A response from Montserrat's president came today:
We all feel very badly about how the interviews came out. Joanne was acknowledged many times. I began my responses talking about the central role that Joanne played in the conference. Unfortunately, WGBH chose not to use most of what was taped including all the references to Joanne and her leadership. In retrospect, given how many times the taping was rescheduled, we should have probably just scrapped the whole thing. In truth, we wanted to shine a light on the fantastic conference and the community that has developed around the art. Its a stark lesson and I assure you will not be repeated.
What can the College do to make this right? If the WGBH reporting by Jared Bowen was clueless, as all evidence suggests (yes, I wrote to him, too!), the situation demands that Montserrat distance itself from the story. It has created messy PR fallout for them and has virtually destroyed a productive working relationship between Joanne and the College. The College should immediately delete the website link to WGBH and correct the news story with its own informative truthful article or video about the encaustic resurgence. By offering a corrected record, the College will no longer be taking credit for Joanne Mattera's work.
I have a hard time accepting the notion that we "blew it" when we did not have editorial control. If there was any mistake it was to have gone ahead in the absence of Joanne, a decision for which I take full responsibility and deeply regret.-Steve
Stephen D. Immerman, President
Montserrat College of Art
Furthermore, for Montserrat to have attempted to give factual news interviews about encaustic or the conference in Joanne's absence was sheer hubris. This is where an apology is in order. ("Deeply regret" and "I apologize, Joanne" are not synonymous.) By all accounts, this was a fence that should never have been broken. Dr. Immerman, you need to write to Joanne SOON. Or, better still, pick up the phone!
There are more comments and more pieces to the puzzle. You can follow the thread on Nancy Natale's blog: http://artinthestudio.blogspot.com/2010/08/wheres-joanne-person-who-is-encaustic.html
Shelley,
ReplyDeleteI want to thank you publicly for your support. After having worked so hard on the conference, it means everything to have you and others make a public stand in support of my efforts and against the injustice of an institution that appears to take credit for my hard work.
I have posted a Marketing Mondays piece on my blog today. It was inspired by my story, but I think I've covered the bases pretty well in terms of the ways that artists can be taken advantage of, intentionally or not. Here's the link: http://joannemattera.blogspot.com/2010/08/marketing-mondays-standing-up-for.html