Failure Coach XLV

Oberlin Curator in Crisis

Brie Baker loved Oberlin. She was hired to showcase and lead the modern and contemporary collection and the Allen Memorial Art Museum (AMAM) nearly five years ago. The gallery for Modern and Contemporary Art was added to the Cass Gilbert building in 1977. It had become an impressive and representative home for a growing collection. Brie knew her collection could be presented in a variety of ways to enhance the international reputation of the museum and the college. She was ambitious and determined to do for art what the conservatory was doing for music. She concluded it had a lot to do with supporting emerging artists.
   

The world of art is elusive. A curator, especially one charged to bring attention to an academic institution like Oberlin would always feel pressure. She would be expected to be published, cited often and nimble among benefactors, art enthusiasts, collectors, colleagues and curators. This job did not come with tenure but it did come with a level of prestige. Brie Baker already could claim a healthy bump in endowment for the arts and an impressive speaker series that was starting to make Oberlin as much a place for art as music.

“I want our institution to be a part of the conversation when it comes to the new and emerging artists around the world,” she stressed in meetings with her colleagues at AMAM. But she was never fully convinced that they shared her vision. “We need to show the world that we are watching where art is headed, not just where it has been.” In her darker moments she would lament that the middle west, in particular Northeast Ohio, was never going to become Paris or NYC as an art center. Still she was ever hopeful that scholarship and funding for new commissions and exhibitions would bring attention to her place in the Buckeye state.

Brie is statuesque and attractive in a clinical way. She worked hard to project a professional image but has a tendency to gravitate to little black dresses, designer scarves and heels that made her look as at home in a cocktail/dinner party as a gallery show.  Her wardrobe also made her seem unapproachable to many on a college campus. She was in her later 30s but had a playful and youthful air. Her laugh was disarming and helped her greatly in negotiations with artists and colleagues. The irony of her charm was that it masked a deep insecurity. She felt it was her job to appear sophisticated and intellectual. She never wanted to let her guard down. As a consequence, she found herself falling for older established and seemingly successful men. To date, this resulted in a series of awkward romances with married or recently divorced men; but none so awkward as the relationship she would have with Andrew Valentine, an undergraduate more than 15 years her junior.

It started innocently enough. Andrew was invited to sing at a gallery reception with wine, cheese, crackers and an small group of patrons of AMAM. Andrew was a little uncomfortable with the gig but he was pleased that one of his professors recommended him for this small gathering. The opening featured a short benediction and dedication followed by his rendition of Hallelujah, a song written by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen. The echo and sound in such a venue made Andrew sound like an angel. Brie was spellbound by his voice and eager to learn more about how Andrew Valentine felt about the Nana Valentine collection (especially now that she was in possession of the catalogue from Rachel Davis. If he was interested, she thought, she might help him understand the context by which that collection earned its value form a curator’s perspective. She learned, to her surprise, Andrew was pretty sharp on the content of the collection and offered a variety of stories of his Nana’s reasons and circumstances for various purchases. This encounter led to a series of informal tutorials that eventually evolved into a physical relationship. The affair was played out in trysts out-of-town. Brie was able to arrange, in the name of sort of independent study, for the two of them to visit museums in Toledo, Columbus and Bloomfield Hills, Michigan (where they spent time at the Cranbrook Art Museum visiting with a colleague who was a curator). Brie Baker knew the relationship was unhealthy. Andrew understood the need for secrecy but actually turned out to be a willing and receptive student of contemporary and modern art. Brie accepted Andrew’s terms when just a few months into the friends with benefits arrangement they agreed to call it quits. Andrew could count on two hands the times they has sex. He liked Brie but was relieved when she agreed to make their friendship more academic. In time, together they reviewed the Nana Valentine catalogue produced by Rachel Davis Fine Arts and had a mutual respect for their respective interests in Nana’s collection.    

I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though it all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah