Meet Me Where You Are (Or, How Not to Starve an Artist)

Meet Me Where You Are (Or, How Not to Starve an Artist,) Amplify’s next Generation Series project, organized by Bilgesu Sisman with Joshua LaBure and Alex Jacobsen, asks how artists and arts workers in three different cities are making space, making a living, and enacting more just modes of co-existence. 

Profiling artists experimenting with alternative modes of economic organization in Baltimore, MD, New York City, NY and Omaha, NE, the exhibition documents interlocking approaches to navigating sustainability in different geographic contexts, with varying degrees of access to institutional support.

Recorded interviews, research material, and artifacts installed throughout the space uplift embodied organizing practices that make divesting from capitalistic markets possible in the short term, and over time, invigorate systemic shifts towards modes of exchange that intentionally invite cooperation, resource sharing, and community building. 

The public opening of Meet Me Where You Are (Or, How Not to Starve an Artist) on Friday, November 8th from 6pm - 9pm is free and open to all. After the opening, regular gallery hours are by appointment. Please register in Eventbrite for a time to visit. 

• Opening Reception: November 8th; 6pm - 9pm
•  Exhibition Dates: November 8th - December 13th, 2024 
•  Regular Gallery Hours: Thursdays and Fridays; 1pm - 5pm by appointment

Generator Space is wheelchair accessible and located on a fairly busy street with a decent amount of traffic. Please use crosswalks for safety. Unmetered street parking is available on Vinton Street, 18th Street, and neighborhood streets to the north and west of the space. 

Generator Series programming is presented with support from the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.

About the Organizers: 

Bilgesu Sisman is a writer, film programmer, and educator, who has worked in arts nonprofits and academia and has been part of multiple grassroots organizations around anti-capitalism, cooperative economies, and participatory democracies. She currently works as the Director of Cinematheque at Cleveland Institute of Art.

Alex Jacobson explores the interconnectedness of space, memory, and body primarily through psychoacoustics and somatic vibrations. In recent years, Alex has contributed music for a number of film and dance projects, and their work has been featured across the United States, Mexico, and Europe, including Radiophrenia Art Festival, ESS’s Quarantine Concert Series, and Konvent Puntzero.

Joshua LaBure is a documentary filmmaker, radio producer and podcaster based out of Omaha, Nebraska. His experience includes having directed and produced several short films, two narrative features and two documentary features, with his works featured at the Lone Star Film Festival, The Bureau of Creative Works and other filmmaker showcases. His most recent documentary had a sold-out premiere and received a standing ovation at the Benson Theatre. Furthermore, he founded the Denver Filmmakers Collective, which hosted local filmmaker showcases, has served on jury for major film festivals and has hosted countless film screenings.

Additionally, Joshua has hosted and produced over 100 episodes of KIOS at the Movies andOn Documentary with Joshua LaBure, where he has interviewed dozens of filmmakers, covered film festivals and opined films. In 2021, his radio series, Portrait of a Pandemic, which explored how the Covid-19 pandemic affected the community, received the Nebraska Broadcaster’s Association Bronze Award for Best Investigative Journal or Series. 

Amplify Arts provides resources for artists, organizers, and cultural workers to incubate liberatory ideas that challenge dominant systems and move our community forward.

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