A one day presentation. Overworked and under-appreciated is what sums up Snapshot day. I was doing it for my own benefit, but I wish the Macaulay students could have helped me out just a bit. Like taking an extra five minutes to set your camera to the correct exposure so that I wouldn’t be wondering how I would incorporate a dimly lit picture into our project. I know that it was a rainy day, and that you didn’t feel like going in the city, but you could have at least pretended to enjoy it, couldn’t you?
I’ve known this from doing all sorts of visual art shows in high school. A one day event, a show, is just a fraction of a representation of the tireless efforts that unnamed individuals go to in order to make it appealing to you. In my case, I was in charge of helping make architectural models of recognizable buildings in New York and then place matching photos of things representing interesting architectural on the buildings. This involved hours of measuring, prepping, cutting and taping. Thankfully though, some people did enjoy what was a lot of work.
I think the best part was our group dynamic. We just all seemed to click. Even though we worked on separate projects, we were easily able to come back to our main theme to make sure that we were sticking with it. It was as if we were all body paragraphs in an essay, and we all related to the thesis. We also broke barriers this year. I had heard that from previous years all the student curators did was hang up the pictures and call it a day. We included 3-d models, mobiles and pictorial narrations. Going over the top should have elicited a greater response. Or maybe it did. I need a second opinion. I think I’m biased coming from a visual arts background. I automatically paint anyone who doesn’t appreciate the hard work done as a dunce who should be kicked out of the show for being such an ingrate. I really should stop that though. I understand some people really don’t like going to such events and that it really is a chore for them.
This was the first time that I really volunteered for something that was important to me, and I’m really glad that I did. You never know who you’re going to meet. In this case I met Corey D’Augustine, who’s a teacher at the MoMA. We went there for an exhibit in order to better develop our concept. What was amazing was how little I had known about curating. I was introduced to a new perspective and now I can pass off my knowledge to someone. I can’t wait to volunteer at Arts Night 2011!
I also learned that it is hard to keep track of everyone’s work. I used to yell at people who spelled people’s names wrong in exhibits, or who misplaced or misrepresented a work of art. Now I see though, that quite possibly only a few people are put in charge of countless works. Sometimes I couldn’t event read my own handwriting. Thus I spelled names wrong. It happens. I’m not a computer.
Mostly, it’s important that everyone has their own field and supposedly they love what their doing. So it’s important to respect all the work they’ve done, and if you’re uninterested, at least try to be polite. Some people might not like what we did with the show, but guess what, they didn’t volunteer did they? So in the end, it’s the doers and not the complainers who make changes in the world.
