On Monday Dan & I toured close to 100 Portland Art Museum docents through the factory as part of their instruction in preparation for the Klaus Moje exhibition soon to open at the Museum.
Why are dozens of well-dressed women hanging out in a parking lot in Southeast Portland?
After seeing glass batched, melted and formed, listening to a presentation on Moje, history and process, and finally seeing the operations of the fabrication studios, they left – wiser, we hope, and perhaps more curious about an art-making material that had been pretty foreign to most of them only a few hours earlier.
I’m always fascinated by the observations of first-time visitors to the factory. I liked these two especially:
“You sure have a lot of attractive young men working here.”
(Thank you, HR)
“Wow, it’s amazing to see a place where people actually MAKE something. I didn’t think we did that in this country anymore.”
(Come to think of it, it is a little un-American)
May 7th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
You do have some attractive young men working there, Lani. I think I need to make a trip over…
Toni
May 7th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
A few weeks back my UK friend reminded me of her visit to the BE factory (it’s one of about 5 things I treat non-US visitors to when they take up residence in my home for awhile). She wanted to know if the “fellow with the blue ladle, large pectorals and wavy blonde hair with the attractive facial hair” was still working at the BE factory. If so, she reminded me, she wants a repeat tour on her next visit. I can’t get her to try kilnforming yet, but at least she likes to watch the glass being made…
May 8th, 2008 at 6:02 am
*sigh* You girls just want us for our bodies.
GcB
(Certified pocket-protector equipped geek.)
May 8th, 2008 at 7:50 am
and the reverse question comes to mind: why are the majority (all?) of the docents women?
May 8th, 2008 at 8:06 am
Aren’t the majority of ALL volunteers women?
May 8th, 2008 at 10:26 am
“and the reverse question comes to mind: why are the majority (all?) of the docents women?”
For a couple of reasons. I bet a lot of those women are a) retired or b) stay-at-home wives. With the (a) group, hubby is DEAD (yeah, not fair, you outlive us) so HE would be “metabolically challenged” to volunteer. With (b) hubby is working. Most of those docent gigs are during the 8-5 workday. How many “people of color” were in that group? Betcha not many. How many single-working-mom’s in there? Not too many of them, either.
But, yes, the majority of volunteers probably are women.