#12 Looking Back // Lessons of an Exceptional Year
Dear friends and colleagues, dear faraway nearby,
at the end of every year I start a deep review and planning process. Thinking about the past year, the lessons it provided, the things that need adjustment in the coming year and reviewing the goals I set at the beginning of the year, is a way to connect the dots. It also serves as a reminder that while we think about time as being linear, a human life can't be measured from A to B, our lives are much more shaped by patterns, cycles and periods.
2020 feels like a year we all learned that many of our planning is connected to circumstances outside of our control and that we need adjustable supportive routines that carry us through periods of uncertainty.
I might present the following lessons in a neat list but let's honor the fact that life comes in its own shapes and living through lessons is a process we are all figuring out.
Lessons 2020
There is a danger in getting lost in fighting the things we can't tolerate any longer when we don't focus also on building the new, we want to see in this world
With all the focus on scalability, we've lost the most important scale: the human and natural scale
We are social beings
Care is political
Don't question the things that bring you joy, no matter how mundane they seem
Invest in the things/ people/ structures that support you
Normalize asking for help (that requires to think about your needs)
Your goals need to support the process if they become reminders of your failures you might need to overthink them.
How well people are able to tolerate risks is massively linked to privilege
It's hard to sit with grief as it feels so unproductive to a society that likes to move quickly to the lesson
Resilience is an essential skill to survive but you can't build a life on this quality or it will break you. Resilience needs to be temporary response anything lasting longer needs deeper changes and support
Change often starts with asking better questions
You can't measure new results to changing questions with old metrics, especially when we talk about systemic things like race, class and gender.
The hero's journey is deeply embedded in our neoliberal storytelling needing heroes to perpetuate extraordinary human effort. It relativizes human sacrifice, yes in the name of saving someone or a community, but the narrative rarely questions the systemic issues that lead to the hero's quest.
Compassionate action is better than empathy.
“Empathy is feeling what someone else is feeling. It is attempting to crawl into their minds and hearts and experience what they’re experiencing. This is impossible. We cannot feel what it is to be anyone but ourselves. (...) Compassion, unlike empathy, allows us to remain rational. It’s what allows us to act when someone gets injured in front of us. Compassion allows us to take action in the face of their pain; we trust their anger and pain without taking it on.”— Tatiana Mac
Algorithms are far from being neutral.
“In the US, a widely-used healthcare algorithm falsely concludes that black patients are healthier than equally sick white patients. AI that is used to determine hiring decisions has been shown to amplify existing gender discrimination. (…) AI systems shape the information we see on social media feeds and can perpetuate disinformation when they are optimized to prioritize attention-grabbing content. The examples are endless.” — The Algorithmic Justice League, founded by Joy Buolamwini.
Data needs literacy to combat conspiracy theories.
I love the illustrations of Rukmini Poddar (artist, designer, and illustrator living in NYC) and they hold lessons of their own.
Questions I'm still pondering
Who are you outside self-improvement?
What does enough feel and look like?
How can we surrender to the current circumstances without giving up?
How can I be comforted if I don't feel safe? How can I provide comfort to others when they don't feel safe?
Can I find my space in the solutions that this time requires?
Good things in 2020
Cultivating togetherness despite not being able to physically see each other has been a big task this year. I'm incredible grateful for my closest friends and our breakfast or Spritz'o'clock Zoom calls.
As I was not able to travel this year, I really got to explore new parts of Switzerland and got to do so many new to me trails. Nature has been a great remedy for reducing anxiety this year.
People who care, like you reading this letter. THANK YOU! Thank you so much to each and every one of you, who reached out, who told me when they liked letters in particular, who shared this letters with others, and those of you who donated. It truly means a lot to me.
I'm really grateful for the negotiation power of unions
2020 was also the year I got to focus more on 1:1 coaching and consulting with artists, galleries and institutions. It's been a true delight to see already some of the results and to be of service during this challenging year. If you're interested to learn more about that part of my work, just drop me a line. I'm currently taking a few new clients for Spring 2021.
I got to write for thurgaukultur.ch about the relevance and future of museums. That article just made it on the list of the best 20 stories of the year. [German]
I curated this spring the exhibition "Mycelia - about networking as a woman artist" focusing on the complexities of how systemic conditions like race, class and gender shape success. Due to COVID we launched, in addition to the physical exhibition, a whole online program with artist conversations in German and English, a guided tour and several panel discussions. Here a few videos I want to particularly recommend:
==> Panel Discussion | On glass ceilings, the meritocracy and networks centering care With Chus Martínez, head of the Art Institute at the FHNW Academy of Arts and Design in Basel, Switzerland; Helen Gørrill, artist, curator, feminist and art historian who recently published the book "Women can't paint: Gender, the Glass Ceiling and Values in Contemporary Art"; Gretta Louw, digital artist and curator involved in digital network theories; Penelope Richardson, Munich-based artist within the exhibition Mycelia; Ieva Balode, Latvian artist within the exhibition Mycelia
==>Podiumsgespräch | Über künstlerischen Erfolg und solidarische Netzwerke Gäste: Susanne Mitterer, Kompetenzteam Kultur- und Kreativwirtschaft; Laura Sánchez Serrano, Kulturreferat München, Internationale Kulturarbeit; Silke Bachmann, Künstlerin Mycelia; Jonas Peter, Volontär, Platform
==>Artist conversation with Laura Feldberga on the different notions of solidarity, togetherness and connection
==>Artist conversation with Penelope Richardson a conversation about how much your environment shapes your ability to succeed and how much the concept of "exoticism" and othering changed the way we can shape this environmentThis year was difficult for the cultural industry and I was particularly grateful that I was able to host two #MuseumHours over at twitter, one on Success as museum worker and one on Failure as a museum worker
I developed the format Artmuc talks [German] for the artfair where I had some candid conversations about the impact of Corona on culture and systemic changes we need in this industry if we want to create a sustainable labor model. If you want a recommendation about where to start, I loved the conversation with artist Maria Braune [German].
At the end of this year I was appointed as a new member of the Kunstkommission Kreuzlingen. The Kunstkommission advises the city and regional government on new artistic commissions as well as art acquisitions and has a budget of its own for the implementation of new projects.
As I was writing this list I noticed more and more that there were actually quite a few more good things that happened like all the catalogue texts I got to write, people I got to meet etc. but I also wanted to hold space to honor the fact that many of my projects were cancelled or indefinitely postponed, I haven't hugged many friends and my close family since the beginning of the pandemic, several weddings of relatives and friends had to be cancelled, babies were born I still haven't met, I live currently in a country (Switzerland) whose administration did a really poor job in providing guidelines and support during the pandemic... Success and failure were redefined this year.
Keeper Recipes of the Pandemic:
Tarta de Santiago (Spanish almond cake from the region my family is from)
Reading
This is such a wonderful year-end list with 100 lessons for the year to come with a focus on design and life like:
Data visualization can tell powerful stories.
Gamification is ruining the world.
The truth is paywalled but the lies are free.
Accessibility is not a step in your project. Accessibility is a mindset; it should be embedded in everything you do.
Normalize talking about mental health.
As most of you know, if you've been around for a while, I do keep paper notebooks as one of my most treasured tool. I work a lot online in front of screens but there is a certain transformational power in putting pen to paper, it helps to get ideas going. I call these notebooks candidly my idea banks. I love writer Austin Kleon's way to work with his notebooks.
12 Career Lessons
I participated in the interesting conference on Gender Equality in European Culture. As part of the conference they put up an incredible resource list of European-wide best-practice examples, as well as initiatives and women’s networks which advocate for topics of gender, access and visibility. Have a look here>
Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Personal Collection Heads to Auction
What were some of your lessons this year? What are you taking with you into the next year? Drop me a line by replying to this letter or get in touch directly via anabelroro@gmail.com. You can also find me on Twitter or Instagram.
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May we be able to find support and be of service during these times.
I wish you many things to look forward in the new year, and I hope you're able to hold space for the lessons and adjustments this year demanded.
Yours,
Anabel