The Personal

An artist recently approached me to thank us for featuring a photograph of her work in a promotional piece we sent out into the community. We used the picture in an email to promote an event in which the artist was participating – so the gesture was not intended to promote that particular artist. And yet, with the message of thanks, I’m assuming the artist felt gratified by our use of the image to the point of validation of her art work.

This may sound strange, considering her gratitude, but it wasn’t personal.

Flagstaff Cultural Partners is the Arts Council for Flagstaff. We are regularly seeking to build, support and promote the arts in our community. We are here to represent everyone in the arts – from the experienced, world-reknowned artist who happens to live in Flagstaff to the first-time-with-a-paint-brush newbie. And for that matter, we also aim to give equal promotion to non-profit arts organizations, galleries, arts businesses, schools and others in the world of the arts.

Just about everyday, we work to promote the arts. We are sending out promotional materials for the next big upcoming event, whether its here at the Coconino Center for the Arts, or at another location in town. Promotion is a big part of who we are. And so we have to choose compelling images to represent those events – to inspire interest in arts and culture in Flagstaff. It’s a daily – nay, hourly – focus for us.

Choosing an image from a single artist to represent a specific event is much more challenging than it sounds. First of all, we want to choose an image that fits with the media in question, whether it be a printed postcard, brochure, email or webpage. It has to fit in thematically with the color scheme and overall ‘feel’ of the piece in question. We also have to choose something compelling that will catch the eye of our audience and give them reason to read more about the event or promotion. And lastly, we have to consider that we are the Arts Council and here to represent everyone – thereby giving equal consideration to all art work and images that we have to work with.

Most of all, we have to be sure that our mindset is never focused on choosing art or artists that we, personally, like over others. It’s a real trick to pull off, honestly.

You can be certain of this: when we use a photo in a promotion, it’s not about our own personal preference for that artwork – but rather our professional opinion about what will best serve that promotion.

In this blog, you’ll get to hear from each of the five staff members at Flagstaff Cultural Partners, and you’ll get some indication of our personal likes and even dislikes. We all have individual tastes, of course, and art work that we are draw to. We have soft spots for some artists whose work we think is just awesome … and sometimes we have soft spots for artists – and staff of arts agencies – who we just like to hang out with.

But we are always – always – conscious of working our way back out of that mentality in order to be as objective as possible in the way that we represent the arts in Flagstaff. We do this despite the fact that, in my own personal view, objectivity is darn near impossible. Still, it’s what we must strive for day in and day out.