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Lessons I learned working at an art gallery

henrikkarlsson.xyz

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Re: Lessons I learned working at an art gallery

#41

Post by tomcam »

Kiro wrote: post #30
grammarxcore wrote: post #3

I refuse to believe that not answering every single email within an hour is a good predictor of anything other than being glued to your phone. I think extending it to a reasonable amount of time, maybe a business day max, works out pretty well. Sometimes people respond really fast because they’re taking regular breaks and other times they don’t respond all evening because they’re putting on their kid’s birthday party…

Unfortunately it's one of those hacks that makes your look like a superhuman. I hate it but obsessively answering emails and messages as soon as possible has given me so many opportunities that it feels like a cheat code. It's nothing reasonable about it but it's just the way things are.

Very interesting. How do you square this with the times you need to concentrate?

Re: Lessons I learned working at an art gallery

#42

Post by refactor_master »

Kiro wrote: post #30
grammarxcore wrote: post #3

I refuse to believe that not answering every single email within an hour is a good predictor of anything other than being glued to your phone. I think extending it to a reasonable amount of time, maybe a business day max, works out pretty well. Sometimes people respond really fast because they’re taking regular breaks and other times they don’t respond all evening because they’re putting on their kid’s birthday party…

Unfortunately it's one of those hacks that makes your look like a superhuman. I hate it but obsessively answering emails and messages as soon as possible has given me so many opportunities that it feels like a cheat code. It's nothing reasonable about it but it's just the way things are.

My experience is the complete opposite. It’s a weak point like a supermarket that is still open at 11 pm. Do I need it? No, but I’ll take the service anyway since it’s free.

Re: Lessons I learned working at an art gallery

#43

Post by thih9 »

> If we want to make the world a better place, we can’t just think about the lofty stuff: we have to get our hands dirty and make sure the economic engine works.

This seems a very narrow if not conformist view of art.

Artists doing graffiti, participating in hobby groups, state funded projects, discovered by later generations, etc - they don’t care about making viewers feel good about funding; and yet their art can very much make the world a better place.

Re: Lessons I learned working at an art gallery

#44

Post by naming_the_user »

refactor_master wrote: post #42
Kiro wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately it's one of those hacks that makes your look like a superhuman. I hate it but obsessively answering emails and messages as soon as possible has given me so many opportunities that it feels like a cheat code. It's nothing reasonable about it but it's just the way things are.

My experience is the complete opposite. It’s a weak point like a supermarket that is still open at 11 pm. Do I need it? No, but I’ll take the service anyway since it’s free.

How is it a weak point for a supermarket to be open at 11? 24 hour supermarkets are fantastic and have saved my bottom many a time.

Do I _need_ it? No, I don't _need_ much of anything other than air to breathe and a bit of food in my belly. Most people don't just settle for that though.

Re: Lessons I learned working at an art gallery

#45

Post by Dylan16807 »

bleakenthusiasm wrote: post #33
grammarxcore wrote: post #3

I refuse to believe that not answering every single email within an hour is a good predictor of anything other than being glued to your phone. I think extending it to a reasonable amount of time, maybe a business day max, works out pretty well. Sometimes people respond really fast because they’re taking regular breaks and other times they don’t respond all evening because they’re putting on their kid’s birthday party…

I read this as "answer within the hour when preparing an exhibition". If you are in full swing to get an exhibition up and running and this is the time you decide to throw yourself into deep focus work, you are probably hard to work with. I would also assume if some artist told the author "look I know we open on Tuesday, but this Friday we have my kid's birthday so from 4 to 8 I won't be easy to reach", this would pr…

How long does setting up an exhibition take, and what kind of hours are you expecting? 4-8 are workday hours?

And what kind of question needs to be answered that fast, but wasn't important enough to be asked several days earlier? My feeling is that there should be very few such questions, few enough that each artist can safely take half a day if they get one.

Re: Lessons I learned working at an art gallery

#47

Post by ljf »

freefaler wrote: post #40
Kiro wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately it's one of those hacks that makes your look like a superhuman. I hate it but obsessively answering emails and messages as soon as possible has given me so many opportunities that it feels like a cheat code. It's nothing reasonable about it but it's just the way things are.

So how does that work, can you elaborate? What is the difference if you answer in 10 minutes, 6 hours or 24 hours? Are you competing on time of response so if you're fast you're getting the deal?

I can only speak for myself - I produce exec/board materials. Often a request will go out to several people and I can get ahead by responding first. Sometimes someone will reply to me quickly and the edge I bring is properly digesting their response and then going back quickly to them with questions. Others might accept they have a reply and then wait until they are pulling the paper together to realise they are missing key data.

I don’t read or action all emails instantly, but I am very aware of the ones I need to, or when I am in a period of high focus that needs information fast.

In an ideal world I’d be in an office with all the people I needed around me, all with the same focus and priorities, but that is rarely the case. So to excel at my job I need to make connections fast and respond fast. (Note this isn’t just email, this is just for my communications in general.)

Re: Lessons I learned working at an art gallery

#48

Post by ben_w »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #45
bleakenthusiasm wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read this as "answer within the hour when preparing an exhibition". If you are in full swing to get an exhibition up and running and this is the time you decide to throw yourself into deep focus work, you are probably hard to work with. I would also assume if some artist told the author "look I know we open on Tuesday, but this Friday we have my kid's birthday so from 4 to 8 I won't be easy to reach", this would pr…

How long does setting up an exhibition take, and what kind of hours are you expecting? 4-8 are workday hours? And what kind of question needs to be answered that fast, but wasn't important enough to be asked several days earlier? My feeling is that there should be very few such questions, few enough that each artist can safely take half a day if they get one.

A day and a half is slow even in software, and software doesn't have things like the example given of wanting a wall put up then asking for it to be taken down again.

Sure, software does have bad communicators who change their minds, but revert is relatively easy.

Re: Lessons I learned working at an art gallery

#49

Post by l5870uoo9y »

krisoft wrote: post #38

The problem here is that I don’t trust the author on being able to tell who is the “best artist”. Clearly he has opinions. But for example in point 3, he says he can predict which exhibition will be great based on how easy it is to work with the artist. He predicts that some exhibition will be crap and he is right! Which sounds impressive until you notice that he is not measuring his judgement against something objec…

> The problem here is that I don’t trust the author on being able to tell who is the “best artist”.

A prerequisite to be considered a great artist is that the artist master a "craft" to perfection be it painting, drawing, sculpting, or something complete different like Burial who created one of the most important electronic album using the basic audio-editing software Sound Forge.

Re: Lessons I learned working at an art gallery

#50

Post by johnisgood »

naming_the_user wrote: post #44
refactor_master wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience is the complete opposite. It’s a weak point like a supermarket that is still open at 11 pm. Do I need it? No, but I’ll take the service anyway since it’s free.

How is it a weak point for a supermarket to be open at 11? 24 hour supermarkets are fantastic and have saved my bottom many a time. Do I _need_ it? No, I don't _need_ much of anything other than air to breathe and a bit of food in my belly. Most people don't just settle for that though.

Obligatory song to the last part of your message: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm8oxC24QZc (Eddie Vedder - Society)

It has always resonated with me.

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