Life Around the JSAC

Late last night I got an e-mail from Matt, the director of the building in Ocean Grove where my Studio is, the guy in charge of all things physical.  It was a newsletter, the kind of thing distributed to all tenants in the building.  The first topic as regarding upcoming leases, but that is in Molly's name, so I have nothing to do with that.  The second major topic was the installation of air conditioners in studios, which has begun, and will carry some responsibilities.  No sign of any of that in our space, and again that would be Molly's responsibility.  He also mentioned that all the spring activities were now done and most employees would now be able to go on vacation.  I haven't seen him in the building in weeks and was beginning to assume he was already on vacation.  Meanwhile, I have several classes scheduled there over the summer and decided I should get some answers as soon as possible.

I had plans to go in and work on some Studio stuff anyway, but I expected Nichole would be around, and sure enough when I pulled into the parking lot she was out there talking to a contractor about some job to be done. I decided to go inside and sit on the bench outside the main office, figuring eventually she'd have to come that way.  And she did, but our conversation was interrupted a few times by other building people desperate to get their questions answered.   I was in no hurry, so I was able to wait and talk to her.

Her answer to the Green Room question was in line with my previous theory- that it was related to the theater above. (of course, me being a basement resident, I think of it as a room in the basement and not as adjacent to a first floor theater)  I showed her the printed version of the class advertisement from the paper (she created the ad and knew what it looked like, but this was evidence that it was being distributed) and she was able to share some related news- we already have 3 students signed up.  Don't know if they learned of the classes through the ads, from the home page, or through social media, just that all the sign-ups so far are for the drawing class, although there are some inquiries about the woodcut.  As for the air-conditioning question, she didn't know much about that, except to think that it may be up on the 3rd floor.  But it did give me an excuse to point out to her that based on past summers, heavy damp air would become a bit of a problem in the basement around the time things get going.  Now, if I have a job and have agreed to a time, location, hours, and a task, I will do as agreed to- that's how I roll. However, as I pointed out, people who are paying to be there may not be so agreeable, and if the location is unpleasant, they will be unlikely to want to take future classes in that location, so it's in everyone's best interest if we can resolve this issue before classes begin in three weeks.  She promised to look into it and figure out a solution soon.

Her theory as to why the woodcut class is lagging so far is that most people just don't know what it is.  She may be right- even though the process has existed for over 1000 years, and has been practiced in all parts of the civilized world, there is an astonishing lack of knowledge regarding printmaking in general and woodcut in particular.  So I agreed to send her a 3 or 4 sentence description of the process that she can include in the next round of promotion. And earlier this evening, I wrote something up and e-mailed it to her.