My professional career was launched when opportunity (Presentation House, North Vancouver) met ambition (me). The North Vancouver Community Arts Council undertook the project of converting North Vancouver’s former City hall into an arts centre, but after completing the museum and gallery part of the complex, they had run out of money when they met me.
By chance, I ran into the director of the gallery, Peggy Martin, who told me about the need for someone to make the theatre part of the project plan a reality. I was sure I could do it, and I somehow convinced them that this inexperienced honours English student could raise the funds and build them a theatre. And I did it. I took me about 15 months. It opened unfinished but it was functional. I planned to finish everything after revenues started coming in, however the completion of the theatre’s interior was very difficult to achieve.
Presentation House was run by an Executive Director named Les Brooks. As the director of the theatre, I was responsible to him, as was Peggy, and we started having difficulties as all the profits of the theatre were siphoned off to underwrite the gallery. So, to save some of the theatre profits for investment in the completion of the theatre, I opened a separate account and I sent a letter of notice about the account and plans to Mr. Brooks and the board.
Les Brooks fired me, but the board fired him and hired me back to co-lead the institution with Peggy. We were both required to develop budgets for our area and to submit them to the board. I was able to stick to mine, but the gallery was not able to generate any revenue at all. We were poorly funded and our community was not behind us. The Arts Council had made promises to community groups that we could not deliver, and we were feeling it in our attendance, donation and in earned revenues. So soon, Peggy was let go and I was given charge of the whole centre.
I felt the solution for ongoing gallery losses was clear: it need a specialty. Consequently, I established a curatorial mandate of photography. I felt photographs were the most accessible artistic medium and that our community, therefore, would embrace it. I also believed having a curatorial focus would give us a clear community of donors and sponsors. The decision proved to be a good one and the gallery thrives to this day. So did the theatre—at least it was able to enjoy the re-investment of some of its earned revenues in its completion.
But the best thing about the change in policy was the benefits it brought to my life. I embarked on a crash course in curatorial philosophy and photography. I worked night and day to develop operational policies and practices with the help of some amazing and generous mentors—one of whom was a woman who became a great friend and guide: Doris O’Neil, Curator of Photography for Time Life.
Doris taught me a lot and she introduced me to people who greatly aided me in the development of our gallery. I will never forget her services or the thrill of going to the Time Life building every morning and feeling like I had won the best lottery in the world to be experiencing such a rich apprenticeship. I came home from New York with confidence, enthusiasm and a rolodex to die for—well to build a career with—and soon I was hosting exhibitions of artists such as Arthur Fellig, Imogen Cunningham, Richard Avendon and Edward Curtis concurrent with shows by local photographs whom I greatly admired.
And as so often happens when you make your passion your job however, some of the thrill gets lost—certainly some of the enthusiasm wanes. Over the years, I stopped going to shows all the time and became far more selective. But them every once in a while, someone comes along who brings back to life all the joy and thrill of discovery that once was so often a part of your life. When I saw the photography of Myoung Ho Lee, I was transfixed by the images even though I was only seeing them on my computer screen. I would LOVE to see them full size somehow, somewhere.
I live in a world rich with trees. Sometimes I hate that they have a separate name than the rest of God’s flora—flowers. Even many “weeds” are beautiful. But trees are the apex of flora’s triangle, and we rarely “see” them for what they are. To fully appreciate them, we often need the help of the wise eyes of artists: Myoung Ho Lee does a masterful job of isolating trees while, in their native and majestic natural site.
Perhaps you will find them as rewarding to see as I have. So learn more about Myoung Ho Lee and see representative images, click on Myoung Ho Lee under “FAVE LINKS” to the right of this post.
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