Friday, September 7, 2012

Narrow classrooms and existential/disappearing art galleries

The B112 Art Gallery that is no more
     Today at IVC, after my morning Phil 1 class, I decided to head home, but then I thought, hey, why not visit the Art Gallery in Building B100? (B112)

     SOME BACKGROUND. Recently, the Mold Monster was found lurking under that shitty temporary building that houses the bookstore in the parking lot. Apparently, if you find a Mold Monster under your building, you’ve just gotta move out and there’s no two ways about it.
     The discovery, occurring I guess right at the start of the Fall semester, inspired administration to kick a bunch of ESL courses out of their B100 rooms (they were relocated to those shitty old CEC temps) to give the bookstore a safe new home. Moving the bookstore into B100 was already in the Master Plan, but this alleged emergency moved things up a few years. (Who knows why things really happen at IVC. Nobody ever explains anything.)

     THE ART GALLERY AS VULNERABLE. Now, right from the start, some of our readers have grumpily speculated that the Art Gallery (B112), which has long been located just to the right of the B100 entrance, would also be a casualty of this latest and dubious round of facilities musical chairs. In fact, I was told by somebody who ought to know that, yep, the Art Gallery would be affected by this Mold Monster thing; it would be moved to SSC the PAC foyer.
     So, like I said, I headed over to B100 to visit the Art Gallery. I passed by that snazzy rusty humanoid sculpture out in the grass just outside the building and then headed straight to the room.
     Something didn’t seem right. I couldn’t tell what. I grabbed the door handle and, to my surprise, the door opened.

* * *
     WHAT!? NO ART GALLERY!? RG always refers to the “existential” Art Gallery. That’s because it’s virtually never open (it has weird hours, man), and when it IS open, it’s as empty as a barn.
     She’s right. You’d walk in there and there’d be a little gal sitting at the corner desk, alone, in vaguely bizarre echoey silence. There’d be some stuff on the walls I guess.
     Soon, you’d wanna escape to the sun and grass outside.
     So, anyway, I opened the door and, to my surprise, I cast my eyes upon, not an Existential Art Gallery, but a classroom. Huh?
     That’s right. There is no Art Gallery in B112. I’m sure it was there, but it ain’t there now. The room that once housed the gallery is now a classroom, and a weird one, cuz it’s seriously narrow. I kept thinking, how would you teach in here? You’d stand at one end, and the kids at the other end would yell, “we can’t hear you down here.” So you’d walk down to the other end, and then the other kids would yell, “we can’t hear you down here.” So you’d walk back. And so on.

Rust Man guarding the
Art Gallery that Is Not
     PERIPATETIC FACULTY. I walked all the way down that long room and found another door, this one opening to B100’s central hallway. I walked through it.
     Once in the hallway, I ran into a colleague who used to teach her ESL classes in rooms B101 or 102. She didn’t say so, but she obviously wasn’t too happy about the move. (Later, I spoke with RG, and she told me that some of these CEC boxes didn’t even have chairs in ‘em! I think the chairs arrived, like, yesterday.)
     She showed me what’s become of the first three rooms (on the left) as you enter B100. The doors to those rooms were locked, but we could see through the little door windows. The walls are gone, and now there’s just this huge empty room, awaiting shelving and cheap pens and textbooks.
     This big space is perfect for the bookstore, I guess.
     “Wow,” I said. "It's big."
     “I showed up to teach my class here, and they said I couldn’t go in,” she said. She looked right at me.
     I took her outside to show her the room that used to be the Art Gallery. She slowly walked inside and muttered, “How would you teach in here?”
     “I dunno,” I said.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

There was always something weird about that art gallery. But isn't there a show up in it now? Didn't they send us an announcement about it?

Anonymous said...

The issue of the art gallery is linked to other troubles in the art dept and one person who seeks to have control over everything. It's a shame and should be a scandal if anyone cared enough but so many are scared of confronting this person that they just keep quiet. After all, it's not them, not their program. They are unwilling to stand up for others if it puts themselves or their programs at risk. Everyone knows.

Anonymous said...

The gallery was gone before we were told it was gone. It's more complex than you think.

Roy Bauer said...

OK, so what are the facts?

Anonymous said...

A RUBRIC infestation got them.

Anonymous said...

The letters in the rusty man spell out the truth. Look where his arm is pointing.

Anonymous said...

arlene greer is running against bill jay. bill has done nothing to help the art gallery, arlene is a newport beach art commissioner. maybe, if elected, she could get something done

Anonymous said...

2:27 - you're a wackadoodle too!

Tȟašúŋke Witkó said...

Bill Jay carries a loaded .38 strapped in an ankle holster on his right leg. Never knew him not to be armed, especially during board meetings. He's a "closet" NRA member.

Anonymous said...

I don't understand why the bookstore wouldn't just move to the CEC portables and leave the students and the gallery as is. Bet there's mold in them as well.

Anonymous said...

4:37 PM, September 09, 2012

What do you think is most difficult to move?:
A) 30-40 class seats
B) Thousands of books and all the shelves to store those books
C) Thousands of books and all the shelves to store those books moved twice; moved to a temporary location, and then moved again to a more permanent space

Anonymous said...

When did the gallery go away?

Anonymous said...

sat underused for months. it's now going to be in the PAC foyer. BTW, when did we become an art college?

Anonymous said...

ALERT: Students in the A-100 staff lot - nearly every Tuesday and Thursday mid-morning. Always snake the last spot or next to last. A pale gold Solara 5ML6487.

Driver COULD be staff but looks awfully young - as do his passengers, male and female. Stduent types with backpacks.

Anonymous said...

Things change. Deal with it.

Anonymous said...

It's a known fact that some students buy - or otherwise obtain - staff permits.

Anonymous said...

I've seen that gold Solara too in the A-100 lot - and wondered the same thing. Looks like students to me. Think about it - most staff don't carpool.

Anonymous said...

Have campus police check out the parking permit and see if the car is registered to a staff person.

Anonymous said...

Let's just tow the car. Better yet, let's torch it.

Anonymous said...

It's true, most staff do not carpool. I never thought of that.

Anonymous said...

I've seen the kids getting out of the gold car. It could be that they work at the bookstore or in the cafeteria but I agree they look like students and even seem a little nervous to be seen in the lot - though happy to have snagged a space. They have a staff sticker. (I've looked.)

Of course we wouldn't be having this conversation and there wouldn't be such interest in what seems like a petty issue IF there were better management of the number of parking spots needed by staff.

This is nothing new and so easy to address. Imagine the joy if more spots were allocated to faculty and staff. They certainly give out tickets quickly enough - why can't they move on this issue? It doesn't affect the senior admin because their work day starts early - but it affects a sizeable number of faculty and staff who arrive mid-morning and midday.

What do you think? 15 more spots by a-100 and 10 more by B-STIC?

I almost went home one day after driving around for 30 minutes.


Anonymous said...


The problem is quite simply the two staff permits allowed per person. The second permits are many times just given away. Just imagine how many are floating around. We should be sold one permit only and should be able to buy something that hangs from our rear view window. We are then responsible for moving the one permit around. This would essentially end the problem.

Anonymous said...

That is a problem - but so is the continued failure to dedicate enough spots for staff (workers who have to get to work on time - especially int eh classroom) and the failure to police the lots for that kind of behavior.

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...