August 2006 Page 8

> WORKING ARTIST SOFTWARE 3.0
In 1987 there were, possibly, not more than 10 qualified professionals nationwide who were offering private career self-management training and counseling. VAA came into the picture then, about 5 years or so after others, such as Sylvia Haimoff-White, had gotten going. Essentially, art schools and State/Local arts councils, at that time, could not be convinced that it might be a good idea to offer practical business training for their ever-escalating numbers of totally unprepared graduates and constituents. So, private enterprise and tenacity being what it is, individuals took up the slack. Clearly, there was and remains a need... but satisfaction of the need has changed by now.

Fast forward about 20 years. At this stage, Sylvia is still doing it out west, and VAA is too [>differently<], here in the heartland. Arts Councils and art schools finally got the picture right around 1993 or thereabouts... one of the best of the era was at the SF Art Institute under the able and sharp Jeremy Stone. She, a deeply respected San Francisco gallerist, went on to found BUSINESS MATTERS IN THE ARTS thriving yet today.

Along the way something else happened that I, for one, could not possibly have imagined would become so dominant as a means of sharing and spreading strategy or logistics. ~ INTERNET ~

Everything VAA did from 1987-1995 was done on paper, with a photocopier. I resisted owning a FAX machine, and was belligerent about giving up my dial phone.

Today, I am quite comfortable and enthusiastic in recommending to the computer literati an online artist self-management software and structural program developed by KATHRYN TOWNSEND, a former VAA artist who suffered through my neanderthalic ministrations years ago. WORKING ARTIST offers software which enables one to maneuver efficiently in the excessively byzantine art industry, and in a planned manner. For those so inclined...

http://www.workingartist.com

> JAMES HALL III, Missouri Sculptor
In the normal course of work involving an art estate, I met a Springfield, MO sculptor by the above name who is a second generation Missouri artist. His mother, and father, about whom I am just beginning to learn, were accomplished in representational figurative things... folk art dolls and the like; and long-time collectors of Chinese material. James has continued to develope the arts of casting and mold-making, to a most positive end; especially bronze portraiture.

http://www.jh3rd.com

> VAA CURATOR RETAINED AS MEMBER OF AAM MUSEUM ASSESSMENT PROGRAM (MAP)
The American Association of Museums has a program preliminary to museum accreditation, or as a self-evaluation measure thereafter, called MAP. The purpose of it is to bring experienced objective professionals to a museum so as to help deal with specific or general issues of importance to them, and then create a recommendation for action.

The numbers are a bit fuzzy as to total certainty, but according to the annual Museum Directory there are about 9000 (give or take) museums of every kind in America. Of that number, approximately 1/3rd are art museums of some description. Of the total number of museums, it is said that only 10% or so are accredited... a 2-3 year long expensive painstaking process. The idea, in my words, of AAM accreditation is to make sure that an institution calling itself a "museum" is, first of all, a museum. And then, to do all possible things to support and assist that institution in carrying out its duty to the public citizen and, as well, to (for example) art history.

Alas, yr hmbl srvnt has "retired" from the all-too public life of museum work. However, I have been recently informed that for the next three years, I remain eligible to serve the museum MAP program under AAM auspices... and I am absolutely delighted. I love museums, and I love the sometimes patrician AAM. It was the 3 major museums in Chicago which, as a very young boy, sparked the monumental craving to see and understand objects I, and now one of my offspring, have been ever since infested by.

To truly and deeply love museums in a practical sense, especially art museums, became far more complicated than the young child viewing his first Franz Kline above the grand staircase at that Art Institute dreamt. Yet, I was given the chance to demonstrate adoration and respect... a most unlikely plausibility.

It will, hence, be a great honor to be regarded among the long of tooth whose experience and pure unadulterated love of our profession might yet play some role in service to the AAM... a fine and well-meaning organization.

http://www.aam-us.com