Enjoy art - for less than $1000!

Last week a contemporary art enthusiast visited our class to discuss his new club in Toronto. The mission: To make GOOD Art accessible to ordinary people & give a 'behind the scenes' look into the art scene. For a bargain price of $200, members are invited to exclusive displays, lectures with the artist & visit to the artists' studio. Sounds like a great deal, and I nearly joined. I won't share the name of the individual, nor his club, as the following is a one-sided, somewhat scathing review of his talk.

The lecture was a BIG fail.

He began with a disclaimer - that he was biased toward visual art. Fine. Understood. He then proceeded to systematically insult me in every possible way. From claiming that philanthropists only donate to the art because their profession isn't important, therefore they will only be remembered by having their name written on the side of a building.

To looking down his nose at those of us who "cannot name even 5 contemporary artists" (TRUE) and that we likely don't have worthy art collections "how many of you own a piece of art worth more than $1000?" (NOPE).

To his disdain for Leslieville who voted against a Wal-Mart development in their neighbourhood. "Instead of a beautiful shopping centre, the neighbourhood will be getting car dealerships. It's a real shame."

The point of this rant is to share that you can now enjoy visual art, for the bargain price of FREE! Google has launched Art Project

Granted, you will not be able to visit the artists' studio (most of the artists are dead after all), however, you may ENJOY the works from home, with little scathing remarks from snotty art critics. There is nothing like the real thing (believe me, anytime I travel, I always visit the museums), but if you like art, but not enough to be insulted by your lack of knowledge, this is a great entry point. Well done Google!

Smug MBA Student

I have entered into my final semester of the MBA and have already made a misstep in one of my classes.

In the very fist lecture of 'Competition and Strategy in Creative Industries' I was called out as a 'smug MBA student' by my professor.

Professor: Alright, class, I would like for someone to describe in your own words, what the following sentence means, 'The market under invests in creativity due to externalities associated with ideas'. Megan, what do you think?

Me: Ummm, well, I'm not 100% sure, but I'll take a stab at it. The market isn't investing enough in creativity. Ahhh... Ummm... I would say that, perhaps there is some misunderstanding on the value of ideas in the marketplace.... ummm... ya.

Professor: Ok, I just want to comment on something that Megan just said there. She said that the market misunderstands the value of ideas. Well, it's easy to sit there and be a smug MBA student and say that the market has misunderstood something. The market, which is filled with really smart people...

What I hear: Shame on you Megan. Have you learned nothing in the past 2 years? The market is always right. Always.

What I think to myself: If the market is always right, and the statement is true, then the market is not investing what they should. Therefore the market isn't right. Why aren't they right? Well, something must be missing. If some piece of information is missing, and they are investing based on the available information, isn't that a form of misunderstanding? I'm confused!

What I write in my notes: Never use the word 'misuderstood' ever again.

What I tell my peers: that will teach me for skimming through the reading. I don't think I was being smug, I just think that it was clear that I didn't have a clue what I was saying.