If I Ran the World--Part 1 of 3,457,647

It’s a big mistake to complain sometimes, because then people call you on it to make it better and you wind up in charge of something. I am very good at complaining--I like to think I am making the world a better place even though I’ve been told I’m clearly making it worse for them--but I have little or no interest in taking more projects on.
That said, I was at a conference--Using Technology in Art Education--that should have lasted one hour but was stretched out to all day. The mailing said it started at 8:30 so I dutifully got there at 8:30. It didn’t start until 9:30. The materials said continental breakfast. I didn’t know that that meant a plate of sliced lemons for the tea-drinkers--the only solid stuff around. The speakers for 10:00 weren’t in the room so the second presentation went first. It was fine in its way, but was mostly a commercial for a long-distance learning program for the Met Museum, where this was being held. Then we had two presenters who talked about the Met’s Watson Library and the classes they hold and such but no one in the audience could use any of this because it’s for staff members only. I said to the woman who organized it--a very well-meaning person from the Board of Ed--oops I mean Department of Education--that it was like showing us all this candy but then telling us that we couldn’t have any of it.
It was time now for lunch and we were sent to the Met Cafeteria--quite a hike--which of course, was not yet open. We wound up at the balcony cafe/bakery area. Up until then, what had I learned about technology? Nothing!
The last hour was somewhat better with presentations from MOMA and the Gugg. followed by an impromptu look at the Met’s Timeline project which audience members might actually use in their classrooms.
Sponsored by the University Council for Art Education, this was not a worthwhile event, not worth $40 and not worth my time overall. Luckily, I enjoy looking at art and had the late afternoon free, so I wandered the collection without students to worry about. I spent time at the Lehman collection--the Master of Osservanza will knock your socks off--and roamed around the Greek/Roman galleries. Which brings up a topic for another day: why I like painting so much more than sculpture.