Leia’s Lens: Let’s make it easy to be an Atlanta ‘insider’

Atlanta has been relatively quiet the last month. Many exhibitions came down in the first week of December and many institutions do not schedule their next openings until the end of January. This is a somewhat expected lull in programming with the alignment of university winter breaks, religious holidays and, almost certainly, a desperate need for time off after a blockbuster autumn.

I imagine that during this quiet chapter, and as we enter a new calendar year, organizations around the city will take time to reflect and set intentions for the year to come. It is my hope that more than anything this year, we can open up more ways for considering  who is “in” the art community.

My stint in Atlanta began six-and-a-half years ago, in June 2018. Like many transplants to this city, I moved here for university. Although my decision to relocate to Atlanta was not entirely my own, I sought to immerse myself in the art scene. Two days after I moved here, I began my first internship in the city at whitespace gallery. It was there that I began to familiarize myself with the art scene and, through gallery owner Susan Bridges, met the likes of art critic Felicia Feaster, arts patron Louis Corrigan and writer Jerry Cullum.

It was around this time that I also began to understand just how foreign my presence was in the city. As an emerging artist looking to advance my career, I discovered opportunities like the MINT Leap Year residency and the MOCA GA Working Artist Project, opportunities that aim to bolster the careers of visual artists — albeit only those of “Atlanta artists.” Both opportunities stipulate the artist maintain a residence within certain counties, and the Working Artist Project goes further by stipulating that residence in the specified counties must be continuously maintained for at least two years prior to application. Although I now lived in this city, I began to understand that I was not wholly a part of it.

These residence requirements are not out of the norm for small and mid-sized cities. So my feelings are not so much a condemnation of these requirements but a reflection of my own naivete at the time. However, these kinds of requirements, coupled with the prevalent use of the slogan “actually from Atlanta” in everyday conversation, instilled the idea that there is an “in” the art community, an understanding I maintain today. Many times, it has felt necessary to predicate conversations by saying, “Oh, no. I’m not from Atlanta. I just live here.”

In the time since my arrival, I have come to be adopted by the art community. The existence of this column alone proves that. But this assimilation is the result of multiple years of incessant presence at openings and multiple internships and jobs at local organizations.

A certain degree of protectiveness is just. There are many people who have been active members of this city’s art scene longer than I have been alive, and their wisdom should be heeded. Institutions like the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (MOCA GA) have attained the reputation and prominence they have only because of decades of hard work by the hands of leaders such as MOCA GA founder Annette Cone-Skelton. And the red carpet should not be rolled out for for anyone and everyone who wants to show at the museum. But I believe a level of porosity would do wonders.

As Atlanta continues to change — with the film industry; the endless list of conferences, cosplay conventions and trade shows; the induction of our first Michelin star restaurants; and the “36 Hours in Atlanta” New York Times article; among other transformations — endlessly bringing new people to the city, maintaining a stalwart dedication to “real ATLiens” will become increasingly difficult and potentially ostracizing.

The American South is stereotyped as having a certain “Southern charm” or a special “Southern hospitality.” I am constantly skeptical of stereotypes, but there is one local slogan which alludes to these qualities that I hope the art community can adopt in earnest: “Y’all Means All.” If we want our art community to continue to grow, we need to be prepared to accept that growth, even if it doesn’t fit our exacting definitions for what it should look like.

::

Leia Genis is a trans artist and writer currently based in Atlanta. Her writing has been published in Hyperallergic, Frieze, Burnaway, Art Papers and Number: Inc. magazine. Genis is a graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design and is also an avid cyclist with a competition history at the national level.

---

Reader Reactions