Interim Executive Director
Architect, Software Developer, Musician, Artist, Publisher

What are your thoughts on CoCA's purpose and role today?

CoCA’s purpose is to seek out, through research, investigation, observation, and other means, Contemporary Art that is emerging from both within our midst and around the world, and to amplify that work by making the public and the art world aware of it through exhibitions, events, publications and any other means necessary, and to do so in a way that they can’t ignore.

“Going Overboard” has long been a hallmark of CoCA presentations. We should take every advantage of the resources at our disposal. We should use the relatively small scale of the gallery to our advantage and transform it as often as possible. When guests visit the gallery, and particularly at openings, we are known for presenting an “experience” and not just an exhibition through staging that enhances the presentation of the artwork. This can be achieved using light, sound, traffic flow, both static and interactive elements including built structures, timing, performances, and attitude.

We have a responsibility to meet our members’ and the public’s expectations or, better yet, exceed them. If we do not, the organization will become irrelevant and fade away. Fortunately, we are in a position to surprise our constituents, as we did when we refused to shut down and brought the organization back to life back in May. That was a good start. Now they are waiting to see what we do.

Co-President, Board of Directors
Curator, Arts Administrator
Artist

What are your thoughts on CoCA’s purpose and role today?

1.
Almost 45 years ago when CoCA was founded, it was one of the very few organizations dedicated to contemporary art in the entire region. Today there are numerous such organizations, many with mission statements that focus on equity and centering marginalized artists, yet CoCA's mission statement is more relevant than ever (even as it has a separate equity statement of its own). In its effort to serve the community as a broadly-based 'catalyst and forum' for the generalized 'development and understanding' of contemporary art, CoCA fundamentally emphasizes a research-based approach to curatorial and cultural work. Perhaps this has not always been obvious, but as sister-organizations proliferate with models such as artist-collective, or commercial gallery, there is still a need for exploring experimental work, non-commercial work, and work that is less object-based. If it is getting harder to find under-recognized art (if we are collectively doing a better job at finding marginalized artists), I believe we must shift our gaze to places that require critical reading and research – almost in terms of a kind of science that searches the world for new species of snail (for example). And as we have come to concentrate heavily on the local and regional, I have a sense that the research can and must be international in scope.

2.
Many newer spaces focus on equity and showing work by marginalized artists, and CoCA also has a strong record of inclusion over the years, from "Art About AIDS" (1992), to "Gender: Fucked" (1996), to "Neoqueer" (2004), "Girlfriends of the Guerilla Girls" (2019), "Jim Crow Must Go" (2023), especially in terms of the LGBTQ+ community. Notwithstanding the annual Members exhibition, CoCA's main curatorial focus has embraced new areas of production and new media. Over the years, CoCA curators implicitly saw art as a primary means of cultural expression, meaning that political and critical ideas could be 'studied' or explored through exhibitions, and through close-reading of artist statements and other texts in tandem with visual images. While CoCA continues to offer members a range of exhibition opportunities, my hope is that it can expand the role of membership involvement by including not just one's personal visual art, but also research-based curatorial projects that the members originate through asking questions and conducting research. To me, CoCA should subscribe to periodicals like Contemporary Art Curator Magazine, host frequent panels for emerging curators to discuss ideas, attend national art conferences with members presenting papers, perhaps eventually contribute to major international projects like the Documenta series in Germany.

3.
In my 10+ years on the CoCA Board, as well as watching from a distance as a new model with paid staff emerged 2017-2022, I have come to believe that sustainability is precarious and dependent on a strong vision that shares cultural production with members in new ways, which I have tried to hint at here. I am seeking another board role, most likely as Curatorial Director or similar, and yet would also like to be paid a small, token amount for that contribution: since living wages are part of the challenging economic climate, and since I am not independently wealthy or retired but rather still dependent on some kind of income, I hope to explore the feasibility of grant-supported curatorial honoraria, similar to what we have historically offered guest-curators. If it would mean resigning from the same board that I am currently seeking to re-join, I embrace the apparent irony and humbly ask for your support. Thank you for reading.

Chair, Board of Directors
Artist, Activist and Educator


What are your thoughts on CoCA's purpose and role today?

I see CoCA as one of the linchpins in the Seattle Art Scene. I think by supporting contemporary arts but having a low bar to entry, we can be the megaphone that new voices in Seattle may use to project their creativity. I hope we can continue to bring international artists here (such as the JuarezX show I put on in 2018) and the Darina Alster Liquid Identity show that is coming in August.

I hope to see CoCA become more of a community, with more input from our members. There is a distinct tension between democratic art creation, and High Kultcha art practice. I would like to see both represented at CoCA: Stunning high quality/concept shows AND democratic burblings from the grass roots, that are high quality, and cause conversation and consternation. Let us cut against the grain, let us continue to create.

Bremerton in the house.

(the last bit of non shi shi puget sound I know of, though folks in North Seattle might argue that point)

Vice-President, Board of Directors
Contemporary, Conceptual Artist
Putoh Performance Artist

What are your thoughts on CoCA's purpose and role today?

I believe that our main goal is to engender the desire for creating a dialogue that is purposeful and relevant. I believe that we have the ability to truly affect and create a platform from which to give Seattle Artists a valid venue from which to better pursue their goals as artists. While I do not believe that we will ever come to a satisfactory answer to the question of what Contemporary Art really is, I believe that it is important that we create a safe space in which we engender the next generations of artists to investigate the nature of identity that is inherent in understanding that very important set of questions. What is art? Who are we? What is contemporary art and how does that question pertain to me and my praxis?

Vice President, Board of Directors
Artist, Curator, Fashionista
ARTCAR Promoter

What are your thoughts on CoCA's purpose and role today?

I’m honestly not sure, I think we are “figuring it out as we go”?

Each CoCA iteration has had a different flavour/feel, from the SRL crazy guerilla actions of the Larry Reid’s CoCA, to the almost suburban feel of its Ballard Beach Club phase, to the “Social Justice 1st” of the last incarnation. I personally want to see us “up” the quality of the art again (yes, that’s subjective), but also bring an element of FUN & “Wow!” back. I loved CoCA’s mini-golf, the Dork-Bot creativity, the wacky events in days of yore. Whilst still reaching out to new participants, viewers and collaborators.

Former CoCA Board Member
Artist, Philanthropist, Connector


What are your thoughts on CoCA's purpose and role today?

As a former CoCA board member, I hope to help keep CoCA alive and thriving again. I miss my connection to the greater Seattle art community and serving on the board once again can help me by helping CoCA to get to it’s fame and to live up to it’s stunning history (which I dug deeply into while chairing our 35th Annual CoCA Art Marathon and Auction).

Right now, CoCA has all but vanished but still from the 1st Thursday attendance, we can see that it still has a draw, so we need to get CoCA back to a front and center position that give folks more grassroots and avant-garde approach to art world and art volunteer opportunities (right now Artist Trust is the only game in town and they do not have that sort of community-on-the-ground approach).

Co-President, Board of Directors
Events Specialist, Exhibit Installer, Art Collector

What are your thoughts on CoCA’s purpose and role today?

For the general population I have seen a lot more commercialized artwork nowadays. Though I appreciate the spread of more artwork into people’s houses, I do not think many people realize that the money they spend on a simple generic print from a commercialized art company could get them original artwork from a lesser known artist. I believe in finding under recognized talent and collecting their work.

I want to see a world of art where lesser known artists can connect directly with collectors who truly adore the work. I have used social media to connect with artists across the country and globe to find artwork I love and have collected pieces from them. CoCA is an organization that is dedicated to the lesser known artists. The question of “What is art?” remains open ended and CoCA strives to allow artists themselves to tackle that question. CoCA strives for a balance between showing great contemporary artwork from talented artists, to artwork that makes us think retrospectively about our beliefs, to artwork that we have not even considered before. The variety of show options at CoCA from solo shows, themed shows, experiential shows, and the member’s show provides such a diverse base to work from without constraint.

CoCA breaks the status quo I see a lot in the current art world and provides a platform for the artists to show the art they truly want to show. CoCA has been an important part of Seattle’s art community and will continue to nurture interest for the arts in the right passionate hands.

CoCA Member
Artist

What are your thoughts on CoCA’s purpose and role today?

Being a newcomer, I’m learning and appreciating CoCA’s rich past and its role and purpose today. To me, its role feels both fixed and fluid. I have witnessed that it has strong, deep-rooted underlying values of community and connection. This is demonstrated by the commitment of its current leadership to a world that considers all people. Yet, I have also felt its fluidity: CoCA feels interwoven with the ever-expanding fabric of the community it is comprised of, constantly evolving in tandem with the community’s evolution.

CoCA feels to me like a gallery for the people. This is an institution that showcases common, shared human experiences, and equally disseminates unique and diverse experiences that are crucial to learn in order to understand one another in a community. Part of strong communities is members being visible to one another and being understood by one another. Another part of community is connecting members and bridging divides, especially in our world today which languishes in division. “Contemporary” means now. I feel that CoCA exists to share art that reflects our realities today. It is a place to learn, discuss, collectivize, mobilize and unify for a better world. It is a place to celebrate what we are going through, and what another is going through. This is not only the Center on Contemporary Art, but also a hub for folks to come center on contemporary art. CoCA provides a nucleic space where conversations can begin.

CoCA Member
Community Organizer, Volunteer,
Entrepreneur, Artist

What are your thoughts on CoCA’s role and purpose today?

As a newcomer to CoCA but not to the Seattle arts community, I am interested in the contrasts I see playing out with the rebirth of this institution—and the potential of exploring contrasts further in asking the question together, “what is contemporary art?”

CoCA has a community of seasoned members alongside a fresh crop of eager newbies, and there’s a mutual respect brewing that should continue to be cultivated. I’m sure there is also a large group of members observing this process silently from afar, waiting to see if an opportunity will coalesce for them to participate in the next iteration of the Center. Can we build a big enough tent to stoke and support the creative fire of all current members, and furthermore intrigue a swath of artists who haven’t even heard of us yet? I think we can.

The pendulum seems to have swung from ‘scrappy’ to ‘suburban’, and while I have my preferences like anyone, I believe the important thing to remember is that art is for everybody. As the saying goes, art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable. But depending on the conversation, we’re all disturbed and we’re all comfortable—so we should be having many, many conversations at once and revel in the cacophony, the curiosity, the connections, and the contrasts.

I had the privilege of reading everyone else’s thoughts before giving my own, so I'd like to cap my response by amplifying the following ideas that resonated with me. None of these things are mutually exclusive, although they could be. The job of the board seems to be to make sure that they aren’t.

Go overboard whenever possible. Offer experiences, not just exhibitions. Host panels for emerging curators. Contribute to major international research projects. Be a megaphone for new voices. Cause conversation and consternation. Create a dialogue that is purposeful and relevant. Bring an element of fun and wow back via wacky events. Provide a grassroots and avant-garde approach. Help lesser-known artists connect with collectors. Inspire each other to make things happen.