Art Collectives and 'Creatives' - Cultic behaviors and Leaders

Corboy note: artists are often in need of both living space and studio space. In many places, this accommodation has become scarce and expensive.

As a result, artists who lack funds are vulnerable. Some accept the hazard of living in areas without adequate fire protection or hazmat safeguards.

And, when it is difficult to find safe and affordable housing, people are often willing to endure whims and demands from a controlling person who is or claims to be a master tenant.

A ghastly fire with great loss of life hit an Oakland warehouse that was rented by a bloke named Derrick Ion Alemena and then sublet to many young artists, despite the warehouse meant to be a residential facility. Years of complaints to the city by neighbors went unheeded.

Living space is now scare and expensive in Oakland, and in San Francisco. Artists are being priced out. Anyone who can promise affordable rent wields considerable influence -- which can be used for good or for ill.

A narcissist or an eccentric? The man behind the Ghost Ship warehouse left conflicting impressions

Quote

“He (Derrick Ion Alemena) is able to charm people, but when they don't go along with what he wants he will threaten people,” said Allison’s father*, Michael Allison.

(Ion-Alemena is married to Micah Allison - so these are the words of Derrick's father in law -- who is also grandparent to the couples' three young children)

Others judged him more gently as a misunderstood eccentric, a “crazy uncle,” who leased the warehouse and sublet it to musicians and artists who couldn’t afford, or didn’t want, a more conventional living space.

“He has kind of childlike characteristics,” said Libby Physh, 25, who lived in the warehouse for about five months in 2014, paying $500 a month for one of the half-dozen trailers parked on the Ghost Ship’s ground floor.

(Corboy note: a person who has a child's self centeredness combined with adult charisma and adult social finesse can a pathway into chaos. Not good qualities in a landlord.)

Quote

Neither Almena nor Allison could be reached for comment for this story. But in a disjointed interview on NBC’s “Today” show Tuesday morning, Almena repeatedly expressed sorrow for the 36 lives lost in the fire.

“I’m only here to say one thing: I’m incredibly sorry and that everything that I did was to make this a stronger and more beautiful community and to bring people together,” he said. “People didn’t walk through those doors because it was a horrible place. People didn’t seek us out to perform and express themselves because it was a horrible place.”

When asked if he was accountable, he said, “No, I’m not going to answer these questions on this level. I’d rather get on the floor and be trampled by the parents. I’d rather let them tear at my flesh...”

Almena’s legal battles with some of the tenants and partygoers who visited the Ghost Ship are well-documented, but little is known about his life before he popped up in Oakland’s underground art scene.

Michael Allison said his daughter and Almena both grew up in Southern California and have lived together as wanderers, organizing their lives around Burning Man and other festivals. They had an apartment for a time near MacArthur Park in Los Angeles, where Almena pursued photography and Allison belly danced.

In the early 2000s, when Allison became pregnant with the couple’s first child, they decamped for Mendocino County, where they stayed with one of Almena’s relatives.

Michael Allison said that Almena worked as a marijuana grower, but that he mainly farmed out tasks to other people and didn’t always pay them.

[www.chicagotribune.com]

Meanwhile, there are other examples of other domineering leaders who have used
the aesthetic/arts to lure people into their personality driven cults.

Waldorf Schools Anthroposophy/Rudolf Steiner/Anthroposophy/Eurthymics/Wet Painting/Biodynamics

Former Waldorf teacher Gregoire Perra spoke out and was sued by Anthroposophy
[www.google.com]

Our Brush With Rudolf Steiner

[www.google.com]


[culteducation.com]

Aesthetic Realism Foundation

[culteducation.com]

Robert Burton - Fellowship of Friends/Oregon House/Renaissance/The Ark/Apollo, etc

[culteducation.com]

Sharon Gans/Alex Horn/Theatre of All Possiblities/Odyssey/San Francisco Hudson Valley Artists Foundation

[culteducation.com]

Gurdjieff

[www.washingtonpost.com]

[culteducation.com]

Description of a group preying on Creative Women

[culteducation.com]