About

We are in precarious times. Maybe art, like a viaduct, can carry us up and over.

Viaduct Arts is a project by long-time photographer, arts educator, musician, and writer Bill Crandall. In addition to showcasing Bill’s work, the Viaduct Arts newsletter brings together various ways artists are exploring our intersectional crises of climate, fascism, injustice, and more. Not always by addressing those issues directly. Just as important is how art grounds us in the essential mysteries, poetry, beauty, and value of life and the world around us.

We need new relationships on many levels:

With nature as the starting point for climate action - artists and musicians can help show the way forward.

With art, both as artists and consumers of art. What should art do? What should artists do? Many are concerned but not sure how to put that concern into their work. No artist wants to be preachy or, worse, make bad art.

With the future. Past confidence in human progress now seems tenuous at best. Yet perceptions of where we are and where we're headed have often been shaped by art of the times. Viaduct is about creating community, energy, resilience, and solidarity through art, no matter what the future brings.

With each other. Maybe art can generate more energy, optimism, and understanding.

With ourselves.

Sounds good, but as a subscriber what sort of content should I expect?

Generally the mix will include things like:

Artist Features

Art, photography, music, etc - from up-and-comers to established artists - that explores climate themes in inspiring, imaginative, forward-looking ways. With a focus on the creative process as much as the final product. Curated to illustrate cool approaches, personal vision, observations, and ideas that might help carry us forward in the Anthropocene.

Future-Music

Musicians who are not just conveying topical themes but taking us forward with new ideas and energy in uncertain times. What is the balance between sending a direct message and something more subtle? What is the music that makes us believe in the future?

Weather Report

Short local dispatches from around the world. Like if the weatherperson was an artist, with personal images and micro-storytelling on the weather, environment, and life. Not simply pretty landscapes, or even direct climate commentaries, Weather Report reflects on our connection with the natural world in our everyday lives. A DIY, humanistic, citizen-artist vibe is valued more than slickness.

Many people still don't like talking about climate, but everyone likes talking about the weather. Maybe climate is abstract, someone else's problem somewhere else. Weather is climate that's happening to you.

ORIGIN STORY

Viaduct Arts started as a house salon in Takoma Park MD for local music and visual art with topical relevance.

When COVID shut that down, we moved things outside to the driveway concert series Roadside Attractions for the community. For a time, it was perhaps the only live music 'venue' in the DC area. City funding paid honorariums to otherwise out-of-work artists. With audiences socially distanced across the street, RA had incredible sets by the likes of Yasmin Williams, Huda Asfour, and Veronneau.

Viaduct Arts is a project of American photographer, educator, and organizer Bill Crandall. Full bio here.