I want to start this post with a sincere thank you to Jon for the invite to speak on his new podcast (Poolside Podcast in York, PA). If all goes as planned I’ll be sitting down with him this Sunday for a nice discussion about art, and maybe some other random topics that come up along the way.

I can’t say I know Jon personally, but we do have mutual friends, and York is a small town in the grand scheme of things. I’m really thrilled every time I see someone local going out of their way to ‘put themselves out there’ both creatively and literally because York is really starving for this type of ground-level creative stimulation.

When I say we’re starving for creativity, I don’t mean to imply that we don’t have creative outlets, creative people, or community art-related events and activities; York has definitely made some effort to support the arts over the last few years, and just even in my own circle of local friends there is so much creativity that it seems like it’s bursting at the seems.

What I do mean to imply is that the recognition, the voice and the proper outlets for this creativity either aren’t there, or are very limited to specific types of media or groups of people who ‘are in-the-know’. I don’t think these limitations are a conscious decision on the city’s part, but I do believe them to be a side effect of being a smaller city and having limited resources. Since all of the funding for arts essentially gets distributed through a single hub, we’re very limited in what we as a city are willing or able to support. I do believe there are lot of unbelievably talented individuals who will never receive any recognition locally, in fact I could even argue that there are nationally renowned individuals who don’t receive as much recognition locally as I would expect them too, for instance Jeff Koons, (though I did actually see a newspaper article on him recently, which was a welcome surprise).

A number of years ago my husband and I were able to visit a small gallery in Lancaster, PA, where we witnessed John Baizley’s artwork in person. It was a magical experience because it is the only time I can recall having access to an artist’s work semi-locally that we were really excited about seeing. Oddly enough, I first saw Jeff Koons work quite recently in an art museum in Portland, OR. I’m not sure if he has exhibited in York or not, but there is some irony in this fact.

The idea behind Poolside Podcast is a very admirable one … speaking to creatives and unique people who are doing cool things in York, PA, who might otherwise go unnoticed, and for that I definitely support Jon’s efforts! You should support him too by checking out his Facebook page and giving the early episodes a listen!

You can find Poolside Podcast – York on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/poolsidepodcast/