Via Inara Pey comes news that the Linden Endownment of the Arts have secured a twenty sim deal to promote the arts in Second Life. The actual announcement from the Linden Endownment for the Arts can be read here, it explains the process for artists and curators to be able to apply to get their hands on a sim:
“The Linden Endowment for the Arts (LEA) has negotiated with Linden Labs to make available twenty new regions for the arts in Second Life. Four regions will be reserved for exhibitions curated from LEA sandbox art, and two will be allocated through a land rush. Details will follow on those six regions. Fourteen will be allocated by application. These regions will be awarded to selected artists for a period of five months. After the completion of five months those regions will be transferred to a new set of awardees. Recipients can be considered for a second endowment of five months.”
I’ve already passed the link on to some artists I know, however I haven’t really changed my mind on things like this, I find it uncomfortable.
People all over Second Life would be far more creative if they could pay less tier or have twenty free sims for a project, roleplaying sims would love to be able to have free sims whereby they could concentrate purely on roleplaying rather than having to concentrate on the reality of meeting tier, I doubt there are many profitable roleplaying sims out there in Second Life because of the cold harsh fact that someone has to pay the bill.
When this was first announced as a plan under Mark Kingdon, at the time for a seventy sim art project, I was critical then, I also told Blondin who was involved at the time that they shouldn’t ignore those who are already supporting the arts in Second Life. However that seems to have fallen on deaf ears.
The arts are all over Second Life, galleries, music, story telling, machinima and it’s good to see, in many cases people are put off by the high costs of tier, but it’s not only artists and their creativity that are stifled by tier costs, it’s everyone who has to deal with this reality, tier costs stifle creativity, Linden Lab need tier payments to keep the platform running, it’s their main source of revenue.
So this is great for the art community, they’ve negotiated a great deal, but let’s not try and pretend that only artists feel the burden of tier costs, because they aren’t the only ones who feel that pinch, many projects are stymied by tier costs, are we going to get a twenty sim deal for the roleplaying community? Highly unlikely isn’t it.
I hope the art community take full advantage of this grant and make wonderful projects, but I remain deeply uncomfortable about these sort of deals.
I see this as a panic move by LL. They still do NOT get it.
Well it has been two years in the planning, but I think you’re correct that they don’t get it… well not all of it anyway.
Chestnut Rau is expressing the same sentiments because she runs an art sim. I’ve had this discussion with her on twitter. Foundation or Government endowments do not compete with private ventures. In the real world the National Endowment for the Arts complements the work of private galleries. And vice versa. Each has a role to play. For the Lindens to finally step up to the plate and support SL artists is late in coming and I for one am thrilled to see it finally arrive, two and a half years after M. Linden first announced his intention to endow sims to deserving artists.
There’s a bigger picture here than private and public galleries, Chestnut is probably busting a gut to make ends meet and then sees something like this. I know I do that with my roleplaying sim where we also have live music, art exhibitions and story telling, trying to be more creative in the face of large expenses is a struggle for plenty of folk.
Yes it is welcome to see something positive for the arts, but it shouldn’t end there, plans should be afoot to help bridge other areas where creativity is stifled too.
well, maybe we’ll finally see some ART on the Loading screen instead of half-sunken rowboats and exhortations to “bling your avatard out!”