THE ART OF BROWNSVILLE - COMMENTS

Frank and I went to a Franklin Covey (Of 7 Habits of Effective People Fame) workshop on Project Management yesterday to fine tune our management skills for implementation of the Brownsville UT ArtsReach program. Thanks to Dean Dempster who funded our enrollment fees! It went very well until the end when they began to promote their own products. It was a bit demoralizing...we paid $150 for someone to conclude that their products are the best tools to organize our lives with. But hey, whoever came up with the idea at Franklin Covey to use project management seminars to push their own own line was pretty clever. But the actual skills taught in the seminar were actually very usual and for the first time, I feel like I have a grasp on "Fronteras Cruzadas" and how we can approach this project!

Anyways, so things are going underway for Fronteras Cruzadas and so far there are 5 schools on board:

Valley Christian, Hanna, St. Joe, Porter, and I think Lopez. (I need to confirm with them.)
We have yet to hear from Rivera and Pace and it's been difficult to track them down. If anything, persistence will be our foremost tool, which will make us either very effective or very annoying. LOL

We may have to change the location from Sunrise Mall to a museum, which totally deviates from the public art facet of this program. Yes, museums are open to the public, but by using the mall, we wanted to reach a public that doens't usually visit a museum or isn't aware of artistic endeavors in Brownsville. We want to avoid the preaching to the choir effect. We also know that this exhibition would reach much more warrant from the Brownsville public at large by showcasing at the Mall, but so far we may have to pay $1000 a week to use in-line space which we have no room in the budget for. Also, there are issues of security (not just for the artwork, but the actual management of the exhibition since Frank and I would have to return to Austin to graduate leaving no one to open and close the exhibtion for two weeks straight), and mounting (like we can't drill holes into the wall). So far, the cons outway the pros logistically. Hopefully we will have the space issue resolved within two weeks.

Spring Break is also coming up but I doubt I will party hardy. Much time will have to be taken advantage of to lobby and make connections with the Brownsville Fronteras Cruzadas stakeholders. So yes, work is coming, which is a good thing because it means the vision is materialzing getting us closer to a product and an end!