Jason "J-Trav" Travis is one of many local artists to take advantage of Dashboard Co-op's website. Above: Jason Travis, Jessica. Photo courtesy Dashboard Co-op.org

The last few years in Atlanta have seen an influx of the under-30 crowd starting galleries, organizations, collectives, and journals. It’s time to add another one to the bunch: Dashboard Co-op. Dashboard is a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to a list of jobs that includes virtual gallery, promotion site, and cheerleader for artists. So far, they have engaged a huge spectrum of talent ranging from sculptor Patrick Toups to illustrator Baxter Crane. Their website is preparing for its launch party this Saturday, March 20, from 8PM-midnight, at the Blue Tower Gallery, but in the midst of the chaos, founders Beth Malone and Courtney Hammond sat down with me to talk about their plans for the site’s future.

So, tell me about the site.

Patrick Troups, Untitled, sculptural installation. Photo courtesy DashboardCo-op.org.

Beth: Essentially it’s an online artist gallery, and we have been working on it for about a year now. It’s been trial and error. We started with a few web designers who were our friends, and then the project got put on the back burner because we had full-time jobs and didn’t have time. Then we tried to do it ourselves for a little while and realized we didn’t know what the hell we were doing. And then we just decided to pay somebody, and we found the greatest pair of dudes to design it.

Courtney: Together they are the monolith.

B: They are the monolith. They are amazing. We met with Chris and were like, “We want to do all this stuff and don’t know if its possible,” and within a week he whipped it into shape. We both kept saying, “It’s happening!”

We have 10 artists right now, all of whom are amazing and great. We show stills of their work and then do an interview with them to tell who they are; it’s cool. I think we try to keep our personalities in the interview because they are big and fat. And then we also include a lot of art happenings in the city, and then any kind of art news that we think is cool, like WonderRoot just put art all around the BeltLine.

C: Right, so I took a whole day with a couple of people and we all dispersed to go find the art. We took photographs and put them on Flickr and then wrote an article about what it was about. It’s all about awareness. Essentially, what I want is for people to be able to go to the website, and also to be able to do for art what Creative Loafing does for music. We would even like to host underground art parties and get to the point where people just send us their shows for us to post them. Just anything we can do in the art community.

B: I guess essentially we want to be an artist empowerment site, connecting folks that otherwise wouldn’t be.

C: I feel like there’s a huge disconnect between the titan galleries and the Beep Beeps of the world. The Beep Beeps of the world are great but the way you find out about them is through friends of friends of friends, so they have these great shows but only a handful of people know about them. Only 100 people will know about them, and those aren’t necessarily the people who will buy the work. I want to make information accessible for people who have the dough to buy the work, and who will go to these shows and create a network so it’s not this huge disconnect where these artists are making really great work but aren’t selling it.

B: I think people in Atlanta really are turning. People like us who are the Average Joe’s who really do want to support the artists are starting to do it.

Who are some artists that you’re really excited about?

C: Statisfaction, Sister Louisa

B: There’s a painter I really like, Fatima English, and she’s really kind of undiscovered. She’s kind of meek about it. When I told her to send us stuff she was so giddy. One of my favorite artists is Cathy Barberie, who is one of our friends and is actually the curator for art at the airport. Her artwork is phenomenal. I don’t know if she’s creating now, but I would eventually like to have her on Dash. Incidentally, she’s engaged to John Dirga. It’d be cool to have performance art, too. I know we were talking about covering fashion eventually.

Was there a catalyst that led to starting the site?

C: I graduated from art school and when I got out I was like, I have been working so hard and I am not in the scene. I don’t know how to get things and promote my work ever, or I don’t feel like I can. I felt really lost. I have a business mind and an art mind, too. You’d think I’d be able to build my portfolio and promote myself, and I started thinking about my friends who were just creativity. I wondered how these people that make such beautiful things were going to succeed. I really think it’s a loss for the city not to see these works that I was seeing. It was just never going to be shown anywhere. I didn’t see any way around it, and [Beth and I] started talking it out and this is what we came to.

Emily Norman, Bored Housewife. Photo courtesy DashboardCo-op.org.

B: We hope it spurs opportunity. Lucrative opportunity, and also creativity.

C: Right, and creativity to build collectives like ours. People up until now have been disenchanted with the Atlanta art scene and that’s why they go to Brooklyn. That’s why half of Brooklyn is the Atlanta art scene. Even we were like, we don’t feel like fixing it; we just want to go to where it already is.

B: But then, we were both like, we’ve already put in so much time here. But, now I feel like it is changing.

C: I think we both had a moment at the Axiom show.

B: I remember we both looked at each other and were like, “It’s happening.” We grabbed each other’s shoulders, and, I think, said exactly, “It’s happening.” People are really catching on.

So is Atlanta kind of a jumping off point for you, or do you want Dashboard to stay here?

B: When we first started we were like, “We’re going to travel the world!”

C: “I want to get grants that will pay us to travel the world and we’re going to travel around to find really cool art. And we’re going to get paid for it.” Very drunken.

B: And then we came back down to earth and decided to start in Atlanta. And we want to start here. We have a few artists from New York but they are Atlanta natives. I think we might venture out around the state and the Southeast. But right now there are so many great artists in Atlanta we want to expose. We have the excitement and deluded ideals.

C: I do want it to grow and just the thought of moving to New York and having a New York version of Dashboard and one in San Francisco so that we can all exchange artists is exciting.

B: And we can do that with just Dashboard.

The Dashboard Launch Party is Saturday, March 20, at the Blue Tower Gallery.

Photo by Mike Germon.

Another video interview produced by Kombo Ch.

The Plastic Aztecs present Grow at Beep Beep Gallery, opening this Saturday, March 13, from 8-11PM.

See also BURNAWAY’s Plastic Aztecs review from 2008 and these Grow preview photos on ThoughtMarker.

The Plastic Aztecs' latest exhibition opens Saturday at Beep Beep Gallery. Photo by Mike Germon.

See below for visual arts events beginning Thursday, March 11.

THURSDAY, MARCH 11

Abstracted Nature / Group show
Swan Coach Gallery / 6-8PM

David Johnson / Out of the Shadows
Opal Gallery / Noon-7PM regular hours / Artist reception is March 25

FRIDAY, MARCH 12

Art on the Beltline / Deadline for artist proposals
4PM

Castleberry Hill Art Stroll
Castleberry Hill Arts District / various locations / 7-10PM

Photographers Choice 2010 / Group show
Atlanta Photography Group / 7:30-10PM

Serenbe Photography Center's grand opening is Saturday. Above: Instructor image © Jeani Elbaum.

SATURDAY, MARCH 13

Krista Thompson / Toward a Post-Soul Art History / lecture
High Museum of Art, Hill Auditorium / 2PM

Photographers Print Studio / Grand Opening
Serenbe Photography Center / 5-8PM

Plastic Aztecs / Grow
Beep Beep Gallery / 8PM

Three Voices / Group Show
Snapdragon Photography / 7-10PM

MONDAY, MARCH 15

2010 Benefit Art Auction / Deadline for artist proposals
Hammonds House Museum

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17

Tenzin Norbu / Thangka Painting Demonstrations
Michael Carlos Museum, Emory University / 10AM-4PM

Saturday's bicycle-themed art show at Young Blood Gallery coincides with Sopo Bicycle Coop's 6th annual alley cat race. Photo courtesy SopoBikes.org.

See below for visual arts events beginning Thursday, March 4.

THURSDAY, MARCH 4

Woman’s Image and What Defines a Woman? / Group shows
Hagedorn Foundation Gallery / 6-8PM

John Baines / Who Were Artists in Ancient Egypt? / Lecture
Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory / 7PM

68.57: From Point A to Point A / Group show
MOCA GA Expansion Gallery / 7-9PM

Local artist William Mize opens Thursday night. Above: William Mize, House, Midtown, ATL, Mixed media on panel 36" x 36" WM 1216. Photo courtesy Alan Avery Art Company.

William Mize / New Works
Alan Avery Art Company / 7-10PM

FRIDAY, MARCH 5

From Peplos to Petticoat to Punk / Fashion Symposium
SCAD-Atlanta / 1-6PM

Lee Jones / Push/Pull: Activating Media
2784 Cumberland Blvd, Smyrna / 7-9PM

Harmonics Art Psychedelia / Group show
Aurora Coffee, L5P / 7-10PM

Substitute Teacher / Group show
The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center / 8-10PM

SATURDAY, MARCH 6

Substitute Teacher / Curator and artist talk
The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center / 11AM

Cycle Through / Bicycle-themed art show
Young Blood Gallery and Boutique / 7-10PM

SUNDAY, MARCH 7

David Goldsmith / Photography Workshop
Serenbe / 9:30-4:30PM / $125

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10

ART PAPERS Live! / Laurent Grasso
Georgia Tech, College of Architecture Auditorium / 8PM

'From Beijing to Atlanta,' featuring artwork by Bo, Hong, and Ling Zhang opens Friday at Whitespace. Above: Ling Zhang, Culture and Nature. Photo courtesy Whitespace Gallery.

See below for visual arts events beginning Thursday, February 25.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26

Roots and More: African and American Legacies / Symposium
Georgia State University / Varied times and locations

The Only Subject is Love: Imagining Better Worlds / Symposium
Emory University / 1-3:30

Public Art on the Beltline / Workshop
West End Performing Arts Center / 6PM

Love Nests / Group show
Museum of Design of Atlanta / 6:30-9:30PM

Brett Callero / Living In Dig Nation
Studioplex / 7-10PM

Klimchak / Sticks in Space
Delafield Planetarium, Bradley Observatory / 7-9PM

Jo Peterson / Light Dark Near Far
Sandler Hudson Gallery / 7-9PM

Zhang Sisters / From Beijing to Atlanta
Whitespace / 7-10PM

Tiffany Sinnott and Staci Stone / Self, Contained
The B-Complex / 7-10PM

Matt Haffner, Katherine Taylor, Jason Francisco / ACP Greenhouse Discussion
Emory Visual Arts Building / 7PM

Film Love / Martin Scorsese
Eyedrum Art and Music Gallery / 8PM / $7

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 27

Zhang Sisters / From Beijing to Atlanta Artist Talk
Whitespace / 3PM

Joe Tsambiras, Paper Twins, Sam Parker / Here We Hide
MINT Gallery / 8-11PM

Kyle Carpenter / New works
Mudfire Clayworks and Gallery / 5-10PM

Amandine Drouet / The Garden of Lost Chances Closing Reception
Kibbee Gallery / 6-9PM

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 28

Russell Cook / New Works
Eyedrum Small Gallery / 5-8PM

Brett Osborn and Michael Brown / Mike’s Drive Flux Projects installation
Lenox Square / Closing Day

Jewelry Market / Group Show
Spruill Center for the Arts / 11-4PM

MONDAY, MARCH 1

We Live in Public / Screening
Eyedrum Art and Music Gallery / 9PM

Working Artist Project Deadline / MOCA GA

TUESDAY, MARCH 2

David Stuart and Fahamu Pecou / BMF: The Rise and Fall of Big Meech and the Black
Eyedrum Art and Music Gallery / 7-10PM

THURSDAY, MARCH 4

William Mize / New Works
Alan Avery Art Company / 7-10PM

One big, hiding family: The four artists of Here We Hide. Photo courtesy the artists and MINT Gallery.

Collaborative art projects are the order of the day in Atlanta. You can’t swing a brush in this town without hearing someone’s emphatic description of the “awesome” new project, art show, or performance they’re cooking up with other local creatives. And, really, why shouldn’t it be like that? Funding is hard to come by, let alone carving out a living as a full-time artist. In many ways, the traditional rules have been thrown out in favor of make-it-up-as-you-go-along collaborative experimentation.

One likely reason can be traced to a seemingly inhospitable environment for lowbrow art. When artists go for long enough feeling estranged from upscale galleries, the glossy art world, and its promise of financial support, they lose no heart and start forging their own communities, complete with their own hangouts, social protocols, and uniquely freeing sense of no rules. Making money, while always a nice occasional side effect of making art, is largely taken out of the equation. Suddenly your contemporaries aren’t your competition; they are your allies and, in many cases, your partners in crime.

Joe Tsambiras, New Grass, 2009, graphite, ink, and color pencil. Photo courtesy MINT Gallery.

And so it goes for our art collaboration du jour: Here We Hide, a group show by the Paper Twins, Joe Tsambiras, and Sam Parker opening this Saturday, February 27, from 8-11PM, at MINT Gallery.

As the foursome spent their Tuesday going crazy on some nails, paint, and stencils, I got a chance to hang out amidst their palpably excited pre-opening vibe. Having only first come together in December (the pairing was the brainchild of MINT’s Mike Germon), the group quickly realized that they “existed in the same universe,” and from there the show began to take form. While they acknowledge that the relatively short time frame was stressful, they assert with easy smiles that the “stress is fun.”

Joe Tsambiras explains, “It’s like, I planted this garden, so why not cultivate it?”

The way they talk about their ideas and process shows a gentle like-mindedness that doesn’t overextend itself; it seems they are all aware of the newness of their relationships as artists, while basking in the energizing warmth of knowing they have a congruent vision for the show. Hanging out with them is like tagging along on someone’s first date and observing that it’s going really, really well.

The foundation of Here We Hide is the idea of creating a completely transformed interior space that combines a multitude of artistic elements (the specifics of which I have been sworn to secrecy about, but I will say that it’s a warmly rich, fantastic reverie). The group repeatedly referenced the idea of moving in with a significant other and the sweet decorative collaborations that go into combining separate visions of an ideal home. And with four artists, all of whom are producing on a number of works independently of the others, the most exciting part will be seeing it all come together (or “making the invisible visible,” as Tsambiras puts it).

MINT Gallery is located in Unit B of the Sampson Street Lofts at 684 John Wesley Dobbs Avenue. Please contact Erica Jamison at ejamison@gmail.com for more info.

Marcia Wood Gallery opens two new solo shows Thursday. Above: William Steiger, Red Gondola Ride, 2009-10, oil on linen, 60 x 48"; photo courtesy Marcia Wood Gallery.

See below for visual arts events beginning Thursday, February 18.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18

The New Public Place: Art on the Beltline / Workshop
Eyedrum Art and Music Gallery / 6-7:30PM / Free

Film Love / Mauricio Kagel Part 2
Eyedrum Art and Music Gallery / 8PM / $5

VD: Values, Rights, Public Health
Global Health Odyssey Museum / 5-7PM

William Steiger / Whirl
Marcia Wood Gallery / 7-9PM

Olaf Hajek / Masquerade
Marcia Wood Gallery / 7-9PM

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19

Sabrina Orah Mark / Ready Set Readings Series
Whitespace / 8PM

Olena Zvyagintseva and Sarah Wolfe / New Works
TEW Galleries / 6-9PM

Bang! Launch Party
Eyedrum Art and Music Gallery / 8PM / $5

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20

WonderRoot / Art Sign the BeltLine 2.0
Eyedrum Art and Music Gallery / 12-7PM

Westside 3rd Saturday Art Walk
Westside Arts District / 11AM-5PM

Mel Chin / FUNDRED Dollar Bill Project
Collections stations at various locations / 11AM-5PM

Susan Robert / Artist Talk
Sandler Hudson Gallery / 3-4PM

Gyun Hur / Artist Talk
Get This! Gallery / 1PM

Jiha Moon / Artist Talk
Saltworks / 1:45PM

Leonardo da Vinci and the Art of Sculpture: Inside the Curatorial Process / Lecture
High Museum of Art / 2PM

Sounds of Sunda / Gamelan Consortium Concert
Emory University Performing Arts Studio / 7PM / Free

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21

Pecha Kucha Volume 15
Octane Coffee Lounge / 7:40PM

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23

Johan Grimonprez/ Art Papers Live! Doubletake Screening
Hill Auditorium, High Museum of Art / 7PM

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24

Johan Grimonprez / Art Papers Live! Artist Talk
Hill Auditorium, High Museum of Art / 8PM

Arts in Crisis: A Kennedy Center Initiative / Community Conversation
Ferst Center for the Arts / 10AM

On Wednesday, February 24, the Foundation Center Atlanta, the Office of Cultural Affairs, and other Georgia-based arts organizations will host Arts in Crisis: A Kennedy Center Initiative at Ferst Center for the Arts at Georgia Tech.

This event is part of the Arts in Crisis tour, from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and is a series of lectures and resource workshops currently traveling through all 50 states and Puerto Rico. The tour’s lead figure is the Kennedy Center President Michael Kaiser, author of The Art of the Turnaround: Creating and Maintaining Healthy Arts Organizations. The tour is aimed at leaders of arts and cultural organizations, but it is open to everyone. Topics covered include fundraising, marketing, advocacy, board development, and sustainable management.

The Arts in Crisis tour was initiated in response to the emerging conditions that plague nonprofit arts organizations nationwide. Decimated resources and diminished contributions have left morale waning. Meanwhile, arts organizations are feeling increasingly disregarded by government entities of all levels. As he engages in conversation with Georgia Council for the Arts Executive Director Susan Weiner, Mr. Kaiser will expound upon how he used non-traditional tactics and a never-say-die mentality to take numerous national arts organizations from the brink of failure to a thriving state of health.

This public event is free, but registration is required. You can do so by contacting the Ferst Center for the Arts online or at 404-894-9600. You can also register starting at 9AM the morning of the event, which begins at 10AM on Wednesday, February 24, 2010.

gloATL performs Valentine's Day weekend at Lenox Mall. Photo by Parish Kohanim; click above for schedules and more info.

See below for visual arts events beginning Thursday, February 11. Don’t forget Lauri Stallings’ Bloom, another dance-and-multimedia performance by gloATL at Lenox Mall this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday!

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11

Aphrodite / Lecture
The Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University / 7PM

Elyse Defoor / Via Dorso: Sonnets to Unguarded Moments
Wm Turner Gallery / 6-9PM

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12

Taylor Means, Mark Bowles, Rasmus Mogensen, Carolina Cleere, and Tom Flanagan
Bill Lowe Gallery / 6-9PM

Flux Projects / Lauri Stallings and gloATL / Bloom
Lenox Square / 7PM

Abstracts of Love / Group Show
Jack Art Gallery / 6PM

Atlanta Photography Group / Push Pin Show Annual Benefit
TULA / 7:30-10PM

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13

Flux Projects / Lauri Stallings and gloATL / Bloom
Lenox Square / 4PM

Scott Ingram / Artist Talk
Solomon Projects / 1:30PM

Lucha Rodriguez, Romy Maloon, Crystal Wagner, Chase Folsom, and Jessica Orlowski / Material
Beep Beep Gallery / 8PM

Robert Cheatham and Sean Beeching / Readings
Whitespace / 6-8PM

Folium Darwinii / Group show
Seen Gallery / 7-10PM

Woman in Space / Group show
Studioplex / 6:30-9:30PM

ManEaters and LadyKillers / Group Show
MINT Gallery / 8-11PM

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 14

Flux Projects / Lauri Stallings and gloATL / Bloom
Lenox Square / 4PM