Hustle: Museum of Spectacle - Felicia E. Gail / Collections Stewardship Southeast

Hustle: Museum of Spectacle with

Matty Jankowski,

Jimbo Easter

& Julia Gorton

R.E. Ashwell

also featuring

Circus! Photographs of Frederick W. Glasier

from the John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art

June 12 - August 5, 2018

June 29, 20018

from 6PM - 9PM:

Opening Reception / Artists & Curator Talk / Performance by Jimbo Easter / Listening Bar with playlist curated by Julia Gorton

Hustle: Museum of Spectacle, was curated by Felicia E. Gail at the Pensacola Museum of Art University of West Florida Historic Trust in 2018. Hustle: Museum of Spectacle was an exhibition that revolved around the history of Western museums, its linkages to circus, the sideshow, tattoo culture, gender, Punk, and cabinets of curiosity. The museum became an installation considering the history of the museum as spectacle and the hustles that manifest from these histories. The exhibition featured contemporary artists: Matty Jankowski, Jimbo Easter, Julia Gorton, and early twentieth-century photographer Frederick W. Glasier on loan from the John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art along with local community participation, including special circus and tattoo and photo collections from Jimmy Perlman, Scott Alvarez, Noelle McCleaf & the UWF History Museum, local design work by UWF Professors Joseph Herring, Amy Ruddick & UWF design students and interns, collaborative zines by Rommel Martinez, Samantha Poirier, and myself as well as unique zines by Julia Gorton and Sean Linezo, curated listening bar by Julia Gorton with assistance from Matt Pham, performances by Jenny Price, videos by Jimbo Easter and early film archives by George Méliès, special talks by artists and curator, and symposium with Robyn Blynn & Deborah Walk, during its lifespan. The exhibition asked its guests to contemplate the histories of American museums and sideshows, subcultures, and non-normative representations of gender, class, and sexuality, spanning a timeline from the late 1800s to the present.

Special Thanks to those not listed elsewhere but had they not been involved the exhibition would not have existed or been as cool: Valerie Peacock, Dr. Amy Bowman-McElhone, Richard Rodriguez, Nicholas Croghan, Matt Pham, Jollan Aurelio, Jaime Diffee, Julianne Kelley, Olga Silva, Heidi Taylor, Rick Silvey, Valerie George, and again and again - the fabulous Samantha Poirier.

Essay written by Felicia E. Gail & take-a-way poster reverse side, promotional mmaterials and title wall, Hustle: Museum of Spectacle at The Pensacola Museum of Art (University of West Florida Historic Trust), 2018 (designed by Joseph Herring, Amy Ruddick, UWF Design Students)

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Zine for Hustle: Museum of Spectacle, text by Felicia E. Gail & Samantha Poirier, additional text, design, printing by Rommel Martinez, 2018 (grid/cropped)

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“In a world which really is topsy-turvy, the true is a moment of the false.”

- Guy Debord

from TheSociety of the Spectacle - 1967

Inside the exhibition, is an exhibition, is an exhibition, is an exhibition. Matty Jankowski. Jimbo Easter. Julia Gorton. Frederick W. Glasier. R.E. Ashwell. The artists. The circus. Silent films. The curtains. The videos. The performance. The objects. The black binders. The museums. The PMA. The Ringling. The spectators. Me. You. Us. Them. The building. As jail. As art center. The history. Jim Crow Era. Spanish Colonialism. Gentrification. The classroom. The strike. The pedagogy. The students. Teachers. Experience. The humans. The animals. The Gallery as Menagerie. We step inside and wish for surprise. We look around corners and hope for something better. We want to react. We open wider. We modify our bodies. We read words spelled out on the wall. We scratch our faces. We watch in awe. We look at our phones. We write something down. We capture an image. We post it. We are spectators. We are audiences. We are participants. We wish we could make it. We think we can make it. We want to make something. We don’t make anything. We want that. We never get that. We listen to it. We play it. We see. We remember. We say it. We don’t know where it comes from. We appropriate it. We steal for it. We lie for it. We love it. We hate it. We tell the truth for it. We are vulnerable. We are strange bodies. We are different. We are strong. We work hard. We sit on our asses. We are ambitious. We are commerce. We are community. We make our way. We hustle. We hustle hard. We are inside the show now. We are spectating. We are becoming spectacle. We refuse. We are the hustle in our own museums of spectacle.

What does hustle mean to you?

“I don't see it as a bad thing, I see it as having a sense of purpose. I'm doing what I want to do. It’s hard. But, I'm happy. You've got to work at it."

- Matty Jankwoski - 2018

Matty Jankowski, Hustle: Museum of Spectacle at The Pensacola Museum of Art (University of West Florida Historic Trust), 2018 / Images ©Mike Suhor 2018

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Julia Gorton, Hustle: Museum of Spectacle at The Pensacola Museum of Art (University of West Florida Historic Trust), 2018 / Images ©Mike Suhor 2018

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Jimbo Easter, Hustle: Museum of Spectacle at The Pensacola Museum of Art (University of West Florida Historic Trust), 2018 / Images ©Mike Suhor 2018

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view of Artists and Curator's talk, Hustle Museum of Spectacle, Pensacola Museum of Art, 2018
Photo by Mike Suhor (Felicia E. Gail, Julia Gorton, Jimbo Easter, Matty Jankowski)

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Matty Jankowski, Hustle: Museum of Spectacle at The Pensacola Museum of Art (University of West Florida Historic Trust), 2018 / Images ©Mike Suhor 2018

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Andy Warhol (simultaneous exhibition to Hustle: Museum of Spectacle at The Pensacola Museum of Art (University of West Florida Historic Trust), 2018 / Images ©Mike Suhor 2018

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Andy Warhol (simultaneous exhibition to Hustle: Museum of Spectacle at The Pensacola Museum of Art (University of West Florida Historic Trust), 2018 / Images ©Mike Suhor 2018

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Andy Warhol (simultaneous exhibition to Hustle: Museum of Spectacle at The Pensacola Museum of Art (University of West Florida Historic Trust), 2018 / Images ©Mike Suhor 2018

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Jimbo Easter, Hustle: Museum of Spectacle at The Pensacola Museum of Art (University of West Florida Historic Trust), 2018 / Images ©Mike Suhor 2018

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