30 April 2017

Split Screen Loses Its Home

Not long after I first rezzed nine years ago, I found a home on a tiny estate consisting of one full sim and two homestead sims. I lived on the full sim for a few years, and about the time I was starting to think about creating a place to host large artist installations, half of one of the homesteads became available. I pounced, and the Split Screen Installation Space was born. Later I moved Split Screen to the other (sandier) homestead. The estate owner Syzygy Merlin and her manager DFox Spitteler, wonderful people both, were incredibly supportive throughout these years. In fact they had first suggested that I should start a gallery (I'm sure they had nothing like Split Screen in mind!). But due to financial circumstances, sadly Syzygy has no choice but to close the whole estate.

For the next installation, the Coppelia artist collective has generously allowed Split Screen to take up residence at their sim. This is a temporary solution which will give me time to figure out something longer term. Unfortunately, it's going to be extremely hard to find another situation like the one I had before -- most estate owners don't want large structures on their land. Plus, even if I do find such a sim, it will undoubtedly cost significantly more. I might apply for LEA land, but this would also be a temporary solution, plus it goes against my grain as an independent curator running an installation space. There aren't many of us!

The best possible solution would be if I could gather a group of sponsors who could help pay for a homestead sim (it would be relatively inexpensive if there were five or six people, probably around US $15/month), but so far, no luck. If anyone wants to become a patron of the arts, let me know! (The sooner the better, too, because during the next few days there's a way to take over the homestead I'm currently on.)

In the meantime, I'm really going to miss the estate I called home for so many years. My thanks once more to Syzygy and DFox -- Split Screen quite literally would never have come into existence without their support, and they've been truly wonderful people.  Best wishes!


Me in my first home at Ziggy's Place, 2008

17 April 2017