Sunday, May 11, 2014

Failure Coach XLIII

A Day in the Life

Johnny Appleseed, in his dorm room, was reading Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut and paused a moment early in the book when he discovered Kurt studied Anthropology as an undergraduate in college. Andrew Valentine was a frequent visitor to the music rooms for students on campus, mostly because he enjoyed impromptu sessions where voice was a welcome addition to the instrumentation. Alicia Apricot, with some help from her father, was sure to have part time employment close to campus at the Via Christi hospital. (Close to the Pittsburg State campus, she’d be a gopher running errands with flexibility to clock in and clock out to attend classes and study).

The Executive Director of the Art Museum at Oberlin College, Brie Baker was aware of the Nana Valentine collection and was plotting carefully how she would get close to Andrew Valentine. She knew she could work with his advisor on campus to increase the likelihood of Andrew landing in one of her art history survey classes. Still it would be overly presumptuous to assume Andrew would have any control of that estate before he even reached the age of 21.

At the same time, the auction house/appraisers in Cleveland completed a beautiful and detailed catalogue of the works down to the various artist sketches, writings and ephemeral memorabilia. The appraisal was, without a doubt, in excess of eighty million dollars. That valuation could be even higher if the managers of this trust allow selective sales, but for the time being no part of the collection was for sale.

Katherine Hinds, the chief curator at the Marguiles Warehouse in Miami was hoping to make a connection with Brie Baker and Oberlin College during Art Basel if not sooner. They exchanged periodic correspondence on various contemporary artists. Several months ago it surfaced that they were both interested in the Nana Valentine Collection for different reasons. Marguiles was looking to loan various works and the curator knew that one way to accomplish this was to work with a curator capable of pulling together an exhibition. The Nana Valentine Collection included pieces that would complement important links to The Martin Marguiles Collection with regard to Minimal and Conceptual Art. Brie Baker believed that a Nana Valentine museum trust could take Oberlin to the next level through a combination of loans and acquisitions. She was working with the college development office on strategies. Both Oberlin College and the Martin Margulies Foundation had open lines of communication with Rachel Davis Fine Arts, the Cleveland auction house/appraisers.
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Jan Abbeshire was spending a couple of hours on a Saturday straightening things up. The St. Louis downtown office space of Abbeshire & Bluestone was designed to be open, with semi-private cubicles, high ceilings and exposed duct-work. Jan knew this layout was attractive to the ambitious type A-players she needed to keep the place going. Her office, however, was not isolated enough to keep the cacophony of sound during business hours from giving her periodic headaches. So she felt compelled to spend a few quiet hours at work on Saturdays. On this particular Saturday she was focusing on the profiles of the AEFFSF scholars. In the process, Jan decided to start a new file on the Nana Valentine Collection because one of her research assistants kept bringing her articles. It seemed to her that the Cleveland auction house was doing a pretty good job of showcasing the collection without making blatant solicitation to prospective buyers. Jan made a note to follow up with the people in Cleveland. Similarly, she made a note for interns to get background information on the Via Christi hospital construction project of which Alicia Apricot would be working. (Easy enough to dig up in local media channels.)

Alan Edgewater and Bob Caster were enjoying a Budweiser after a round of golf at Creve Coeur Golf Course. It had been a while since they’d played. They laughed about playing on a Saturday with the regular crowd since scheduling midweek proved difficult these days with their respective busy schedules. 

Coach Robert Siena was asleep on his living room couch in Red Bud, IL while his wife quietly baked a cake for his birthday.

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