispute.

Reily stated that SoNot members realized that using an Outside juror and presenting awards would add prestige and credibility to the exhibition, but would also put exhibition selections in someone else’s hands. They were adamant on selecting artists who continued to experiment and take chances with their art as well as women artists who, while producing strong work, did not have a lot of visibility.

SoNot members also wanted to be part of the exhibition; as some of the most active women artists in Alaska, it did not make a great deal of sense to exclude themselves from a statewide exhibition. Moreover, “as women we didn’t want to do all the work and get none of the glory,” smiled Reily.

Since SoNot began in January 2000, the momentum from its events has produced more opportunities from other sources. Gillespie curated “Letters Home” at the Bear Gallery and the International Gallery of Contemporary Art in Anchorage. Reily received four awards for her manipulated photographic art in 2000, and Burnham received her MFA in 2001. Dowdy most recently was chosen as one of three artists to create work during a stay at a Denali National Park cabin. Both Farnham and Shih had solo exhibitions at Well Street Art Company.

Gillespie, Reily, and Dowdy had works purchased by the Anchorage Museum of History and Art. Gillespie and Reily are now also represented in the University of Alaska Museum collection, and a Gillespie painting was purchased for the Alaska Contemporary Art Bank. Most members have future solo exhibitions scheduled.

The value of SoNot and other such groups is not their longevity; it is the artistic spontaneity they ignite for both member artists and other artists in the community. After so successfully providing opportunities for its members and Alaska artists, all sorts of future art incarnations for SoNot could be possible.