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More than 11,000 people attended the third annual Butter fine art fair at the Stutz, where four Indiana institutions acquired artwork to add to permanent collections.
The Labor Day weekend event organized by cultural development firm GangGang racked up more than $285,000 in purchases, according to a summary released Thursday. Art sales at the 2022 event topped $250,000.
One of the pieces exhibited this year, a 426-foot quilt made by LaShawnda Crowe Storm, was acquired by the Indiana State Museum. The history of racial segregation in housing and loan policies inspired the work titled “redLINES.”
Butter, an event that requires no fees paid by artists and collects no commissions on sales, displayed work by 49 Black artists.
In addition to the state museum’s purchase of Crowe Storm’s quilt, the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, Indiana University’s Indiana Memorial Union and the Central Indiana Community Foundation acquired artwork at the event:
- “Pineapple Venus, Sex on the Beach Peach and Goldenrod,” by April Bey (Newfields).
- “Oops Upside Your Head!” by Gary Gee (Newfields).
- “Empowered Tresses,” by Tasha Beckwith (Indiana Memorial Union).
- “Reasons,” by Kyng Rhodes (Indiana Memorial Union).
- “Glorious Day,” by India Cruse-Griffin (Indiana Memorial Union).
- “The Barbershop,” by Cruse-Griffin (CICF).
- “Black Thought,” by Matthew Cooper (CICF).
Overall, collectors spent $285,392 for 76 artworks.
GangGang, founded in 2020, generates operational funds through Butter ticket sales and merchandise sales.
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I’m sure many of these art possessions are excellent, and excellence is always in the eye of the beholder, just like beauty. I mean, I don’t care what the pointy-heads say: we simply LIKE our painting of poker-playing dogs.
But let’s get real: this is id-pol pandering. It’s fine and all to talk about redlining, an undeniable historical injustice that has been illegal for 50 years. What about its modern equivalent, which largely includes efforts to immiserate working-class neighborhoods (white, black, Asian, Hispanic, you name it) by saturating them with illegal immigrants (the housing is already cheap) who get taxpayer-funded services while the native-born languish? This is every bit as insidious as redlining was, and it’s happening as I type. And the people bankrolling these identitarian artistic efforts are hoping to dupe people into not noticing. And, up until recently, the duplicity has been largely successful.
How wonderful it is to use foundation money to judge by skin color, rather than by merit or content of character. Such amazing progress.