Allison Masaki

10

Masaki

Allison Masaki

ENGL 4378: Internship

Dr. Thomas Barker

July 25, 2008

Final Paper

“Updating Art”

Introduction

The traditional forms of art have been sculpture and painting. With that said, traditional form of communication and business dealings within the art world has been by hand on paper. This can be seen from Leonardo da Vinci’s infamous journal to modern paper-mailed invites to show openings. The world is changing just as much as new artistic ideas. Each needs to stay in touch with each other. The inner workings of a museum or gallery work very similar to a small business. Each small business is learning that they must “go digital”.

Subject

The main topic that I will be addressing in this paper is the use of digital media and its need, effectiveness, and usefulness in art galleries. I will also cover how to use this technology in a practical manner.

Purpose

At RedBud Gallery in Houston, Texas, we use computers to organize mailing lists, banking accounts, gallery-to-gallery communication, and designing advertisements and articles. Ideally, we would also like to archive all of the Kopriva’s (owners) collection, but right now there is not a program that is available that is user friendly to do this, and it is extremely time consuming. As of today, archiving and most advertising are done by hand on paper. I am writing the paper to inform Gus Kopriva, owner of RedBud, and suggest simple changes that would allow the management of RedBud a less stressful endeavor.

Plan

The term of digital media encompasses the use of computers and digital cameras for archiving, advertising, and accounting, et al. The pros and cons of “going digital” will also be discussed in this paper, including the upkeep of a digitalized gallery.

Problems

The following are difficulties that are faced inside the inter-workings of a gallery.

Archiving

(Mailing Lists, Scheduling, Collections)

Archiving in relation to art galleries is one of the most important and time-consuming necessities for the gallery. Inputting, organizing, and maintaining mailing lists can be considered a full-time job. If the mailing list has not been kept up-to-date, one has to muddle through depreciated and duplicated addresses, and addresses spanned between several different programs. Two popular programs used are Microsoft Excel and My Mail List. These two programs are not compatible with each other.

Another issue that arises is the digital archival of the resident collection. Currently there is no program that is considered a user-friendly archival system. There is no way to compile a digital collection in one place and one file. Images and matching information has to be individually inputted into a program similar to Microsoft Word, and saved individually. This results in a massive folder that is cumbersome to manage.

Advertising

Electronic (Email, Website); Paper (Postcards, Posters)

Currently, Neau Häus (gallery owned by Dan Allison), part of the show opening announcements are sent via email. Dan Allison, designs a quick but knowledgeable email pertaining to upcoming events of the gallery. G Gallery, owned by Wayne Gilbert, is in the process to switching over to email and paper invitations. At RedBud Gallery, paper invitations or postcards advertise gallery openings.

This three-way cascade mirrors the upkeep and use of the galleries’ websites. Dan Allison and Wayne Gilbert upkeep and use their websites in a functional way. While RedBud Gallery’s website is in dire need of an uplift. A website is an example of the changing world around galleries. Galleries have traditionally placed adds in local newspapers and magazines. It is becoming socially expected that everything has a website attached with it. Even though galleries are supposed to be on the “cutting edge” of culture, they are not always on the cutting edge of technology. This is mostly due to the audience the gallery brings into the shows, and the nature of the staff behind the gallery.

The upkeep and use of a website and emailing list can greatly reduce the use of paper invitations. The funding being spent on these postcards can be used in other gallery upkeep, like computer memory, network upkeep, or shipping postage of artwork.

Accounting

(Selling and Buying, Traveling, Shows, Staff)

When galleries “go digital” accounting can be done on computers. This cuts down on the use of filing cabinets and stacks of papers. It would still be wise to keep a calculator around! You never know when you have to double-check the computer. Keeping track of traveling expenses, the selling and buying of art within the gallery, and payments of artists and staff, can be kept in one yearly or bi yearly file.

Time/Work

(Jobs and Practicality)

The problem that arises when dealing with an art gallery is, “Is the gallery self efficient enough to maintain a staff?” Most small galleries are not able to maintain a staff. A staff is essential to keeping the gallery organized and running smoothly. A staff will also spend the time that is needed to keep any archival system in place updated and organized. The next question that owners need to ask themselves is, “Is retaining a staff essential to the smooth management of the gallery?”

Review of Literature: suggested solutions

Archiving

In “An Information Life-Cycle Approach: Best Practices for Digital Archiving”,

Gail Hodge discusses the investigation and results of digitally archiving. The International Council for Scientific and Technical Information (ICSTI), conducted a study concerning the best way to digitally archive information. This encompassed choosing what to archive, how much should be archived, how to gather the information, and how to keep the information updated. On the topic of keeping information updated Hodge suggests, “a balance must be struck between the completeness and currency of the archive and the burden on the system resources.” (2) In other words, there needs to be enough memory available to keep adding and updating archives to the system. If there is not efficient memory, then a decision must be made pertaining to how much of the “old” archives are going to be kept. The owner and employee in charge of keeping the archives must make the decision to how much information to keep or to purchase more hard drive space.

While “Designing for Motivation and Usability in a Museum-based Multi-User Virtual Environment” by Chris Dede, Diane Ketelhut, and Kevin Ruess, addresses the usability and learning capabilities of an online, digital museum. A Harvard research team created a virtual world in which users could explore and learn about a specific subject. They made the online environment much like an online game where users would create a character, or avatar. These avatars would grow and gain experience the more the user learned. (3-4). While this is a great idea for large galleries and museums, it is not practical for small galleries.

Advertising and Design

“Tracing Visual Narratives: User-testing Methodology for Developing a Multimedia Museum Show” by Loel Kim, addresses the important use of the visual narrative. The visual narrative is the heart of RedBud Gallery. Each art show that we host has a story that is told through visual means. In many ways, the delicate balance or, “combination of both text and images,” (124) is dealt with every aspect of the gallery. This includes the artists statements posted in the gallery, post cards sent to patrons, and wall labels. The technical side of the gallery has to create the sense of a cohesive narrative. This narrative has the “descriptive capacity of language [that can be] replaced by graphically represented characteristics” (124). For example, placing the gallery logo on the wall labels creates a sense of repetition and coherency within the diverse narrative of a featured show.

The business side of things

According to “Career Opportunities in Art” by Susan Haubenstock and David Joselit, a Business Manager, “is responsible for the smooth running of the gallery’s accounts.” (92). This book continues to list four additional positions that are traditionally needed in galleries: Preparator, Archivist, Registrar, and Director. In a small gallery the five positions can be condensed into the responsibilities of three people.

Application

The biggest challenge I ran into while researching anything to do with art galleries and museums, was the fact that there really was not many articles pertaining to galleries. When I did find an article or book that closely resembled some form of usefulness for the topic I had chosen, the article proved to not be very helpful at all. The biggest application that I have learned is through personal trial and error, within the workings of RedBud Gallery. Overall, there are not any readily available articles pertaining specifically to gallery work.

Conclusion

The book, Careers in Art by Blythe Camenson, has some good insight to the practical side of the gallery life: “The business side of art isn’t always something that comes naturally.” (91). It is something that even the owner has to grow, learn, and work at. Running any form of a business is a learning experience, which requires hard work and patients. In order to improve the small gallery business there is four tips that should be considered:

1.  Archiving—take the time to compile both an email and “snail mail” list in one outwardly compatible computer program.

2.  Design—design for both the gallery and the audience

3.  Organization—folders need to named, arranged, and maintained for ease of future access and use

4.  Staff—hiring one or two people, at least part time, helps with unexpected occurrences that may arise, organization, and upkeep of the gallery

If the above four suggestions are considered, running a small art gallery can be less stressful and less time consuming endeavor.

Bibliography

Camenson, Blythe. Careers in Art. 2nd Ed. New York, 2007.

Dede, Chris, Diane Ketelhut and Kevin Ruess
“Designing for Motivation and Usability in a Museum-Based Multi-User Virtual Environment”—creating a user friendly 3D virtual museum. Harvard University, 2000. <http://www.gse.harvard.edu/~dedech/muvees/documents/AELppr.pdf>.

Haubenstock, Susan H., David Joselit. Career Opportunities in Art. 3rd Ed. New York, 2001

Hodge, Gail M. “AN INFORMATION LIFE-CYCLE APPROACH: Best Practices for Digital Archiving.” –Digitally archiving art and information for an art gallery or museum. January 2000. <http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=jep;view=text;rgn=main;idno=3336451.0005.406>.

Kim, Loel. “Tracing Visual Narratives: User-testing Methodology for Developing a Mulitmedia Museum Show”. Technical Communication. Volume 52, Number2. Pgs 121-137. May 2005.