The capacity crowds from the July 15 closing night performance by poet Jim Carroll are gone. Supplies are being put away. VOLK/Contemporary Summer Project Initiative is holding true to its word and closing its doors after eight weeks at its 14th Street warehouse space.
"A lot of people over the weekend were asking us to keep things going," says Joe Winterhalter, one of VOLK's co-founders along with close friends Zoltan Falta and Tim McMichael. "But one of the ways we remain underground is by being a temporary space."
VOLK achieved its goal of becoming the summer's most exciting arts event, though its impact on the local arts community remains to be seen. Still, it's safe to say VOLK has already stirred up new enthusiasm.
"I think we've raised the bar for the potential for this type of project in Cincinnati," Winterhalter says.
Playhouse in the Park Associate Artistic Director Charles Towers was one of VOLK's many repeat visitors. His interest was professional, you see -- he's searching for avant-garde artists to fill a 10-week performance series at the Playhouse, set to begin in early 2001 and tentatively called "alteractive." Performances will happen in the Playhouse's main lobby on Monday nights. Tables will be set around the stage. Drinks and coffee will complete the cabaret setting.
All Towers needs to do is fill the programming. The problem, he confesses, is that he's not an "avant-gardist." He's not even sure if avant-garde is any longer the appropriate term for new and edgy art.
Towers has been canvassing Cincinnati and the surrounding area for performers who can hold an audience's attention for 90 minutes. He knows what won't be booked. He read a New York Times article about an artist who eats a copy of The Wall Street Journal and regurgitates it onstage. That artist won't be coming to the Playhouse.
"We want to attract a non-traditional, theater-going audience and get them to see the Playhouse," Towers says. "Let them see what's happening, and maybe they'll come back and see a play."
Towers is shaking the bushes for emerging artists. He's calling everyone he knows. Filling the programming is going to take some legwork. He promises he's not going to call some agent and book artists from New York City or Chicago to come to town and show Cincinnati the "true" meaning of avant-garde. He hopes area artists begin to contact him at the Playhouse. Maybe they'll send him videotapes or press kits.
Basically, Towers needs to talk to everyone.
"Who's Cincinnati's version of Eric Bogosian?," he asks. "Who's chomping it out there? And if you can't tell me right away, well then, that answers the question."
There are few similarities between VOLK's raw gallery space and the Playhouse's polished lobby. VOLK has no set-up for advance ticketing. Performances often started late. The Playhouse's box office system probably cost more than VOLK's entire programming budget.
But there are valuable lessons the Playhouse can learn from an underground arts initiative like VOLK. The goal for "alteractive" is to attract twentysomethings to the Playhouse. The hope is the series will offer the type of hip and edgy performance art these people want to see.
Over eight weeks, VOLK proved it could attract the type of audience the Playhouse wants. The challenge is for Towers to learn from his VOLK experience.
"We are not going to be downtown," Towers says. "VOLK is downtown. Pulling a beer from an ice cooler and looking at artwork on the walls is a different experience from driving up the hill (to Mount Adams). We're cognizant of that, and that's not what we're trying to do. But there is a certain feeling we can capture even up on the hill."
Now, while VOLK closes its doors for good, its first impact is already being felt.
