The idea of marketing s’mores from a street vending cart was originally conceived around a campfire, in the summer of 2009, by Sean Starowitz and myself. It was obvious nothing like a s’mores vending cart existed; in fact, s’mores of any kind were rare to encounter in urban areas. With the realization of a niche and novelty marketing status as possible assurance of profit, the project appeared to have good chance of success.
Many contemporary artists utilize evolving marketing strategies while not critically inquiring about the subjective market in which these strategies are applied. I think this path of inquiry is fascinating because the over-arching for -profit economic system seems to be steering the way art is made, viewed and positioned in culture. I was hoping it was the other way around.
Most artists I know are confronted with the fact that romantic notions of art practice, content, and conceptual development are nurtured in a completely different environment than the limited, and often rigid, market for their work. Artists are encouraged to be saavy marketers, but a proper market analysis of the average local art market machinations would undoubtedly reveal a highly, subjective, ambiguous and capricious environment that may well be un-analyzable. This may be exactly the playing field artists are trained to deal with.
Why all the encouragement for artists to adopt the marketing status quo? Are questions about the very economic system artists operate in considered passe’ to talk about? Can they be approached in contradictory ways, using simple, effective market strategies? How do we feel about artists operating as venture capitalists in order to promote the work of others, for us all to share? Are s’mores easily accessible in your area?
These questions are at the source of this project. We intend this encounter with our local economic and social landscape to be a site for crafting community interaction and identity. This includes exploration of the for-profit system as a mode of generosity. We offer an opportunity to spark conversation on the street about public art.
Kurt Flecksing
