Interview: Ice tea & talk with Gregory Sale

After spending seven years as Visual Arts Director for the Arizona Arts Commission, Phoenix artist and sometime bureaucrat Gregory Sale is off to Tempe to teach at Arizona State University. In the middle of transition between the two gigs we asked him for some last advice for artists, and for his thoughts on the current state of the arts in Arizona.

Hearsight: What is the shift in procedure or attitude that individual artists need to make now to be more effective?

Gregory Sale: Artists often need to not try to do everything in isolation. Artists can take the model from design & architecture of making plans and figuring out budgets, or take the literature model of working with an editor to improve their chances.

Hs: Have we hit a plateau in the arts in Phoenix?

GS: No, we are just now hitting critical mass, especially in cooperation between institutions and individuals. An example is Steve Weiss presenting "No Festival Required," the series of indi shorts, at the Phoenix Art Museum. Innovations are happening too. One is the City of Phoenix public arts project that allows 2-D artists to work with ceramicists to realize their work. These are examples of situations different from the norm. Phoenix never had support services for artists like other cities of comparble size. Sure, there are little development grants....but, we are at an advantage because we're used to functioning without much. To go forward, or exist at all, artists need to look beyond their own neighborhood. There are art opportunities on the internet, outside of geographic limits. Local geography can become a platform to go to a larger field.

Hs: What needs to change in the way we think?

GS: We have been working in a starvation environment. There is a lack of critical dialogue. If we can shift our identity construct as individuals to be pro-active instead of waiting for opportunities; if we acted more like business, we would have strategic plans, priorities. I ask myself--what belief systems am I walking around with that are not advantageous? What I am excited about is individual artists upping their game. I see more artists shifting from survival mode to looking forward. This is new, it's just starting.

SELF-PORTRAIT OF GREGORY SALE: COURTESY CITY OF SCOTTSDALE, FOCUS ON SAFETY