Sushi Performance and Visual Art fires its artistic director
The 2007/2008 Sushi season makes me shake with excitement. Most of what’s planned is genre-bending, weird and — in a day and age when you think just about everything artistic that could be done has been done — shockingly inventive.
So why, after artistic director Jeremy Gaucher just put the finishing touches on what looks to be Sushi’s best season yet, would Sushi’s board of directors let him go? If you ask Lynn Shuette, the Sushi founder and former executive director who’s currently serving as Sushi’s interim executive director, she’ll give you carefully worded answers about “staff restructuring” and a “new strategic plan.”
I like Lynn. She’s a talented local artist and strong female force, but I’m not sure if I agree with her and Sushi’s decision to let Jeremy go. Things were just starting to get good. Lynn said the organization is gearing up to move into its new building next year, so they need to “put every shard of energy into raising funds.” She said they needed someone with “more experience in development.”
I’m not sure if Jeremy has any experience in development (nor am I exactly sure of what that means), but I’m positive that Sushi has just made a pretty big mistake. No one’s going to throw money at an arts organization without any artistic integrity — and letting an artistic director go after he worked his ass off to put a phenomenal season together just ain’t cool. I talked to Jeremy and he seemed shocked, but pretty upbeat about things.
“It was really sudden,” he said. “They called me in, sat me down and said ‘we have some bad news.’”
Jeremy didn’t really understand why he was let go and was more interested in talking about the season than he was about talking about being fired. “Awesome season, isn’t it?” he asked. “I can’t wait to go to all the shows.”
When I finally did get him to talk about the incident, he was amicable. “I hope it’s the best decision for Sushi,” he said, “but I don’t know that it is.”
Kinsee, do you know the history of Sushi productions under Lynn’s direction?
I was just in NYC for a month and I was asked by two choreographers there “What’s happening with Sushi?”. One Bessy award winning artist in particular was curious why a previously initiated residency, where he was invited to create a work, collaborate and perform with local artists, had been left without follow-up after being received with such success before Sushi lost their last space. You see, under Lynn and later Vicki Wolfe, Sushi developed a national reputation as, one New Yorker put it, “a place where something was always about to happen.” I’d say that’s something for a San Diego that, even now, isn’t a place where most working performance artists in this country would even consider on the map. And while I won’t discredit Jeremy or his work (I consider him a friend), I also know first hand that the history of Sushi presenting challenging and provocative work is more than a recent phenomenon.
Lastly, according to Jeremy’s notice to the community, the board “dissolved” the position of Artistic Director. Sounds slightly different than being fired. Either way he’s out of a job, and that sucks.
From the UT, an article on Sushi reopening downtown. Also a good primer on the history of the presenter, for those less out of the loop.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/features/20070902-9999-lz1a02sushi.html