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The distribution of Artists Now’s billboard requires attention to the many ecologies (e.g., physical, economic, political) that shape Artists Now’s message and visual identity.
 The
billboard is located on the side of an overpass. Once
used to publicize a local Catholic hospital, it has
been years since this space was last designed to
forward public ideas.The billboard’s peeling
and missing pieces are partially blocked by trees
and surrounded by poison ivy. Nonetheless,
the arched bridge beneath this space provides a wonderful
welcome to the town, especially since the bridge
has high visibility along this tree-lined county
road. |
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Not surprisingly, economics play a central role in Artists Now’s
ability to get out its message. Until the summer of 2006, Artists
Now had no money saved and no institutional structures geared
toward saving any money. What Artists Now had was the founder’s
creativity, connections, and tenacity. Planning for the
billboard reflected this history. After some research and cold-calling,
the founder learned that the billboard’s management company
was happy to rent this underutilized space for a song, especially
since this company could receive a tax write-off for donating their “lost
profits” to a not-for-profit charity. Consequently,
Artists Now's founder planned to rent a cherry picker and put up the billboard
with some friends. “However, he faced unexpected problems getting out the message—from the potential worker being highly allergic to poison ivy to the cost of securing a union flagger to slow the Amtrak trains running over the bridge, a pricey and unanticipated expense to be sure.”
Even more daunting problems emerged when the organizer began
to understand the political networks surrounding this physical
space. According to town lore, about eight years ago the
current mayor staged a political coup and ousted a supposedly
corrupt, established mayor. The current mayor supports Artists
Now’s community building efforts and may be convinced to
use city crews to cut back the trees blocking the bridge. And
yet, it is the former mayor who is the freeholder in charge of
the county road that passes beneath the bridge. The specifics
are still murky, but Artists Now organizers believe that it is
he who would approve the road crew to slow traffic so that the
cherry picker can put up the billboard; he may even have sway
with Amtrak’s approval of slowing the trains for the day. These
politicians are not on good terms, and would be unlikely to support
a project endorsed by the other.
Literacy researchers and community activists have much to learn from Artists Now's attempts to distribute its message. These lessons, however, require examining legal codes that encourage businesses to offer not-for-profit organizations discounted access to public space; understanding the material conditions of various public forums; working with, around, and through layers of local politics. These sites of cultural production shape Artists Now’s distribution dilemmas, yet these ecologies are too often beyond the scope of the traditional canons' attention to local text. (Artists Now provides a local counterpart to the examples listed in the core.)
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