Walking Through History with Norman Rockwell

Norman Rockwell took me on a trip through American political and cultural history earlier this week. The North Carolina Museum of Art exhibit, American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell, includes 47 years of his covers for The Saturday Evening Post plus dozens of other paintings.

I first got a deep look at Rockwell almost ten years ago when the Corcoran Gallery of Art presented Norman Rockwell: Pictures for the American People. Until then I thought Rockwell was an early version of Thomas Kinkade, not deserving of art world respect, but since I happened to be at the Corcoran I thought I’d take a quick spin through the exhibition. Cue the comeuppance. I was introduced to a man with great talent and insight who in one painting portrayed the private moments of the girl next door and in the next the televised moments of one thrust onto the world stage.

As I browsed through his Evening Post covers I wondered, who is his counterpart today? Whose work attracts a comparable audience? Whose work touches on politics, current events, pop culture and common experiences? We have personalities like Andy Rooney, Jon Stewart and Jay Leno. Are they modern day Rockwells? I don’t think so. Who would you nominate?

I laughed when I saw Deadline (Artist Facing Blank Canvas) . Here’s a guy who had a creative block and used that as a subject for his next cover. Brilliant! What writer or blogger can’t relate to a looming deadline and blank document?

Rockwell’s art has always been pooh-poohed as lightweight. While he was selling his illustrations to magazines and advertisers, the art world was fawning over Pollock, de Kooning and Warhol. Some of Rockwell’s work was sentimental and sicky sweet, but it captured a common vision of America, a Jimmy Stewart version, an idyllic childhood that everyone remembered, imagined or wished they had. Rockwell had his own fun with the sneering art critics and connoisseurs of his day. Look how the lady in the painting flirts with the critic and how the three Dutch merchants in the adjacent painting react.

Say what you will, the man had skills and depth. He butted up against the prevailing standards for portraying a white bread world. He didn’t just paint happy scenes of Americana but also grappled with the dark side of our country’s past: a young rich white boy in a dining car trying to figure out how to tip the grandfatherly black waiter; a black girl walking into her newly desegregated school surrounded by the legs of her accompanying federal marshals; and the red blood stains on a bleached white shirt of a murdered civil rights worker in Mississippi.

Art provides many types of experiences to viewers. Sometimes the sensory experience is enough. But usually art stirs up other emotions and thoughts and that’s when the experience gets interesting. Like my last visit to a Rockwell exhibition, this one was an unexpected delight. I got more of a sense for the man and he surprised me. I also got a stroll through 20th century America. The exhibit whetted my appetite to learn more. I guess once a history major, always a history geek. I have a new imaginary book for my fantasy library: a catalog of all of Rockwell’s Evening Post and Look magazine covers, one piece per page and each accompanied by an essay that puts it in historical and cultural context. That would be the ultimate American chronicle for a rainy day like today.

Hanging Out with the Other Side

Think about the people you sit with at lunch, meet for a beer, or see at smaller meet-ups. Are they like you? Do you feel more comfortable around people who think like you? Or do you welcome the opportunity to be around those who think differently?

I’ve been thinking about this ever since I read a Newsweek article about Washington wives of yore. It’s both interesting and sad.

Do you remember the video of Sen. Orrin Hatch (Rep.) speaking at the funeral of his “Irish friend” Ted Kennedy (Dem.)? After you dry your eyes, think about those on the Hill today. What are the chances now that a Republican and a Democrat will have a friendship like this?

Back when their relationship started, Senators and Representatives lived in DC with their families. They spent time hanging out with guys from both sides of the aisle.

“If you live across the street from your political opponent, if you know his kids, if you’ve been to dinner at his house, it’s impossible to go up on the floor of the Senate or in the media and blast him the next day.”

I’m not calling for a return to the “good old days” because they weren’t all good. Permanent residence in DC can lead to a syndrome I detest — the Beltway bubble that insulates some of our politicians from what it’s like to sign or earn a paycheck. I do think it’s important for them to come home and get a sense for what their constituents need, but something was lost along the way.

“Real legislating—the compromises and dealmaking that distinguish politics from posturing—happens only among people who know and respect each other.”

That’s what we lost. Camaraderie and collaboration were lost. People become symbols of their party platform. Static ideology takes precedence over reason and relationships.

Nowadays as soon as they’re elected, the fundraising cycle begins again for the next campaign. Wouldn’t it be better if our policy-makers focused on leading, thinking, collaborating, innovating and legislating while in office, not raising funds and running for the next election? Ah, what a dreamer I am.

It’s easy to demonize the other when you don’t choose to know or understand them. This is the root of racism, religious hatred, homophobia and a host of other evils. That’s the extreme version.

What’s the light version? Think about yourself, or think about the leadership of your company or organization. Do you (or your leadership) surround yourself with those who think like you? Who have the same beliefs or philosophies? Who are the same age, gender, religion, ethnicity or race? Who have the same economic, educational or professional background? Who do or see things the way you do?

What’s missing? Exposure to other perspectives and stories. Serendipity. Don’t knock serendipity. It’s the root of much creativity and innovation in the world.

It’s easy for any of us to get trapped in a bubble. Fortunately, because of social media, it’s also easier now to tap into voices and perspectives outside our bubble. I’m not sure how we’ll change Washington but we can pop our own bubbles.

Romantic and Generous Blogging

“Technology killed criticism,” says Morgan Meis in On the State of Criticism 2011. Everyone’s a critic now, writing reviews on Amazon and blogs, and ranting or raving on Twitter. Netflix, Pandora and Amazon make personalized recommendations based on algorithms, decreasing our reliance on professional critics.

Meis sees this loss of authority for critics as an opportunity for them to share their experience and love of art, rather than merely judge it.

“The death of the critic-as-authority is the birth of another kind of criticism . . . the kind that doesn’t rely on authority and judgment, Romantic criticism.”

Romantic criticism “does not stand outside the work of art, but stands alongside, maybe even inside, the work of art, participating in the work in order to further express and tease out what the artist already put there.” The critic’s role is to help us experience art. Meis calls this generous criticism. “It wants to make experience bigger, it wants to make each work of art as rich as it can possibly be.”

Imagine the critic’s relief. Instead of reading a book or viewing an artwork and knowing your opinion is one that could make or break its success in the marketplace, you’re now free to share your experience, put the work in context and enlighten your readers.

Meis’ romantic generous critic reminded me of Arthur Danto, longtime art critic for The Nation and philosophy professor at Columbia University. When I was a volunteer at the National Gallery one of our educators suggested I read Encounters and Reflections: Art in the Historical Present; later I read Beyond the Brillo Box: The Visual Arts in Post-Historical Perspective – books I foolishly purged when I moved across country.

Danto’s writing and NGA lectures were enthralling and thought-provoking. He showed me new ways to see, think about and experience art. While drafting this post I wondered if I remembered him correctly, but was reassured after reading this from Denis Dutton, founder of Arts & Letters Daily — a site I can lose hours in:

“That Danto is a critic who knows art and its history, and that he is a skilled philosopher go almost without saying, but this alone cannot account for the attractiveness of these essays. There is an element here which, curious to remark, many contemporary critics either lack or won’t betray: Danto adores art. This means that when he likes something, he can carry his reader away with the enthusiasm, as he does with Warhol or with something so simple as a Raphael drawing of a head and hand. Moreover, his tastes are broad, and celebrate as much the present instant in art as its historical past.”

Danto is a romantic and generous critic. What about bloggers? Are we romantic and generous bloggers? Do we pass judgment on our subjects or do we share our experience and love of them, and try to make them richer? The latter doesn’t mean we’re Polyannas oozing positivity; we mete out tough love too.

Many of us in the association blogosphere might be accused of being too critical or judgmental about associations. Yes, we criticize, but it’s to try to push the conversation further, to make associations a richer experience. We’re thinking out loud together. We wouldn’t blog about associations, leadership and community if we weren’t fascinated by those subjects. As a writer I may be on the outside, no longer working in an association, but I still consider myself part of the community because, well, I love it.

I can only dream of being a thinker and writer like Danto, a wannabe art historian’s dream. But I can continue to share my love and knowledge with others. I admit, I’d love to spark “hmm, fascinating” in a reader’s brain every now and then. But I’m not here to be an authority or pass judgment. I’m here for the love of it all — conversation, wild ideas, community, expression, writing. I’m sharing my experience, love and passions in my own way.

Adam Kirsch, senior editor at The New Republic, defines a critic as “one who says something true about life and the world. The critic’s will is not to power, but to self-understanding, self-expression, truth.” A critic’s writing shows “a mind working out its own questions.” That sounds like many bloggers I know and the blogger I aspire to be.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all, see you in January!

photo source: New York Public Library Digital Gallery

Even a Small Staff Can Blog

Admit it, you like reading blogs, don’t you? You subscribe by email or RSS feed and you get valuable and interesting content delivered daily to your computer. How convenient! You receive tips and advice, read about hot issues and learn about resources that help you do your job or get ahead in your profession. Wouldn’t your members like that?

A blog provides news, information and thought-provoking ideas – a professional development trifecta. It’s the ultimate content marketing tool – engaging your readers with valuable information that holds their attention and strengthens their loyalty. A blog educates policy-makers, journalists and other influencers about your legislative and regulatory issues. A good blog establishes your association as a thought-leader in your industry.

Google loves blogs and their keyword-rich pages. Because of their dynamic fresh content, blogs rank high in Google indexing. Blog posts are sharable. They’re sent to colleagues via email, or shared on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Your association’s reach and influence expand via Google and social media platforms.

Blogs are social. Your members participate in the conversation you start by commenting back to you and each other. Blogs have more personality than websites. They have a real person’s voice, or many people’s voices. You can play it straight by providing serious information, and also be entertaining with lighter posts and videos.

Can you manage a blog?

Even a small staff association can manage a blog by publishing repurposed and curated content in addition to original content.

You can get content in several ways:

  • Create original content. Don’t worry, you have access to more content ideas than you’d expect. Trust me, the more you write, the easier it gets.
  • Repurpose existing magazine, newsletter, educational session, blast email and political alert content.
  • Ask members to contribute a monthly post. Look for bright members who want visibility. If they don’t write well, edit their work or outsource the editing. If their writing is hopeless, film them.
  • Ask industry bloggers to contribute monthly guest posts.
  • Outsource content creation to freelance writers.
  • Do a mix of all of the above.

Content can also be collected from other sources, reviewed and curated (filtered) to find the most valuable and interesting posts for your members.

How do you begin?

Start by regularly reading industry blogs to get a feel for the community and issues. Also read social media blogs to learn more about managing and marketing a blog.

Put together a staff team, or a team of members and/or industry thought-leaders overseen by staff, to develop an editorial strategy. Review your communication, marketing, professional development, membership, advocacy and public relations goals. How can your blog help achieve those goals? Don’t operate your blog in a silo. It must be an integral part of all those association programs.

Discuss how you will handle negative or critical comments. Censoring is only an option for extreme cases – spam, libel or vulgarity. Socialfish recently shared an excellent social media response triage flowchart.

Create an editorial calendar so your posts enhance other association efforts.

Always have a full pipeline of posts so you can at least publish weekly.

However, blogs need daily attention. Even if you don’t post daily, someone must review comments and reply back, share your posts and posts from other sources on social media platforms and, ideally, comment on other industry blogs. Like content creation, this can be done by staff or outsourced.

If staff sets the blog’s strategy and calendar, content can be created and collected using a combination of talents. The effort required to oversee this educational, community-building and marketing tool will be well worth it.

(A version of this post was originally published on Splash: Refreshment for Your Small Staff Organization)

 

Is Your Leadership Bubble Transparent?

Here’s a developing story for association and non-profit professionals to follow. I was led to it by Laurie Ruettimann’s The Cynical Girl blog. Laurie is an HR rock star, a Triangle local and a smart-ass, so she’s a source I respect. She alluded to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) threatening to sue the TLNT website, “an HR blog about The Business of HR.”

So what’s this all about? I read in a TLNT post that SHRM wants TLNT to stop using the SHRM logo on their website. Fair enough, a logo can be perceived as an endorsement. We had “Member of” logos to help prevent our logo being used in that manner.

But then I read further,

“SHRM has never made such a demand until we wrote about a new group of agitated SHRM members that the world’s largest HR organization probably wishes would just go away —  SHRM Members for Transparency.”

Oh boy, now we’re getting to it. This group of former SHRM executives, former board members and other “prominent” members was asking the current SHRM board for more transparency on issues such as pay and perk increases for board members and plans for dues increases. They were in the process of launching a website when SHRM threatened them with legal action.

Let’s take SHRM out of the picture for a moment. I don’t want to dwell on their situation since I don’t know enough about it. This could be any large old-fashioned association whose leadership is unknowingly out of touch with their members. A leadership cosseted in their bubble and running things the way they wish without regard for the little people. Would anyone be surprised if one day this old-fashioned leadership gets their well-deserved comeuppance?

If leaders hide their decisions behind closed doors, take personal benefit at the expense of those who elected them and threaten their members with legal action in a bullying manner, they deserve to be called on it. Jeff Williams, an HR blogger, reminds us, it’s a trust issue too. The SHRM story inspired this post but I bet there are many other associations capable of doing the same because they haven’t moved out of the command and control mentality and are losing the trust of their members.

I’ve often wondered if an association’s lobbying culture leads to an adversarial (and control-prone) mentality — it’s “us against them.” This might easily become “us (the leaders who know best) against them (the members).” Don’t get me wrong, I love lobbyists. They’re passionate incredibly hard-working people who do the heavy-lifting for all of us and all our interests. But I wonder if that mindset leaks into how our leaders operate. Something to think about.

I’ll leave the drama to the SHRM folks, fortunately it’s not my fight. It will certainly be an interesting story for leaders and organizations to follow with many lessons to ponder.

Putting Your Reputation on the Line

Earlier this month I read a post in the Daily Dish, Andrew Sullivan’s blog at The Atlantic, about a megachurch pastor in Georgia, Jim Swilley, who decided to publicly come out of the closet. He felt compelled to do so after hearing too many stories about gay teens committing suicide after harassment by bullies.

“As a father, thinking about your 16-, 17-year-old killing themselves, I thought somebody needed to say something,” he told WSB TV in Atlanta. “I know all the hateful stuff that’s being written about me online, whatever. To think about saving a teenager, yeah, I’ll risk my reputation for that.”

This man is a hero. I can’t imagine the courage it must take for anyone to come out when those around them don’t approve of their lifestyle. A lifestyle, Swilley reminds us, that is not a choice. But imagine doing that when you’re the pastor of a conservative church and your career and livelihood is on the line.

It made me think about what I would risk to do the right thing. Would I be brave enough to risk my reputation and career? I won’t know until I’m in that position. I can only hope that I’m as strong as he is. I’m not assuming I will be although I think I have a strong metaphorical spine. I think about whistleblowers who don’t even know Sarbanes-Oxley protection exists, yet put their jobs on the line to do the right thing, as Jim Swilley did by blowing the whistle on irrational hatred.

How much would your organization put on the line to do the right thing? How many people (members or even board members) are you willing to piss off? How many opportunities do you miss to be a hero because you worry about the risk to your brand or about the risk of failure?

Thankful: Channeling Virginia Woolf

“As you sit down with your loved ones to celebrate Thanksgiving this year, what is one thing you’ll be especially thankful for?”

Only one thing? But there are so many things I’m thankful for. As I think about that I lean back into my chair and glance around the room. My eyes settle on the red, orange and yellow leaves of the trees outside the window. It’s so pretty this time of year. I’m thankful for that, no, I can only pick one thing, it’s not going to be the foliage.

The house is quiet, except for the cat purring on the couch in my office, next to a few books I’m in the midst of reading. The music plays softly on the radio. The dog is dreaming. Asleep on the rug between my desk and the couch, his paws are running in place.

I love having this room. It’s an extra room, formerly a bedroom, now my office. My books surround me. A TV’s on a dresser in case I get the urge for a cooking show. I can curl up on the couch with a cup of tea or coffee and read, or I can sit at my desk and write. The strong wireless signal connects me to news and information, but more importantly to friends and not-yet-friends, or, channeling Fritz Maytag here, friends in fermentation.

I’m thankful for a room of my own. Virginia Woolf would be pleased. This room is my office, my study, my lounge, my yoga studio (if I’m practicing) and my sanctuary. It grounds me and brings me peace. It’s the symbol, or evidence, of the things in my life that I’m really thankful for – the reasons I’m able to have a room of my own.

  • My guy, the reason I’m here in North Carolina and the reason I glow
  • My wonderful life here in NC and the people who are part of it — my NC family and friends
  • My family’s love and support for whatever I do, however far away I am
  • My Georgetown education that started me on a path of learning and success and introduced me to lifelong friends
  • My career path and the dear friends and interesting experiences it gave me along the way
  • My last job and the savings it provided that helped me transition into this new freelance life
  • My online and real life communities who inspire me and make me laugh
  • My work that allows me to do what I love, teaches me something every day and pays the bills
  • My freedom to live the way I do, to have this room of my own. I know I am blessed.

I’m thankful for many other things, especially that I woke up this morning, happy to face another day. That’s the easiest one to take for granted.

I recently read about making a list each night of five things you’re thankful for. I wish I remembered where I read this – was it your blog or book? It’s an easy thing to do and I bet it’d help us have sweeter dreams too.

What are you thankful for today? Share some gratitude. Let’s make the world spin happily around.

“Every morning, when we wake up, we have twenty-four brand-new hours to live. What a precious gift! We have the capacity to live in a way that these twenty-four hours will bring peace, joy, and happiness to ourselves and others.”  ~Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life