| FOLLY with Elizabeth Colton Chair, International Museum of Women July 2007 issue When my daughter Ashley was about four years old (early 90s), I wanted to take her to a place where she could experience her heritage as a female. I wanted her to be surrounded by images of women who are making contributions and changes. I did not want Ashley and her generation growing up like every other generation of young women thinking that women before them had never done anything important. Later I have come to understand that it is equally important for my son – and all our sons – to also learn the value of women. When I looked around for a place to take her, I found none - there was no place that recognized global women’s history both in the past, nor paid attention to the history we are creating today. YouTube Video Link of IMOW Exhibit FOLLY with Steve Stockdale Executive Director, Institute of General Semantics June 2007 issue First, I’d say that there is little if any benefit to be gained by just ‘knowing’ something about general semantics. The benefits come from maintaining an awareness of the principles and attitudes that are derived from GS and applying them as they are needed. You can sort of compare general semantics to yoga in that respect... knowing about yoga is okay, but to benefit from yoga you have to ‘do’ yoga. The same is true with general semantics. While there may be some satisfaction in learning and understanding the methods and principles, the real test is in the ‘doing.’ Some of the typical problems that may be eliminated or at least diminished through GS would be things like not treating an inference or opinion as if it were a fact; not jumping to inappropriate conclusions; avoiding gross generalizations and stereotypes; enjoying the individuality and uniqueness of every person and situation; delaying your reactions and not making knee-jerk, emotional reactions; and recognizing that while words have certain accepted definitions, the ‘meanings’ or significance of those words varies with the individual speaker, listener, and context. FOLLY with Kavita Ramdas CEO, Global Fund for Women May 2007 issue Being their daughter shaped me a lot and informed my understanding and appreciation of working inside & outside the system. My father’s role within the military and his access to influence gave me a view of what it means to work within the system. And my mother exhibited such courage with her refusal to accept the status quo. She was always willing to take on the system from the outside and to challenge it and to hold it accountable. They taught me that it’s always important to understand that people's contributions to social change can be made from different places, based on their skills and vantage point. As a result, I am someone who appreciates both those who take to the streets and protest to make change and those who work within organizations and systems whether those are corporations or government entities. The key issue for me is seeking to maintain one's integrity in the process. There do come points at which it is no longer possible to work from within a system because it is so compromised. What matters then is having the courage to step away. FOLLY with Rene DeGuzman Director of Visual Arts, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts April 2007 issue My greatest challenge is to educate the public on the value of contemporary art. As you know, art is not being taught in the public schools and there is zero coverage of it in the mainstream press. It then falls on curators and other professionals to work against the tide of neglect to demonstrate the importance of the public finding ways to express themselves to others. I mean if there were no contemporary art being made, appreciated and supported then what would generations and generations after us have as representative objects and forms to understand our times. (Rene is now senior curator of art at Oakland Museum of California) YouTube Link FOLLY with Leonard Shlain Writer, Surgeon March 2007 issue The reason I felt qualified to write Art and Physics is that I believe a surgeon must be artist and scientist. I am dismayed by compartmentalization in fields. We have become so specialized that we don’t and can’t appreciate the interdependence and influence of varied fields. It is one of my goals to bring together disciplines. Culturally, as with the hemispheres of the brain, there are two very distinct sets of related attributes and characteristics. East is right. West is left. I see a coming together of right and left brain, east and west cultures - a global "mellowing out" of dominant and non-dominant brain activity and culture. When the New England Journal of Medicine publishes an article on meditation, which it did 15 years ago you can believe that we are headed toward that shift. YouTube Link *Sadly, Leonard has passed away. He will be missed. FOLLY with Mark Kozelek Musician February 2007 issue My dad wrote me a letter recently that said I had a lot of 'gumption' -- a funny word, but he’s right. He was referring to some setbacks I had. One recently that would send most musicians back to their day jobs permanently. To be in this business for 10 years plus, it takes a lot more than writing nice songs, having an interesting voice and hopping on a plane. Making good music that people take an interest in is essential to it all, getting those pats on the back; but there are ups and downs, unpleasantness and discouragement. Labels come and go, band members, management problems, you get stiffed, and your personal life suffers if you let people pull the strings for you. YouTube Link |
| Mark Kozelek |
| Leonard Shlain |
| Rene DeGuzman |
| Kavita Ramdas |
| Steve Stockdale |
| Elizabeth Colton |
| FOLLY with Harlan Mandel Deputy Managing Director, Media Development Loan Fund (MDLF) June 2008 issue How can social venture funds like MDLF access the private capital markets? We see that as a very important question that we need to figure out because it represents a much larger potential resource for the sector than traditional philanthropy. There are a number of other social venture intermediaries out there - like our partners at responsAbility and the Calvert Foundation and also Good Capital - trying to figure this out as well. Most of our clients are not in a position to be accessing private capital markets directly, but we think that through MDLF we can get them that access. The security that was issued by Vontobel was called Voncert responsAbility Media Development, which is listed on the Zurich stock exchange. Voncert responsAbility Media Development was a new idea for how social ventures can approach the capital market. For us, it was an important milestone in a number of ways. Just successfully going through the due diligence process that an institution like Vontobel would require was a milestone for us and in a sense gave us a very different kind of seal of approval. Also, the experience gave us a better understanding of what it means to try to access that marketplace and how very different it is from traditional fundraising. responsAbility is a great outfit, and they did an excellent job taking us through that process. We’re now looking for new ways to do something similar again. |
| Harlan Mandel Photo (c) 2008 MDLF |
| Interviews |
| FOLLY |
| FOLLY with Dr. Mario Livio Astrophysicist and Author January 2009 issue The question of whether mathematics is an invention or a discovery has been debated since the time of Plato and continues to be debated today. I argue in the book that the question has been ill-posed, since the question seems to imply that the answer has to be one or the other, but that it cannot be both. In fact, mathematics is partly an invention and partly a discovery. Mathematicians invent the CONCEPTS (such as a right triangle), and then they discover the RELATIONS among these different concepts (such as various theorems). |
| Dr. Mario Livio. Photograph courtesy of John Coyle, Jr., 2009 |
| FOLLY with Lowry Burgess Space Artist, Educator August 2009 issue The poetry and the piece are about where darkness and light are one eternal presence, a profound sense of connection, the fusion of opposites, a deep inward and outward truth or inspiration linked. I chose to do the space art for political reasons. I think it is a positive work, coming out of a time (my work started in the 1960s) when socially and politically, things were desperate. I don’t know if you know I studied Southeast Asian anthropology. I knew the culture and history of Vietnam. The question of what we were doing in Vietnam was very problematic for me. I wondered what my role was and what I was doing on Earth. I didn't know where I was in the world or in society. This prompted my movement into space and art and space. |
| "Boundless Cubic Lunar Aperture" courtesy of Janet Burgess |
| Bassam Mansour with Ghani Alani Calligrapher April 2010 issue “My teacher was called Hachem Mohamed, better known as Baghdadi. He was a pupil of one of the greatest masters of calligraphy, whose lineage goes right back to the Abbasid tradition, twelve centuries ago. I was thirteen when I first met him. For three years I submerged myself in the study of writing. Once I had finished the first phase of study, the second seemed easier. Forming one letter leads to making two, and these two letters go on to make a word, and then a sentence.” But this Master of calligraphy was not happy just teaching him how to form the letters with his pen; he also encouraged him to see the link between man and letter. “Calligraphy has something to do with the soul,” he feels. The calligrapher’s pen is an extension of his arm, of his whole being. “My master never told me how to trace my letters. Instead, he drew my attention to the link between the body and the letter. ‘Our hands,’ he said, ‘are different, and their size affects the letters, so the letter is a reflection of the man.’” |
| Ghani Alani |
| FOLLY with Donald Hess Swiss Art Collector May 2010 issue I did not become a collector until I finished “decorating” the walls of my house about three years after I had started buying art. I also realised that the most difficult part in buying art is to differentiate between a pleasing piece of art and a piece of art that deeply touches you. I learned not to purchase a piece of art right away but to sleep for several nights prior to purchasing an artwork. I realized that art that really touched me would wake me up in the middle of the night and I would clearly see the piece of art in front of my eyes. Curiosity about special artists and their work drew me into collecting. YouTube Video |
| Donald Hess |
| FOLLY with Saleh Barakat Contemporary Arab Art Expert November 2010 issue In some aspects, such as the rising influence of star curators and international collectors on driving artists within certain perspectives, I would say Arab and Western art are similarly sensitive. On some other aspects, such as the formal approaches, Arabs would be more inclined towards the psychological import, content and narratives, than the materials and how they are used. Artists coming from countries like Lebanon or Egypt, with 150 years of modern art history, have definitely a greater legacy and impact as descendents of five generations of artists who preceded them and paved their way as major shakers and movers of their local societies. But no matter how art as a creative expression is recent in any country, it will always catch up when properly nurtured to become a necessity. |
| Saleh Barakat |
| Stephen Croke with Marcus Shelby, Musician and Composer Soul of the Movement: Meditations on Martin Luther King, Jr. January 2011 issue The challenge is always creating thoughtful and musical backgrounds around the soloist that don’t get in the way of their ideas. I really love the combination of sections with full orchestration and sections with improvisation in blues based music. Even in the sections that have “solos” or improvisation, the goal is to connect these individual statements to the overall architecture of the piece. That’s why I consider very carefully all the voices that are in the orchestra and how to organize them in a way that fulfills that goal. I believe this is the genius that Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson, and Count Basie left as a blue print for future generations to build upon (not copy) and that is the balance between written music and improvised music and how the combination forms an elaborate and dynamic conversation. YouTubeVideo |
| Marcus Shelby, photo credit Peter Varshavsky 2011 courtesy Marcus Shelby |
| FOLLY with Lucinda Barnes Chief Curator and Director of Programs and Collections BAM/PFA June 2011 issue As part of our exhibition planning, we evaluate each project in terms of what approaches would be most relevant and educational. Our goal in providing clear and concise information is to enrich the understanding, appreciation, and experience of the works of art and the ideas which ground the exhibition and/or film series. We also want the materials to encourage and stimulate the viewer’s own discovery and learning. As you may know, all of our Film Notes are archived on the BAM/PFA website (www.library.bampfa.berkeley.edu/), as are our written materials for the exhibitions, and media documentation of public programs (www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/search/artcollection). This is a broad, deep, and very rich archive which extends the visitor experience far beyond the presentation dates of an exhibition or film series. |
| Lucinda Barnes, BAM/PFI Photo credit Peter Cavagnaro |
| FOLLY with Kenneth Baker Art Critic/Writer July 2011 issue My aims in writing vary with the details of the task and the subject. Sometimes I think a point needs to be made. Often I see things in a work, a body of work or an exhibition that I really want to share — minus that convivial impulse, my writing (I can't speak for anyone else's) doesn't come alive. Often I see work that I like and feel craves a sort of completion or fulfillment through charged description. But fundamentally, I think someone with a platform such as mine has a social duty to set an example in clean language of how a point of view forms and expresses itself, and just to show how words can be used aptly. (I don't say "correctly," though I partly mean that, because, as poets continually show us, correctness and aptness do not always come to the same thing.) In our non-physical being, we are made of language, and we continually reshape parts of ourselves through it. So it matters very much what modes of expression we assimilate, and how we become aware of that. I borrow one of my critical mottos from a line in an Anne Stevenson poem: "The way you say the world is what you get." Part of the tacit instruction that goes on in art writing at its best — which I modestly think I achieve now and then — is showing people ways of valuing their experience, of which they may be unaware or aware only unconsciously, or to which they may even be resistant, owing to some sort of repressive training implicit in the culture at large. But nobody can make people focus if they’re not inclined to by temperament or curiosity, and focus is the crux, especially in a culture distracting itself to death (make that “from death”). |
| Kenneth Baker, Art Critic/Writer Photo credit Olivia Wareham |
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