https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coronation_of_Napoleon

If you didn't know the story you might think Napoleon was still king or why Jacques Louis David as a propagandist will never be taught in Missouri -
https://www.kcur.org/politics-elections-and-government/2023-02-15/missou...

So much has happened it makes little sense to talk about my aspirations to have a real gallery in a midwestern village that has been defunding art education for 30 years, but of course I will try.

20 years ago I wrote an op/ed about the value of a program for a gallery. That its important to have a sense of quality and keep that as the organizing principle, otherwise its too easy to just let money and other people's questionable taste slide in the door sideways, after consultants or buyers influence a gallery it becomes about favors and cultivating power and not really about art.

Immediately some people didn't like my opinion, the people that didn't have a program and weren't going to get one.
And those people went to work discrediting my work by putting out personal attacks with stupid gossip about things unrelated to art.
It would appear I touched a nerve and promoting the idea of fair competition threatened their position.

If people don't look behind the curtain at who benefits from stupidity then it might be a stretch to understand why art history isn't taught anymore but here I will try to spell it out, it helps make connections to things that aren't obvious, it cultivates curiosity, and a sense of proportion; mostly these are qualities people in power have little use for in the general population. So here art is taught in private school while public schools rot.
This is an unfortunate situation for the civic life of art.

Galleries either have a program or they become a retail outlet that has parties and gives out free beer.
Free beer is a great way to get a lot of people to show up but social retail is not about quality at an art gallery.
Very little of this art activity for entertainment, real estate development, tax breaks, tax avoidance etc has been about art.

Great case in point how people at the top here just keep improvising their own ideas, occasionally the subjects disagree.
https://www.kcur.org/news/2023-02-10/umb-bank-says-in-court-thomas-hart-...

Telephonebooth 20th Annual Winter Invitational will be open March 11th 12-5pm
There might be beer, there might be art.
Artists requesting inclusion should schedule a studio visit.

I hope all is well,
Best,
Tim B.
Telephonebooth
3319 Troost KCMO 64109