Who Do We Think We Are?

Yesterday was one of the days that I treasure as an administrator. Well, parts of yesterday.

The parts I didn't treasure: the meeting to find out how much we missed our enrollment numbers and the dealing with a student flare-up in class (not my class, but because I'm the department chair, I was pulled in, and rightly so).

In between those book-ends to my day, we had an event that I'd been helping to plan for weeks. There's a show in the gallery at my school. The three artists look at being a mother and being an artist. So, yesterday, we offered a Lunch and Learn hour with the artists, and then we screened the film, Who Does She Think She Is? This film looks at 5 women artists who are also mothers, as well as the larger issue of women in the arts.

I first heard about this film over at Kelli's blog (here and here) way back in June. So imagine my surprise at the serendipity of the universe when I found out that one of the artists in the show has public viewing rights in the state of Florida and wanted to screen the movie here.

It was a fabulous afternoon. We had great conversations both before and after the movie. The movie also was compelling. I just felt thrilled to be part of the team that pulled it all together.

As I walked to the car, I wondered, not for the first time, if there's a job out there where I would just put together cool events and lose the rest of the administrator stuff. I suspect that if that job exists, it would still have some elements that would be less compelling.

In fact, I imagine that events coordinator kind of jobs have been merged with grants writer jobs, and I'd spend a lot of time wondering why I had to spend so much time writing grants. At least at a school, the budget has been set.

I say that, and then I think about the meeting earlier in the day--with dismal numbers, the budget could change. But happily, the kind of events that I put on don't need much budget.

I'm lucky that I can plan these kind of events that feed my soul. I'm lucky that in the space of 8 days, I've gone to 2 art shows that make me want to get back to my easel/construction table. If sitting through meetings about budget numbers is the price for that luck, so be it.