Nickard raises some great ideas.

It got me thinking about the idea of an alternative space for displaying art and exactly what that is today. Undoubtedly the landscape has changed. The main question is, how do we as artists today, working in various media from traditional types such as painting, sculpture, photography to motion media to performance art, to book art and new media, find a way to show our work to a larger public outside of the "art world"? As Nickard said, his greatest frustrations were often with the art establishment and his great success was with the general public that is not entrenched in art culture. So how do we make this work accessible and enticing to people from a wide cross section of the population?

I think one solution could be the use of internet based media to at least gain awareness and appeal if not as a way to display the medium. There are of course limitations to web based media if that encompasses the totality of the work. It can be a good marketing tool however. I think that it's important to think about how we market our work as artists. If we are not constantly looking for reaching new audiences, the work can become stagnant. We may make the work because it is what we are interested in, but without an audience to view it, it exists in a vaccuum.

Bringing art into public spaces not normally associated with art is another option. This may open art up to new audiences that would not otherwise seek it by seeking them instead. There are of course logistical issues that exist with this option. Securing the work can be an issue as can getting permission to use a space. If it is a busy place, traffic flow can be a problem. If it is outdoors, weather can be an issue. There are of course works of art that are designed specifically for public spaces, however there is a different dynamic that exists when the work is a destination as in a gallery or museum than when it may simply be passed by and ignored. This seems to be the biggest issue. Art has become so self-conscious and out of step with the issues of wide public appeal that it is easily ignored in favor of more accessible staples of pop culture. That is not to say that I advocate the dumbing down of art in order to make it more appealing. No matter what steps are taken to find a wider audience, there will always be those who choose not to partake of those efforts. The issue at hand is how to know the audience that you seek and find ways to reach them. This is more difficult in some ways, because there is more to compete against, but there are also more avenues for raising awareness.

We need to discard our aversion for mainstream media and other outlets that most people pay attention to in favor of art and instead learn to use them to our advantage to draw in more interest. Here are some links to galleries, projects, artists information of note that might be a starting point:

http://outdoormuseum.com/detail.htm
http://www.squeaky.org
http://www.hallwalls.org
http://www.cepagallery.com
http://www.nysawc.org
http://www.rochestercontemporary.org/
http://www.bigorbitgallery.org
http://www.atasite.org
http://www.deepdishtv.org
http://www.artexte.ca/
http://www.artnet.com