Melanie

“We'd like to imagine we can make evil disappear in one, decisive victory. But evil won't cooperate, it reappears endlessly. You attain Goodness by transforming it every time it returns. That's what Goodness is: the ceaseless commitment to transform evil.”
― Barry Michels, Coming Alive: 4 Tools to Defeat Your Inner Enemy, Ignite Creative Expression, and Unleash Your Soul's Potential

“Much of the work of an institution is about holding artists, audiences, curators and other administrators, guards, handlers, writers, educators gallerists and other market makers, donors board members, foundation partners, civic leaders, activists, etc. in a dynamic and productive tension....I'm not going to lie to you. This approach requires effort, it only works for people who are open to a dialogical process, and it requires a strong commitment to two things--total reliance on collaboration and a strong institutional identity--that feel totally contradictory. We {A Blade of Grass] can do this because we have a strong institutional identity--we know who we are. At the same time, we don't assert. We fundamentally accept that the institution is a vessel for the expression of as many different types of people as possible...We helped to make these Two Americas. If we can own that, we get to do something really politically ambitious, like work toward One America. [written by Deborah Fisher]”
― Paper Monument, As radical, as mother, as salad, as shelter: What should art institutions do now?

“The art institution can believe in another world or narrative and make this visual. And yet too often institutions are happy to parrot the accepted stories. Institutions will always deserve the trouble they receive if they cannot be more imaginative in their responses than to speak with the voice of expertise to their audiences. Administration can be a creative endeavor. What and whom do they administer to? [written by Anthony Elms]”
― Paper Monument, As radical, as mother, as salad, as shelter: What should art institutions do now?

“To be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair convincing”
― Raymond Williams