Category Archives: Hotels

The Art of Staying Somewhere Very Special

Because attending huge art conference just isn’t enough art for me, I opted for a week staying in…

which, as it turns out, is about as close as you can get to an art gallery sleep-over. Welcome to my photographic essay: The Art of Staying Somewhere Very Special!

Posted in Hotels | 2 Comments

Getting into the New York Flow

Typically, I’m pretty open to the everyday challenges life in New York throws at you. Before moving back to the slower, quieter San Francisco Bay Area, I fought it out here for seven years. Yet, these past 2 days have been challenging, even for me.

As a blogger, wireless access is essential. However, I’m relegated to just a couple of spots where access is “free,” and find that many, many people have the same idea. My poor, 7-year old computer slows to a crawl from the heavy internet traffic, if I can even find a place to sit down long enough to log on and write. A smartphone, you ask? Maybe an iPad? Or dare I say, pay into the hotel’s wireless service to work anywhere? Ah, only when I’m no longer among the millions of unemployed, and I can actually afford such beautiful devices and services!

In conferences past, my agendas for attendance have been fairly predictable: to present a paper, to chair a panel, to serve as chair of a committee and steer the committee meeting (and make sure it’s session ran smoothly). As a graduate student, it was great to do all this and meet new people. And share a cushy hotel room close to the conference with fellow students, hit the events, the museums, etc. As I moved up the educational administrative and managerial mountain, my institutions paid my hotel bills in exchange for the assistance I provided for the alumni receptions, the hiring committees, etc. One could get used to this level of luxury, as I continued to build upon my CV with more papers, panels, and service.

It all crashed, along with the economy, in 2009.

I have been out of graduate school for a long time. Yet, this year I feel more like a student than ever before. With no institution supporting me, in fact no job at all, it was a difficult decision to even come here this year. My spouse (who is job-hunting here for the first time) and I scraped together airline miles. We are staying with friends in Park Slope, Brooklyn—not an easy trek when sessions start early and events run late. We are even frugal with food—tough in NYC. It’s a fact we knew going in.

Am I happy to be here? Absolutely! With or without fancy electronic devices. Unemployment brings with it an unpleasant and lonely isolation, interpersonally and intellectually. So, while I am finding it stressful at times to be the dutiful blogger, my inner art nerd is definitely being fed, and seeing dear friends and colleagues is filling me with much-needed camaraderie.

Posted in Bloggers, CAA, Hotels, New York | 1 Comment

ARTspace Media Lounge “Band of Outsiders”

The publication created for "Band of Outsiders" at the ARTspace Media Lounge at the CAA Conference. Feb. 10, 2011. (Image Credit: Tempestt Hazel)

If you have not had the chance to see the ARTspace Media Lounge, there several opportunities to.  This Jean Luc Godard inspired collaborative exhibition brings together artists, curators and more to create a special conference and city-wide multi-media installation in honor of the centennial College Arts Association Conference.

The College Arts Association presents

Band of Outsiders

Organized by Sabina Ott and Cindy Smith of the CAA Services to Artists Committee
Screenings:

ARTspace Media Lounge
7:30am-5pm Feb 10-12
Concourse F, Concourse Level
Hilton New York
1335 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10010

The Center for Book Arts
February 1 – April 2
Weekdays: 10am – 6pm
Saturdays: 10am – 4pm
28 West 27th Street, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10001

The Big Screen Project
Selections from Band Of Outsiders
Feb 9-12, 5-9pm
Public Plaza behind Eventi Hotel
6th Avenue b/w 29th and 30th
New York, NY

The following are some photos of the collaborative publication made in honor of the ARTspace Media Lounge and Band of Outsiders.

Posted in ARTspace, Centennial, Exhibitions, Hotels, New York, Videos | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off