A Squeaky History

• Squeaky Wheel Overview of Formation Sherry Miller Hocking, 1996
• A Squeaky History Willy Airaldi, Andrea Mancuso and Paula Watkins The Squealer, Spring/Summer 1997
• The State of Upstate annual issues of The Squealer 1988 -
• To visit the Squeaky Wheel website

Squeaky Wheel Overview of Formation
Squeaky Wheel was established in 1986, with Julie Zando, Director.

During the Spring of 1985 with the announced difficulties of Media Study/Buffalo there was growing uncertainty in the media community about the reopening of the facility. In the Fall of 1985 the New York State Council on the Arts held a meeting in Buffalo to analyze the situation. Existing media facilities such as Hallwalls and the Lockport Cable could not serve the needs of the film and video community, for access, educational and exhibition programming. About 70 people attended this initial meeting. Following the meeting about 45 individuals attended the first Squeaky Wheel meeting, to address the needs of the regional community. Founding members included Tony Conrad and Chris Hill who were both strong proponents of the need for a community-based facility. By March of 1986 at the close of the State University Film and Video Festival, Squeaky Wheel announced an Upstate Media Conference which would serve a number of important roles for the larger Upstate community: communications among members, circulating media exhibition programs, meetings to define shared needs and concerns and advocacy to put forward the agenda of the Upstate community to the State and nationally.

The Squealer is a regular publication, which offers a wide variety of texts - interviews, reviews of work, artists' statements. It provides a snapshot of Western New York media activities. The first Upstate issue of the Squealer was published in 1988 and profiled Hallwalls, Cornell Cinema, Media Ithaca, Central New York Programmers Group, North Country Media, Alfred University, Oswego Art Guild, Experimental TV Center, Visual Studies Workshop, The Turtle, Squeaky Wheel, Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Library. The Squealer has published an annual profile of these organizations issue since 1990.

In June 1988 Tony Conrad wrote "The 'Upstate Issue' Primer: Buffalo, the Media Alliance and the Emergence of a Surprising New Decentralized Media Discourse" for The Squealer. He outlines issues which were discussed widely at the Upstate Media Conference series initiated by Squeaky Wheel, and also which were being discussed on a Statewide level with Media Alliance. The issues concern practical, and philosophical differences and similarities in communities upstate and down.

A Squeaky History
Willy Airaldi, Andrea Mancuso and Paula Watkins The Squealer, Spring/Summer 1997

Before we get to the beginning, we should first address an ending. In 1985, Media Study/Buffalo, an independent, not-for-profit media center, which for 13 years had supported local film and video artists, shut down. This collapse caused an immediate reaction from the media arts community in Western New York. Approximately 70 concerned local artists/makers held a meeting to discuss the future of financial support from the state and federal government. The result was the formation of several committees which would work together to raise funds and promote awareness in the Buffalo arts and education communities. This was called Squeaky Wheel Film & Video Coalition. This co-operative included newsletter, equipment, and grants committees. The grants committees managed to compile 26 separate grant applications to the New York State Council on the Arts totaling $109,000. This caught the Council's attention, and after several requested adjustments, a final, more modest grant proposal of $22,000 was written and passed. Keep in mind however, that such a grant was unprecedented in the Western New York visual arts community. In order to receive this grant, the original collective was required to form an official organization.

The organization had to appoint a Board of Directors, which would in turn oversee an active staff. The staff would be in charge of equipment, access, publicity, programming, education and then some. An abundance of energy and enthusiasm within the collective of artists, makers and friends made such an organized effort possible, and thus Squeaky Wheel a.k.a. Buffalo Media Resources came officially into being in 1987. A strong membership base and a very active Staff and Board of Directors has kept Squeaky Wheel turning for over a decade now.

With a seasonal newsletter called The Squealer, a weekly public access cable show called Axlegrease, educational workshops and internships, equipment access, video editing and computer imaging facilities, and visual art screenings, Squeaky Wheel has become a staple within the Western New York arts community.

Fascinating Factoids...

• 1985 Squeaky Wheel Film Video Coalition is established, obtains Institutional status and is registered as a charitable association.
• Board of Directors has first full meeting October 4, 1986 where Treasurer Julie Zando is appointed Squeaky Wheel's first Director.
• 1986 Members meeting Squeaky Wheel members pride themselves on not being a top downward type of organization.
• November 1986 Squeaky Wheel gets its first funding from NYSCA a total of $22,000, and Armin Heurich is hired as the first Technical Director.
• Fall 1987 SW moves into its first storefront space at 585 Potomac Avenue.
• 1988 MediaBuff exhibition at the Johnson Museum in Cornell, NY.
• Fall 1989 Cheryl Jackson is hired as SW's Executive Director.
• 1990 Buffalo Foundation Grant buys the first V5000 camcorder.
• Spring 1991 Squeaky Wheel moves to 372 Connecticut Street.
• 1991 SW gets a Hi-8 to ¾" editing system through an equipment grant from NYSCA.
• 1992 SW hosts the first Buffalo Native American Film/Video Festival.
• Winter 1993 SW purchases a 3-chip Hi-8 camera courtesy of the Wendt Foundation.
• October 1993 SW hosts its first Digital Art Interactive show, this marks the start of commitment to emerging technologies.
• 1995 SW purchases its first Macintosh computer with a special equipment grant from NYSCA.
• June 1995 Squeaky Wheel moves to 175 Elmwood Avenue (our current location.)
• Summer 1995 SW receives a CIFP (Cultural Initiative Funding Program) grant and is able to hire a second full time and a part time staff member along with expanding programs.
• Fall 1995 SW expands its workshop program offering over 12 classes in production, digital art, grant writing, filmmaking three times a year.
• Summer 1996 SW purchases 3 additional Macintosh computers with a grants from the Margaret L. Wendt Foundation.
• January 1997 SW receives a NYSCA Challenge Grant, and hires a fifth staff member.
• April 1997 Celebrating 10 years. Lots of private donations and corporate support. Big 10th anniversary gala, 3 Retrospective screenings, live Axlegrease show, and the Citymorph media arts project.
• April 1997 SW receives a grant from the Benton Foundation and NEA to be a Public Internet Site. Stop by to check out our new modems coming this Summer.

The Squealer got its roots as a monthly newsletter, no editor per se with an editorial policy that "anything related to media goes." The Editor has varied from being a collective collaboration, rotating among members to being the job of the Assistant Director. Who knows where the future will take Squeaky's lil 'zine?

AXLEGREASE was originally produced by volunteers and/or interns. The turnover of new producers was fast and furious. (Some foolishly left their names off the shows.) Possibly due to the infrequency of new episodes from volunteers, the producer position became a staff job (combined with other duties, of course.) The first staff (paid) Axlegrease producer is Paula Watkins.

SWAP the Squeaky Wheel Access Program started with a few donated cameras and now has grown to include four Hi-8 prosumer cameras and 2 cute little 8mm's (for workshops, outreach, and beginners) and lots-lots more microphones, lights, and other good stuff, along with 4 powerful Macintosh workstations and a partridge in a pear tree.

Today if you stop by the storefront you will be greeted with a flurry of activity. The staff, volunteers and interns fill up most of our luxurious store front space so what appears to be in reality, just another day at Squeaky Wheel. With no receptionist's desk to greet you, we invite you to come on in and walk around, we may be entranced in our work and you may need to clear your throat to get our attention but don't let this stop you. We assume that all our visitors feel at home here. Our computers will be on and terminals are always busy, the front of our space is filled with a buzzing sound ... but, it's not an aquarium. That's the sound of PowerComputing, my friend. Two hundred and forty mega hertz and eighty one megabytes of RAM all being cooled by one noisy little fan driving everyone slowly insane. Arrrooooooool Arrooooooo! Please, don't be disinclined to stop by from reports of our unusual interiors our "cozy" "Roy and Dale" knotty pine paneling, surrounds our powerful computer terminals and lends a cabin feel to our video viewing and dubbing room. Through the glass flower cooler (our video installation site) a yellow glow from the brightly painted editing room, invites you into our back rooms. The office is an infusion of paperwork and archived videotapes, exhibition announcements, calls for work, videotape catalogues, and grants to be completed. The editing room with its universal safety orange painted interior is a serene escape, the massaging vibrations of the cathode ray emissions support a working environment for synthesis and production. For this is Squeaky Wheel's mission, to promote & support the creation and film, video, audio & digital art.

The future, who can predict? We can only hope that the artists in our community find Squeaky Wheel a useful and stimulating place to come to, produce work at, and support.

The State of Upstate annual issues of The Squealer 1988 -
The first Upstate issue of the Squealer was published in 1988 and profiled Hallwalls, Cornell Cinema, Media Ithaca, Central New York Programmers Group, North Country Media, Alfred University, Oswego Art Guild, Experimental TV Center, Visual Studies Workshop, The Turtle, Squeaky Wheel, Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Library.

The January/February 1990 issue included: Syracuse Peace Council, Syracuse Alternative Media Network, Department of Art Media Studies, Light Work, Everson Museum of Art, WSLU North Country Public Radio, Media Ithaca, Experimental Television Center, Alfred University, Letchworth Cable Access, Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Library System, Western NY Peace Center, Hallwalls, New York Media Decentralization Institute, Department of Media Studies at University of Buffalo, Lockport Community Cable, Rochester Association of Black Communicators, TV Dinner, Pyramid Arts Center, Visual Studies Workshop.

The 1996/97 issues listed: CEPA, Hallwalls, Squeaky Wheel, Media Study at University of Buffalo, Chautauqua/Cattaraugus Library System, Letchworth Cable Access, Lockport Community Television, Visual Studies Workshop, TV Dinner, Pyramid Arts, George Eastman House, Media Arts Teachers Association, Light Work, Syracuse Alternative Media Network, Colgate University, Experimental Television Center, Pegasys, OffLine, Cornell Cinema, Department of Cinema at Binghamton University, Munson Williams Proctor, Alfred University, Upstate Independents