art too bad to be ignored

Posted by Daniela Elza on Jun 14 2010

I came upon a talk given at GEL by Louise Reilly Sacco, the Permanent Acting Interim Executive Director of The Museum Of Bad Art (Boston).

I thought the talk was funny and profound. Especially the idea that they celebrate an artist’s right to fail.
As a writer I think it is really important to remember that it is ok to try something new, and fail. How else do we push the limits of what is possible? And in that case, what does to fail really mean?

We can play it safe, not take risks, and there truly is a comfort in that. But taking a risk, in business as well as in art, inherently brings with it the possibility for “failure.” Working on the edge, venturing into unch.art.ed territory does not yield a pre.deter.mined outcome. And that is the beauty of it. So much of what we have “discovered” comes from a failed at.tempt at something else.

Anyway, will let you draw your own analogies. My favourite part is when she talks about people submitting work to the museum:
If we turn them down, says Louise Reilly Sacco, they can say at least I am not that bad.
And if we accept it, then they are in a museum.

So yes, what we do is serious, but we should never take ourselves too seriously. That can only help us do better what we care about. Go, check out their site. You can even join the ranks of their guest interpretators. No, seriously.

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