A touch of the Dutch
Alastair Upton, Chief Executive at the Bluecoat.How does ‘the vide’ sound? Better I think than ‘the void’ which is how it translates from Dutch.
The signs for the building are being commissioned and before this can be done we need to name all the parts of the building. We had a meeting this week and it wasn’t quite as fun as playing ‘name our band’ when I was 15 but it was that sort of idea except with a bit more responsibility and so less flair and less laughs; gallery 1, gallery 2 etc was a low point. Of course the names we choose will be a sign of our times so not too pompous, nor enigmatic so foyer is too old fashioned but what is a hub?
Anyway Hans, our Dutch architect, calls the tall empty space in the new wing between the lift and the stairs ‘the vide’ and we are going with this. I know it’s pompous but a touch of the Dutch seems right as he designed the building and it will always remind me of Hans saying ‘You are an art centre so you are allowed to be elitist’ when we argued about having a Latin inscription on the outside. This shows again the difference in culture if not language were in Holland it is still ok to be an elite organisation striving for the best but here arts organisations are rightly being recast in more democratic terms but struggling to explain the same search for excellence.
So now we are trying out the names to see if they work. Jayne Casey was round a few hours afterwards to see the building and wasn’t sure what a hub did and didn’t like ‘the vide’ so that was not a good start.
The next day Jayne gave a presentation on ideas to date for the opening of ’08 to the City’s largest arts organisations. There was a fantastic show reel and then drawings of ideas for Liverpool. Any more and they would kill me but I will say when the date is announced clear your diary and buy your tickets.
Tenant recruitment is in full swing with Lynne taking group after group round the building to look at spaces they might take. Good reviews so far:
“Without sounding overly dramatic…I actually skipped up the street after seeing the lovely work that is taking place over there”.
Alastair Upton, Chief Executive at the Bluecoat.
On the naming of rooms
wow!!
tenant, exciting... very exciting! The opening can’t come soon enough for me,
Fingers crossed i will be part of it.
vide
Knowledge is only elitist in a system where only some people are allowed access to it because of who are what they are. There's a lot of it about but sharing knowledge is its very opposite.
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