Dickinson College Humanities Program in Norwich

So the other night a few students and myself went out to grab a quick dinner and a pint following our alumni event, as the “Honey I Shrunk the Salmon Cakes” hors d’oevres could not fill our gullets for the night.  Donned in dapper suits and freshly purchased genuine leather kicks, we set out to find our destination.  Our first interaction with a Brit came in the form of a toothless, homeless woman with dreadlocks.  She approached us, our eyes met with hers and she approached us rather briskly, uttered some kind of local gibberish which we all interpreted to be “do you have any spare change?”.  One student obliged as the rest walked onward, glad to have escaped the incredibly awkward situation.  We came back from it, discussed it a little bit and walked on.  Upon finding the ideal pub, we sat down and sipped on our local brew, chatting and recapping the passing day.  Soon we had our second interaction; a homeless man with a torn shirt asked us for money.  One student offered him a little bit, the man mumbled something to himself, and he slammed the coin back on the table and walked on.  We were shocked, but the madness continued.  A third woman (who was far more well dressed mind you) walked up to us and explained how somehow her inability to get a bus pass meant that one of us had to give her a sip of our beer.  After a bit of debate with her (I gave her the germaholic excuse), she just nodded and walked on.

So what do these 3 interactions mean?  We discussed how the fact that we were all dressed in suits clearly had some impact on the surrounding Brit’s conceptions of our class status, since they seem to value appearance quite a bit in what we have seen so far.  I have to admit we were getting some looks from Brits other than the homeless population while we wandered the streets.  So clearly, we had people convinced we were some sort of businessmen judged by the first look.  Why then was this slew of impoverished people so willing to approach us and ask us for their money?  Maybe it has something to do with the fake politeness we have discussed concerning the Brits.  How far can politeness go though?  Do homeless people only go after the people they think can afford to give away a little money?  It could be that these class systems are so defined but have such big extremes that the lowest of the low may only think to ask the top dogs if they could spare it, sine they can read people so well that they wouldn’t think to ask anyone that wouldn’t afford a few extra pence.  What about the guy who rejected our offer?  He acted as if we were being smug to give him only 10 or 20 pence.  Maybe he had labeled us so that he thought we could afford more.  But then what happens to the idea of fake politeness?  This beggar rejected our offer of money, which wasn’t exactly the most polite of actions.  Don’t even get me started on the girl who only wanted to swipe a sip of our beer.  I can’t imagine that would be a polite thing to even ask.  There is no way that this politeness deal can only work from the top down.  The mystery of the British people continues to unravel…

image from: http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/tt107/1cafekko/soSadohitsasiggy.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.myspace.com/flick024&usg=__psJXwKxdeTiFNn1uwGOk3Uuoj1A=&h=350&w=468&sz=29&hl=en&start=18&sig2=A51TepoGJuwB75NWoPBhRA&zoom=1&tbnid=QhbbtLJlD50lWM:&tbnh=135&tbnw=164&ei=bviPTOSVH8OQjAew0OzpDA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcrazy%2Bhomeless%2Bguy%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26biw%3D1200%26bih%3D620%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C362&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=901&vpy=253&dur=519&hovh=194&hovw=260&tx=207&ty=102&oei=XviPTKz-HZuR4gbe07WQDQ&esq=2&page=2&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:5,s:18&biw=1200&bih=620

Jackson Pollock, No. 5 (1948)

Have you ever found yourself in a moment where you question everything? Where you reconsider everything you thought you knew? Well that happened to me today as I was reading one of the books I’m using for my research paper, Talking Prices. This book is an examination into the world of pricing contemporary art. As I read, I began to think about how much the art world is concerned with money… and how much I am not. Now, I know money is important and that it’s involved in almost every aspect of our lives, but I’m not interested in art for a profit. I love art, plain and simple. I love the feeling I when I discover a new artist, or when I see a work in a museum that I have studied in an art history course (ask Kelley about our visit to the National Gallery in London). I’m sure most people who are established gallery owners, dealers or curators thought the same thing, that they would never let their artistic priorities be compromised by commercial objectives or let financial matters interfere with the way they establish relationships with artists, but I’m sure that has changed. In a discipline where one is constantly bombarded with words like ‘provenance’, ‘price’ and ‘worth’ how could you not let it affect the way you see art? I am still leaning how art is priced, and I am still amazed that one painting can sell for one hundred and forty million dollars (Jackson Pollock’s No. 5, 1948). While selling prices at auction houses like Sotheby’s are fascinating, I don’t think it’s the only way to determine worth. One of my big questions is, how does the price of a work relate to its aesthetic quality? Call me naive, but I don’t want to turn into another person who just sees a big price tag instead of a work of art. But the end of my interview session with Norwich gallery owners I hope to have a few of my fears confirmed or laid to rest. In these interviews I have been trying to determine what kind of contemporary art market Norwich has. So far it seems to be a mix of so-called ‘traditional’ and ‘avant-garde’ spaces, quite like the inhabitants of this ‘fine city’. While some gallery owners have said there is a decent market in town, others are less than optimistic. I received an email from one of my contacts yesterday that stated, in fact, there is NO market for contemporary art in Norwich.

“As well as owning the gallery, I am an architect and it is this profession that has kept the gallery going. I’ve been working in Jersey (Channel Islands) for the last year, which is why the gallery has only had 2 shows in the last year…so the simple answer to your question is that contemporary art does not sell in a place like Norwich!”

But I still have hope! We’ll see if my constant optimism proves to be my demise. 

Another realization: (and this is one that seems to be true across the boards) the more I learn about life, that more it seems that it’s not WHAT you know but WHO you know. Even with a Dickinson education, networking is essential. The whole art business is a giant web of relationships between artists, dealers and collectors. Lucky for me, I’ve inherited my father’s schmoozing skills and the ability to make friends easily. Now it’s time to put them to good use. People always tell you that best job is one that doesn’t feel like work, and I hope I can achieve this someday. But for now I’m going to have to work my way up the ladder. The art world is no place for introverts and if you want to stand out, you need to start networking early. Sound cutthroat? That’s because it is.

This past Week we had the privilege to visit Barclays Wealth Management, the Royal Albert Hall as well as the Globe and the National Theatre (both on the same day). I am an American Studies major, therefore the fields of business, economics and “wealth” are, unfortunately, of no interest to me, yet something about Barclay’s sparked my interest in more than just the economics of wealth.

We sat through an intricate presentation titled “The City of London and the Banking Sector,” from which I learned the following:

-The City of London and Canary Wharf are London’s financial center

-London is the main European banking center and hosts the largest international insurance market as well as the largest foreign exchange market

-There was a credit crash in 2006 which caused a major job loss and the downhill slope of the stock exchange

-Barclays Bank is located in 60 different countries, 140,000 employees

-The company manages the wealth of people who own a “fair amount of assets,” “fair”=”wealthy”= £1,000,000

-The GDP in the world’s major economies dropped to the negatives by 2009, and are expected o rise in 2010

-UK’s average salary is £28,000 a year

-Most wealth still resides in the US but Asia currently houses the fastest growing economies in the world; Barclays seeks to expand to Asia

Oh and last but not least, the workers of Barclays Wealth Management are given two days of the year to go and do community work at an assigned institution.

After their very interesting presentation, I approached one of the employees and asked him to tell me a little bit more about the type of philanthropy they are engaged in, he was excited to explain. He stated that there is a philanthropy department of the company who is in charge of helping wealthy people decide where to put their money, in other words which charities are more logical to donate to. I did not take this idea very well, but what can I do, I guess at least they’re pretending to care about the community. Evidently, based on their presentation, all that they really care about is making money. I am glad to be embarking on a path extremely distant from the business world.

All of this money talk and then “As You Like it,” a play of comedy and love the next day, “Pitmen Painters” later in the afternoon. To be capable of attending two plays in one day after a presentation about wealth management makes me feel extremely privileged. I just had a moment where I realized how lucky we are to be in our very own shoes. Dickinson (and all affiliated donors and organizations) has truly blessed us with the gift to see and experience a world not so different from our own, yet filled with new adventures to seek.

Summary: Braclay’s Wealth Management cares about making profit and I care about plays that both inspire and entertain the soul.