Subject: Performance

Description: "2012 U.S. Cities Contemporary Art Rankings: A New Hierarchical Approach" was first performed in 2011 with a crowd of thirty-five artists and creative workers in a Minneapolis gallery. Creating a second edition – this time, in a university setting, with a different group (many of whom have had careers elsewhere following their graduations from UofL), in an entirely different geographic and cultural part of the country – would yield an entirely different set of results. Many of the questions are the same, regardless of setting: is New York really America’s only truly world-class art center, or has L.A. become its peer? Does the influence of Harrell Fletcher in Portland and current widespread interest in social practice make that city a bona fide contemporary art capital? Is the relative lack of a traditional arts infrastructure in a city like Detroit offset by the influx of young artists that have moved there in the past ten years? Is Miami national grade all year-round, or just when Art Basel is going on? Using faux-sociological language, the project aims to crudely (and humorously) replicate the sort of Richard Florida-styled list-crafting that dominates much national discussion of contemporary art and placemaking. Located in that gray area between satire and earnest inquiry, the project draws on its audience's collective knowledge and investment in their own individual regional identities, as well as demonstrating the inherent limitations in reducing complex cultural and sociological factors into easily digestible charts, maps, and lists.