It is a pleasant experience to have a team of people come together once a year and perform together like they had been practicing all year. The Art Support team members for 2011 arrived ready to jump in and get to work. This team has proven over the past couple of years to be a strong influence in the ARTery setup process, setting the stage at the event site for all the other Art Department personnel to arrive with the basic structures and resources ready to go.
We found that there cannot be too much planning for the parts of the infrastructure that many people share involvement with. These would include the the ARTery containers, and overall team structures. Each year brings a new set of issues to be addressed, and not all can be foreseen. In this regard, we found that identifying individuals as the ‘lead’ for particular tasks that would not normally need ‘leadership’ helped to make sure that interdependent concerns were addressed more completely. As each team member has gained more experience, each has come forward with more confidence in handling diverse tasks requiring some form of leadership. The event will keep attracting larger art projects, and the Art Support team will likely need to evolve the ‘task-lead’ concept to keep up and grow.Evolving tasks from year to year, such as the surveying of art locations, pre-placement of art markers, and art resource logistics were challenges again this year. The Art Support team managed their own involvement and applied themselves to the tasks at hand in an efficient manner. Within the challenges, the interdependencies between all the Art departments and other infrastructure departments were clearly visible. Projects and tasks arising out of the growth of the event are beginning to stress the cohesive nature of those interdependencies. The Art Support Services team looks forward to addressing the concerns and arriving on playa next year to go at it again.
Overall, the 2011 event showed us that the art will continue to grow in scope and quantity. As the Art Department evolves, the Art Support team will have multiple possible directions to evolve. As the team members step up to find their own leadership qualities, each will help bring their own perspectives to the scope of the responsibilities that Art Support takes on. Growing and evolving is a large part of playing on this team!Working with the Heavy Equipment team this year was a real pleasure. There are many dedicated folks giving their all to getting their jobs done. We felt honored to assist, and often found ourselves stepping aside to let them do their thing. Many decisions are made on the fly through the Heavy Equipment processes, and these need to be identified and captured by the Art Department more efficiently, then passed along to the Art staff as needed.
Submitted by,
Roger Ripps