Seamas Coutts Guest Lecture

This semester, we had Seumas Coutts, Mary Ellen Lane, and Chris Hopkins as a guest speakers in our Contemporary Art History course. Seumas Coutts and the team of M5 Arts are the squad behind ArtHotel and ArtStreet shows that have taken place right here in Sacramento, California. Seumas and his fellow M5 Arts colleagues stressed the importance of collaboration and teamwork. They talked about the necessity of having motivated team members who take initiative and just do what needs to be done for art shows of this size and circumstance to work. They also talked in depth about how hard their team works to provide for artists. They truly believe that artist and their work are worthwhile investments and deserve support to create and show their work. It is obvious that Seumas’ passion for art is the inspiration behind this awesome feat. One of the really interesting things that I found out about Art Street was that the artists had to work within the spaces they were given so each piece is unique to that show. During ArtStreet, they used what Seumas described as a flat hierarchy meaning that everyone has a vote and each vote is equal. One of the most surprising struggles that the team behind ArtStreet faced was the lack of paperwork that the city had to facilitate an event like this. Seumas explained that he had ended up working with the city because they had never seen an event like this so the paperwork and logistics had to be created from scratch. I thought that it was a wonderful opportunity and learning experience for the city to prepare for more events like these. I imagine it made a really big difference having someone who is as invested in the arts as Seumas is to help guide the city to make functional processes that will facilitate the growth of awesome art events. I really enjoyed having these speakers visit us! It was really inspiring to hear about how much collaboration, time, and care went into making these events special and important for not only Sacramento, but the international art community as well. I can't wait to see what is next!

Artist Unknown, Promotional Design for M5 ARTS's ArtStreet 2017

You can access the M5 Arts website here: http://www.m5arts.com/