| « | January 2010 | » | ||||
 |
||||||
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
| 1 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| 31 | ||||||
simpleposie is fascinated with the not entirely but nevertheless rather discombobulated ongoingness of this debate. Therefore, as with the next several questions, simpleposie wants to know:
Should a Cultural Concierge be more critical?
Tuesday, 12 January 2010 - 11:24 AM EST
Name: "sally"Maybe. The way I understand it, a "cultural concierge" is someone in a pedagogical role. They are undertaking to broaden the general knowledge base about contemporary art. The implication of the word "conscierge" is that this activity might increase the collector base for contemporary art. In this context, simply being a booster for and a reporter of contemporary art goes a long way. But if the goal is to actually draw more diverse people into the discourse, to push the general knowledge past what sells well at auctions, to foster a community of Canadian collectors empowered to exercise their own critical judgements, then some criticality is needed. But by criticality I don't mean negativity, I mean insight. In this I 100% agree with Earl Miller's comment, "We should demand more of critics than simply being those with the nerve to voice in public what others are saying in private. I am interested in criticism that has a new angle on things..."
Wednesday, 13 January 2010 - 11:27 AM EST
Name: "J@simpleposie"
concierge comes from the latin conservus which means something like companion in servitude or fellow slave. A concierge is like a superintendant, someone who picks up your mail for you while you are away. Or else the guy at the hotel books dinner reservations etc. for guests - As far as a cultural concierge goes - can we imagine it as a critical position? The way the talking points flow forth makes me nervous.
Wednesday, 13 January 2010 - 11:41 AM EST
Name: "sally"I am thinking of a cultural concierge as something more like a docent. The institutional goal of having docents is to empower gallery visitors to find their own ways into the work. It's a considered a menial job, but it's very very hard to do well.
Wednesday, 13 January 2010 - 1:05 PM EST
Name: "J@simpleposie"
To which "institution" would you say the cultural concierge corresponds? Remember, at least as far as the talking points go, this is someone who in becoming more critical at some point decides which works of art are worthwhile to society or not and has a bug of some kind up the wazoo fearing the artworld will become a democratic place where artists will be rewarded for their every effort if critics discuss/champion flawed artworks....
