Pottery by Dai on sun 21 jul 02
I personally loathe those signs that say "You break it, you buy it" no
matter how "nicely" it's worded. In fact, I usually spend no time in shops
where I see those signs. I think it's offensive, tacky, and it pees me off!
Yes, unfortunately, it's part of the overhead, as is shoplifting. No
customer deliberately breaks something, and for those real pottery shoppers,
they're going to handle/fondle a pot before they buy----I know I would never
buy a pot I hadn't handled. An unruly child in a pottery shop makes for
nervous staff, but a word to the parent BEFORE an accident happens is
advised----something along the lines of "My, my---I'd hate for you to have
to go home with a broken pot" delivered in a friendly voice and with a
smile. This would clue the unconscious parent into the fact that maybe they
might have to pay for any damage, without the offense of the tacky sign.
Just my opinion.
Dai in Armstrong, BC
nightfire@telus.net
www.potterybydai.com
Take your work seriously---take yourself lightly. Unknown
Earl Brunner on mon 22 jul 02
Last Thursday, we opened our first (if not for ever, at least in living memory)
ceramic student show at the art center. They have all these rule, No photographs.
No touching.
And they are serious. The guard came in and chewed me and a student out who had
picked up her own piece to show me as we discussed it. He then reported it to my
superiors who in turn have been busy e-mailing back and forth for two days now
about it. (sending me carbon copy e-mails on everything)
I gave up trying to explain how potters just had to touch.
I told the students that they couldn't do it because they were setting a bad
example for the non-potters....
Oh, and the gallery director made BIGGER signs- DO NOT TOUCH.
(their perspective is that their contract with the students makes them libel for
breakage so they don't want any)
Whatever.
Cindi Anderson wrote:
> I am afraid that in the world of legalities, the sign has to be posted or it
> cannot be enforced.
>
> I was recently at a huge ceramic show, and almost everyone I ran into was
> afraid to touch anything. A few artists had signs on lids that said "lift
> me", etc. I think everybody needs sign in their booth that say it is ok to
> pick up the pots (unless of course you don't want them to.) Maybe galleries
> need the same signs on functional items. How about?: Please handle the
> pieces, they get lonely! People that do not know pottery don't know that it
> is ok to pick them up. I of course turned them all over to look at the
> finishing on the bottom... Actually I was surprised that some of the work
> in this excellent show was not very finished on the bottom.
>
> Cindi
>
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--
Earl Brunner
http://coyote.accessnv.com/bruec
mailto:bruec@anv.net
Michele Williams on mon 22 jul 02
I'm the parent of two children with behavioral disorders--one of whom is
hyperactive and was on a leash for 3 years as a small child of 3, 4, and 5.
Let me tell you how nervous he made me and store staff. When we came into a
breakable merchandise store, I took the younger child out of the stroller
and fastened theolder one in!
I've seen the damage in progress, because moms with hyper kids have to find
other hyperkids' moms in order to have anyone to talk to who knows what
we're going through, to understand what our kids are doing, and why they
behave as they do. These children are positively dangerous around
breakables.....and some of their parents know it and still take them into
stores with delicate items displayed within each reach and leave the wild
children practically unnoticed. I remember hearing what sounded like
someone having a heart attack pitching into a wall of shelves of glass
items. It wasn't. It was a 6-year-old "explorer" who wondered what would
happen to all the tall vases if he swept his arm across the shelf at the
bottom of the vases--would they go over like bowling pins, or would it be
different? Cost his family $500 that day. They insisted upon paying.
Another day I saw one child pick up a breakable item and throw it to the
floor, then reach for another. His mother looked in every direction, saw me
looking, and said, "Shhh, we have to get out of here right now." Then she
literally crouched/slunk behind the shelves to leave the store. Of course,
that left me and my son in the store and in the area of the breakage, for
which the owner wanted me to pay. Fortunately, there was a security guard
who'd seen the woman's sneaky behavior after the incident.......and he
bailed me out.
But there are signs and there are signs. And I can appreciate a clever,
cute, funny sign. I don't appreciate parents who teach their children no
respect for things that don't belong to them! Their children grow up to
have little respect for many other things.....including themselves. Which
leaves us in the lurch with another crop of kids with parents who sneak away
from their responsibilities.....and for whom such signs are just another
piece of the landscape.
Michele Williams
Cindi Anderson on mon 22 jul 02
I am afraid that in the world of legalities, the sign has to be posted or it
cannot be enforced.
I was recently at a huge ceramic show, and almost everyone I ran into was
afraid to touch anything. A few artists had signs on lids that said "lift
me", etc. I think everybody needs sign in their booth that say it is ok to
pick up the pots (unless of course you don't want them to.) Maybe galleries
need the same signs on functional items. How about?: Please handle the
pieces, they get lonely! People that do not know pottery don't know that it
is ok to pick them up. I of course turned them all over to look at the
finishing on the bottom... Actually I was surprised that some of the work
in this excellent show was not very finished on the bottom.
Cindi
Gavin Stairs on tue 23 jul 02
At 12:57 AM 23/07/2002, Earl Brunner wrote:
... ceramic student show at the art
center. They have all these rule, No photographs. No
touching. ... I gave up trying to explain how potters just had to
touch. I told the students that they couldn't do it because they
were setting a bad example for the non-potters.... Oh, and the gallery
director made BIGGER signs- DO NOT TOUCH.
Hi Earl,
This has to be a cultural clash. A cognitive dissonance between a
culture of preservation (the art centre - I presume a curated, museum
like space) and a culture of creation and sensory exploration (you and
your students, as representatives of the art makers). I
suggest that this has to be approached in a spirit of deference to the
culture of the others. You are in their space, and it doesn't hurt
your students to try to understand those who have created and control the
display and preservation institutions. Curate and curator have
roots in the latin for care. They are caretakers, and they take
that part of their role seriously, as they should.
Gavin
Gavin Stairs
Gavin Stairs Fine Editions
525 Canterbury Road
London, Ontario
Canada N6G 2N5
telephone: (519) 434-8555.
email: stairs@stairs.on.ca
Gavin Stairs Fine Editions is a small, computer press specializing in
book design and fine, hand-made books.
Earl Brunner on wed 24 jul 02
I was in there last night, you practically have to climb over the do not
touch sign to get into the gallery.....
You are right though and that's basically what I have instructed the
teachers to tell their students.
Gavin Stairs wrote:
> At 12:57 AM 23/07/2002, Earl Brunner wrote:
>
>> ... ceramic student show at the art center. They have all these
>> rule, No photographs. No touching. ... I gave up trying to explain
>> how potters just had to touch. I told the students that they
>> couldn't do it because they were setting a bad example for the
>> non-potters.... Oh, and the gallery director made BIGGER signs- DO
>> NOT TOUCH.
>
>
> Hi Earl,
>
> This has to be a cultural clash. A cognitive dissonance between a
> culture of preservation (the art centre - I presume a curated, museum
> like space) and a culture of creation and sensory exploration (you and
> your students, as representatives of the art makers). I suggest that
> this has to be approached in a spirit of deference to the culture of
> the others. You are in their space, and it doesn't hurt your students
> to try to understand those who have created and control the display
> and preservation institutions. Curate and curator have roots in the
> latin for care. They are caretakers, and they take that part of their
> role seriously, as they should.
>
> Gavin
>
>
--
Earl Brunner
http://coyote.accessnv.com/bruec
mailto:bruec@anv.net
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