so, earlier i saw a post making fun of the idea of kids having a tumblr prom, and i laughed too, because i remembered how silly that was back in, what, 2011? but it wasn’t all that silly, it was pretty cute, actually. a lot of people dressed up, some in character, and asked each other out, and posted costumes and drew each other flowers, and yeah maybe it was a little cringey, but it was sweet. it was well-meaning. a lot of people genuinely had fun. 

and it isn’t 2011 again, is the thing. 

this year, an entire graduating class of seniors isn’t going to get to go to prom. or graduation. at all. ever. no homecoming, no prom, no graduation, no signing yearbooks. maybe you’re old enough that you don’t remember how much these things meant when you were eighteen, and maybe they really didn’t mean anything to you at all, but this is something that until a month ago millions of teenagers had every expectation of getting to do, and now they won’t. these are milestones a century of american teens have gotten to celebrate as they grew from kids to young adults, and these kids this year get to sit at home and watch the world burn as a bunch of old people lie to each other. 

let them have an online prom. let them dress up and reach out to each other and try to find a little joy in a world that has profoundly failed them. i’m a millennial, i know how bitter it is to come of age and find everything i was promised by everyone older than me to evaporate just before i reached it: that good job college was supposed to get me, that house in the suburbs, the world that wasn’t on fire. and now gen z is going through something even worse. 

the kids aren’t alright. no one is alright. none of this is alright. 

fuck it: tumblr prom. 

so we all agree that art is no longer being circulated on tumblr the way it used to be, and that The Youths no longer know how to reblog shit because they’re from insta-tok or whatever, and that subject-specific tags are turning into a unusable slog because so much shit gets inappropriate hashtags. and that shit is getting pretty dire.

[image id: a hand almost buried in crumpled paper, holding a sign that says “help”]

i’ve been thinking about it and i have a proposal:

WE NEED MORE GALLERY SPACES.

[image id: a fancy art gallery with red brocade wallpaper, gold picture frames, and beautiful oil paintings]

who benefits from galleries? artists benefit because their work is shown in a space that’s already attended by an expectant audience. the audience benefits because they can follow a space with the expectation of being served the curated content they want to see. and crucially, people who want to participate in creative work without having to make it themselves can become the curators who help connect artists with audiences.

[image id: a mule-drawn tour bus about to set out on an educational ride]

i propose this summer, with school letting out and a lot of bored young people ready to particpate in fandoms and other hobbies, that we start a push to make more fanblogs with the explicit, understood purpose of serving the community more gallery spaces. artists will get more exposure and fans will get to see more art.

[image id: a wall mural featuring a large hand pulling back a blank curtain to reveal a dense and complex design of overlapping words and tags. a sunbeam illuminates a bright triangle of wall that reads “hey”]

being a curator is a really fun and really valuable way to engage with your community, whether that’s the fans of a show, hobby, game, science, genre. it really can’t be overstated how cool it is to be one of the guys who find and reblog artists with limited reach and thus introduce them to a wider audience that will be happy to see something great.

THIS SUMMER, START A GALLERY SIDEBLOG AND SEE HOW IT GOES. TELL YOUR FRIENDS TO START GALLERIES. ADVERTISE IT IN THE TAGS. ADVERTISE YOUR FRIENDS. PUT OUT CALLS FOR WORK. RUN IT FOR A WEEK OR A SEASON OR TEN YEARS. FOLLOW OTHER GALLERIES. LET’S SEE IF WE CAN MAKE SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL.

#GALLERY23