M A N Y
M u s i c i a n s & A
r t i s t s i n N e w Y o r k
NYFA QUARTERLY - Fall 1999
Remediation: The Changing Spaces of Multimedia Art (excerpt)
by William R. Kaizen
"One new organization that has recently formed revives the old variety show format as a way of reinvigorating multimedia. Founded in 1997, MANY (Musicians and Artists New York) produces art festivals that features different genres – from music to dance to theater to multimedia – all on the same bill. Like an old time variety show, a MANY's festival showcases talent regardless of genre. Founders, Phil Mantione, Alysse Stepanian and James Martentic see each festival in total as a multimedia event although individual artists' work may be discipline specific. As Ms. Stepanian says, "The individual pieces are not necessarily multimedia but together the entire event is." The goal of a MANY festival is to create new audiences for different types of work. The founders were tired of going to the same discipline specific art events and seeing the same faces at every event. They wanted to create a festival that would draw a mixed audience, a festival where someone might come to see a dance performance and stay to hear music. "The original idea," Mr. Mantione says, "was to provide a venue to bring different disciplines together. I found it frustrating when I would go to music concerts and see the same people there in the audience. I wanted to expose people to types of work that they may not seek out otherwise. My hope was that people would come for one part of the program and stay for the rest." MANY offers complete freedom to the artists it invites to present work. They put no constraints on the projects. "We create the possibility for artists to meet and work together," says Mr. Mantione. "What we've found is that when we invite people to be part of a program they may not have been thinking about working collaboratively. But when we tell them that there is going to be a video projector available, they say, 'I've been wanting to do this.' It spawns something that wasn't there before. Often there is the desire there but it remains untapped unless it's the right opportunity is presented." To date, MANY has presented three festivals featuring over fifty artists in total. The most recent was OnetoMANYthree held at Dixon Place in June. It featured work that ranged from spoken word to new music to dance to mixed media performance. Stepanian says of the event that "they are very stressful to produce but we get such a high from watching the performances. And afterward, when people from the audience show us their appreciation and when the artists are excited -- that’s our reward."