Modeling Business

photo courtesy the author.

I am reading "Good to Great and the Social Sectors" by Jim Collins, lent to me by Amy Rome and Leslie Peters of The Rome Group. Amy and Leslie are guiding our Strategic Planning process at Laumeier. Focusing on our sustainable "business model" is the most important element for me in this exercise.

Diane Ragsdale's post, linked to by Andrew Taylor, below, is a helpful at-a-glance in thinking about the elements needed to explain a "business model":
http://www.artsjournal.com/artfulmanager/main/back-to-business-models.php

Yet I like what Taylor (and Collins) say about replacing "value model" for "business model" in how non-profits "sell" their worth to funders and patrons alike.

In the 1980s the arts sector veered away from the intangible values arts organizations bring into the bean-counting territory favored by business leaders and politicians mindful of expenditures of public funds.

Perhaps it's time to re-import the "value" of our proposition back into our non-profit business models. Given the collapse of our economy and the threats to further de-funding, any and all new language we find could be enormously helpful to protect ourselves from the heathens at the door.

It's interesting to, in the same week, listen to radio stories about the creation of a national arts policy under President Kennedy while, simultaneously, the NEA et al are threatened with extinction.

Eliminating NPR and the NEA would not only cause more job losses but fatally crush those independent voices that are not about capital or the monitization of life. We need independent voices in this country when we are so in danger of losing our position as a global social and cultural leader.

Let's put "value" next to arts "business" to stave off the superficial attacks lobbied at us so we stop fighting this battle and instead focus on our social commitments to our constituents. When the economy improves it's crucial that the arts can again lead the country in making our citizens informed and engaged in civic life.

Southern Architecture

Clinton Library, Little Rock, AR. all photos courtesy the author.

Kevin and I had some whiplash moments during our Southern tour. We left St. Louis and headed to Little Rock, Arkansas, to see the Clinton Library. A very chatty guard was pleased to tell us that, when in town, the Clintons stay on an apartment on top of this building. (See the slight roof-line on top?)

Should we know that? I asked him how they got up there--through the Library? Kevin said I shouldn't have asked so many questions. But what director wants a bunch of beefy Secret Security guys barging in at all hours of the day and night? I vote for an exterior elevator.

















Scale West Wing Office.

Best room in the library: this scale model of the President's office. Made me think of Martin Sheen.

For every grand building we saw there was a tenfold volume of buildings that speak of economic decay. For every suspicious thing I've heard or seen about the South, in television, print or the movies, we saw inspiring spaces. For every hardscrabble burg we passed through we saw signs of incredible strength and human glory.






















Central High, Little Rock.

What a grand building this is! I never saw the footage of the forced integration of American schools while in school in Canada so had no real idea of what the Little Rock 9 went through to get into this school. The National Parks Service building across the street had poignant, pointed footage on the racial divide that happened right there. The neighborhood around the school? Neglected, degraded. I wonder why?

















Beer Can House, Houston.

I talked my family into taking an eating break to go to the Beer Can House (oh, we did do things other than eat and watch movies!) This lovely piece of folk art is trapped between two hideous apartment complexes--who's got the worse view, hmmm? I love the quirky quality of this kind of endeavor, even if it implies the author loved his six pack, just like Hank Hill.






















Lower Ninth Ward homes.

While in New Orleans we went looking for the Brad Pitt-sponsored homes in the Lower Ninth Ward. Above, one of the houses that reinterprets the architectural vernacular of the region.

















Old Lower Ninth Ward home.

As charming and playful as the new homes are, the area is still strewn with these former residential spaces. I would say 70% of the area is empty. Who is helping here, and why does much of the rest of New Orleans look similarly like ruins?

















Downtown Jackson, Mississippi.

Never thought I'd be in Mississippi. The city fathers bulldozed their old downtown places just as efficiently as did towns across the country. This block cringes in the shadow of the larger corporate spaces around it--will these poor lost buildings be saved, or sacrificed, in this latest round of economic downturn? Hard not to think of the Great Depression, or even William Christenberry, when going through this area.

















Lorraine Motel, Memphis.

The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis embraces the Lorraine Motel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. When open, visitors can actually go into the rooms above, where King and his associates were staying. Across the street you can stand in the (assumed) location where the murderer stood.

It was haunting to be put in the place of the real protagonists in this pivotal moment of American history. What other artifacts could convey this trauma other than the real spaces where real bodies reside?

The second part of the museum, located on the "bad" (aka murderous) side of the street, explored the various controversies around the King assassination. Mafia, CIA, crackpots all are implicated. (I was shocked to learn that Ray, a Missouri State Penitentiary escapee, had fake Canadian passports to help him move around more easily. How could he NOT have had help?)

It was a very moving experience to see this museum and read a narrative that was bracing and pointed about the social issues swirling around at the time. Hard not to compare and contrast today's society with the issues King was fighting--entrenched poverty, class discrimination, etc... Moving and tough.

















Elvis basement.

What better to wash away Southern grit than with Southern flair? Elvis's home was not the McMansion I thought it would be. That his "man cave", above, was in the basement is astounding given Elvis's international reach. The large but, by today's standards, small crib is a testament to not over-spending--on your home, anyway!

Architecture is the thing that we all live in, whether we pay attention to it or not. Architecture is the first one up, the last one down in a good / bad economy. That these experiences were not a flush or over-bearing visual stimulation but rather sought-out experiences tells us about the lack of density in the South. Perhaps it's a good thing that these communities have not over-built--perhaps that temerity is what will save them.

Portable, Storable Collection

Bill and Hillary cookie cutters from the Clinton Library, Little Rock, AR. photos courtesy the author.

As my search for the perfect floaty pen continues I believe I have run across a new small collectible: cookie cutters.

Above are two from the Clinton Library's store in downtown Little Rock, Arkansas.

I love that they have a sense of humor about eating either Clinton's head!

















Saints cookie cutter, New Orleans.

The down side of this art form is that you better check the work--this cookie cutter from the French Quarter was sub-standard work.

These may be the new small collection that I try, I look forward to understanding what they mean about us.

On the Road Again

Hot mulled wine with pomegranate, cinnamon and star anise.

Kevin and I head out on our holiday road trip, but first, tonight, staff party at my house.

I made a new hot mulled wine recipe last night--I love digging the pomegranate seeds out, it feels very true to the season but I don't care for the streaks of red juice that I found everywhere!

















Maple leaf cookies.

Happy holidays everyone, I'll write from the road!

Clue: Art World Version

Part of "Solve the Art Forgery" area at The Magic House, St. Louis.

I've been feeling pretty guilty about not going through all the images I took in Miami two weeks ago (the warm weather seems long long ago and far far away), but the image above, taken during a recent tour of The Magic House, brought me back to my senses.

The Magic House is a great, rambling children's museum run by Beth Fitzgerald and her team. I laughed out loud at a lot of the inventive elements of the Museum, particularly the art whoddunit that included a secret sliding bookshelf and a tube to slide between floors.

The panel above lays out the various suspects in a forgery case, with a CSI-type set of clues leading the kids down the path (evidently the Nanny was looking guilty to that day's kids). The signboard made me wonder: what are the "types" in the art world that are guilty, or innocent? Below are some of the types I found in Miami:

The dealer: This work by Mounir Fatmi was at Lombard-Freid Projects. I've worked with Lea and Jane over the past decade because of our common interests. I loved Fatmi's combination of Muslim prayer rugs with hip hop culture.

















The jokester: Gimhongsok's bronze trash bag dog is part Jeff Koons, part mourning of the way we treat other species as throw-aways. As a Korean I assume the artist eats dog--it's on many menus there--so garbage is in the eye of the beholder.

















The pioneer: Sam Durant has created numerous bodies of works that dig into influential, if deliberately neglected, episodes in American culture, such as the Black Panthers' resistance to racism in America and the colonization of this continent by white settlers. These three fallen soldiers are funny and somehow deservedly buffeted historical figures.

















The entertainer: Judy Wethein's lovely video of a Colombian group singing the American national anthem with their own localized additions was charming, and sad, a little clowning bathos to sober up the frenzy of the fair.

















The criminal: Need I say more?






















These were but a few of the types I met at the fair.

The ones I like the best are the agitators, the artists who press us to answer questions about why we're here, what we've done and why we're not guilty.

Beach Bums All

Dennis Hopper Self-Portrait with Rock and Cactus, 2010

I arrived in Miami yesterday afternoon for ArtBasel Miami. I've run into to many colleague and friends, saw some good, some mediocre work, things I will pursue down the road.

This work, however, stopped me in my tracks. I didn't get a sense of self-reflection, frankly, this felt like a Llyn Foulkes work depicting him as between a rock and a hard place, which Hopper hardly was. He passed away recently but I suspect his work will go up in value now.

Ah, the market.

We went to a great party at the Bass Museum of Art last night, the opening launch of their three year Caribbean initiative with Puma.Creative. Fantastic. A few years ago the Bass was a sleepy forgotten outlet; now, with the beautiful front entrance park that bounds Collins Avenue, I know the director and pal Silvia Cubina is going to make this place rock.

More soon.

New Orleans Part II

Terrell House, New Orleans. All photos courtesy the author unless otherwise noted.

I was in New Orleans during the weekend of November 12 for the opening of Brandon Anschultz's Kranzberg series show that Laumeier Sculpture Park co-organized with the Longue Vue House and Gardens. Laumeier's director of exhibitions and collections Kim Humphries, curator of the show, and his partner Sarah Colby and I flew to New Orleans on Friday to see the show. We stayed at the Terrell House on Magazine Street--what a treat!






















Brandon Anschultz work at Longue Vue. Photo courtesy Sarah Colby.

Longue Vue's director Joe Baker make the entire home available to Brandon, who made a glorious range of small sculptural interventions throughout the Stern's mansion. The video work in the living room tv cabinet was particularly hysterical; it was as if a manic maid found hair and dust just after the Stern's left the room.

















Street corner in the Lower Ninth Ward.

Sarah, Kim and I spent Saturday looking at art in New Orleans. We ran into a funeral parade on Treme Street--hauntingly appropriate in light of the fabulous series on HBO. Surreal and exquisite at the same time.

















Parade as it flowed down the street.

I couldn't quite read the image on the t-shirts that many of the parade followers wore, but as we tried to track them in the neighborhood, they disappeared, like the ghost of the dead child on the shirt.

















Parade as they passed us by.

Saturday was also the opening of Prospect 1.5 events.

















Rashaad Newsome at Good Children.

The video by Rashaad Newsome at Good Children was particularly beautiful. African American women on a stage played a call-and-response to the women on the screen, the subject of the video being responsibility. No excuses, the singers seemed to say, take responsibility. There was no information on context but the work was beautifully produced and mournful, like the afternoon parade.






















Performance at The Front.

The show at The Front, across from Good Children, was equally engaging but for different reasons.

We visited another gallery but were quite disappointed by what we saw. A great accidental dinner at Dominique's capped a great weekend.

















White chocolate crocodile at the N.O. airport.

When I was in New Orleans many years ago visiting a friend we went to the zoo and saw their albino crocodile. The beast looked like a creepy, haunted white asparagus, so when it raised its head to yell, it packed quite a kick. When I saw this chocolate souvenir at the airport I laughed out loud--the ghost of the crocodile returns!

New Orleans is in the throes of an artistic change, and I hope Laumeier can continue the dialogue with the city that spawned so much of contemporary St. Louis.