1. 2019 Grantmakers in the Arts Conference
  2. Observation #1: Random thoughts, a couple of observations, a few things that seem odd

Observation #1: Random thoughts, a couple of observations, a few things that seem odd

Submitted by Ray Rinaldi on October 13, 2019

I’m an outsider. A journalist. A critic-at-large. A Denverite. Over the course of the 2019 GIA conference, I’ll post a few observations. Here is the first one:

1. You show up.

I go to a lot of conferences. Not as a participant but as an observer and this is what I see: Reluctance. Folks are more interested in where they’re going for dinner than in the program; they straggle into sessions late, take a coffee break every 20 minutes.

But, here you all were at the Sheraton Hotel conference room on day one, at 8:59 a.m., ready for the 9 a.m. session to start. All of you were already in the room, no one was checking their phones and everyone plunged directly into the difficult part of the conversation. Right off, the talk is about things like white supremacy and equity, and breaking all that down. It’s just one minute, in a four-day meet, but it’s real data. And it sets the pace.