long: Vignettes of an arts os

Thu Jun 21 08:35:28 PDT 2007

Hi friends--

Vignettes of an arts open space

Studio Arts Center is a group of people dedicated to the arts in South
Bend, Indiana, and its work consists of the 4 Es: Education,
Exhibitions, Events, and Eating.

It was started by 3 men who wanted to improve their art and have a place
to show it. After a few years, they sold it to the present owner, Anne.
Sold is perhaps overstating—as the story goes, one of the men offered to
pay her $5 to take his share!

A picture SA emerged in our conversations leading up to the OS: what was
holding SA back (from Anne's vision of a foundation that advances the
arts in all of Northern Indiana), was in fact Anne herself. More
precisely, Anne does everything: develop the curriculum, write the
catalogues, design the Web spaces, book the shows, cook the food for the
community breakfasts, buy the food, clean the toilets and sweep the
floors in all three buildings on the campus. If SA was to flourish, it
needed to outgrow Anne. Anne agreed this is so.

Anne was wonderfully open to, and frightened of, the notion of giving SA
to the community. So she decided to go ahead.

Anne first thought that it would be a good event if she got 10 people to
come. We actually had 16 people at the Sunday evening circle, and 26 at
the Monday all day Open Space.

All was pretty much standard OS, except perhaps the time between the
invitations being completed and the event: On May 31 we had the final
version of the written invitation done, and the OS was June 10 and 11,
less than 2 weeks later. Anne personally handed out the invitations to
most of the people, but finally ran out of time and put the last bunch
into the mail. Her invitation was something special, being hand
addressed in calligraphy on fancy black paper for the envelope, and
being composed of 5 quarter sheets of paper on the inside. Pictures of
the invitation are on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8850949@N06/sets/72157600414362562/detail/

The OS was held inside a wonderfully open art gallery with many windows.
A challenge: there was a show ongoing in the gallery, and we could not
use any of the walls. Challenge met: we put the principles/patterns and
the law up on artists' easels throughout the room. The wall for the
postings consisted of two folding walls, each about 8 feet by 8 feet.
Pictures of these are also on Flickr.

Sunday evening was a wine and cheese party plus a circle for the people
attending. We did two listening stick rounds, using a large artist's
brush. The first question asked for a story of how SA or the arts had
engaged each person, a story of a peak experience. The second question
asked for people to remember the future 10 years off, telling a story of
what SA looked like back in 2017. Sunday evening went from 7:00 to 9:00,
the actual circle convening a little after 7:30.

Monday started with a buffet breakfast at 8:30 with space opening at
9:00. We had 3 sessions of 90 minutes, with a lunch set out for people
to get and take back to their groups during the middle session.

During the opening, which I admit was dragging, but before I got to the
four patterns and law, a gentleman said “Let's just get going and do
it.” I said OK, I will go faster, but there are a couple things you need
to know. Has anybody else experienced this, and what was your response?

Everything happened as usual: 13 topics were posted and combined into 9
groups. By end of day there were 10 reports submitted, totaling 22
pages.

About the extra “report:” Sunday night, after we had adjourned, one man
handed me a typewritten note saying what he thought needed to be done.
Much of it was complaint against the current director. I wrestled on
Monday about whether to include this document in the Book of
Proceedings: It came out of the event, so had a claim to being part of
the results. It did not come out of the conversations of either day, so
it was not actually a part of the meeting; besides it was in the nature
of backward looking and sour grapes. In the end I included it in the
Book and offered to Anne to remove it; she decided to leave it in. What
would you have done?

After the sessions concluded at 2:30, we posted the handwritten reports
on another movable wall. People gathered around the wall and read parts
of the reports, but they were lengthy and people were more interested in
conversation. I suspect they did not read very much. Perhaps we could
have spread out the reports giving room to congregate around each one.

We had scheduled to reopen the space at 3:00, have groups meet for a
half hour after that, and then reconvene for the closing circle at 4:00.
The group remaining, about 12, decided to stay in one group.

Out of this circle came the decision to have a “working committee” to
carry out the ideas of the various groups. Anne was flabbergasted that
so many people wanted to help and were willing to volunteer. That alone
made it a great day for her.

After that decision, and people had signed up for the working committee,
we went to a listening stick circle, again using the large artist's
brush; then stood, faced out, and stepped out into the world.

I was physically exhausted at the end of the day. There was much
standing and walking. Picking up the coffee cups took on an added
meaning as I washed the coffee cups and dishes throughout the day!

But I was also dejected, and wondered whether I ever wanted to hold
space again. Some of this was the exhaustion. Some of it was the fact
that I was not part of the conversations and so shut out from the
interactions—and magic—that the participants had. Some of it may have
stemmed from having worked so closely and directly with the inviters,
and now here I was on the outside looking in. Whatever it was about, I
was left with a big emptiness. I have noticed this in many other open
spaces, but this seemed stronger. Has anybody else experienced this?
What's your antidote? Or should I even be looking for an antidote?

One other thing learned: in the closing circle, Anne called herself an
“event junkie.” This might be a clue for us as to who is open to OS—
people who already believe in the power of getting people together and
in holding events.

:- Doug. Germann

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