The Regional Arts Champion: Frederick Janka
“I think this time is actually making a lot of people look. Slow down and look. Look at art…”
5 Questions with Frederick Janka
Executive Director, Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation
Ojai, California
Frederick Janka is Executive Director of the Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation, and has over 15 years of experience as an administrator and curator in contemporary art museums and galleries in the United States and Mexico. Frederick received his Bachelor of Arts in Visual and Critical Studies from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago. He is currently a member of the Arts Advisory Committee for the City of Santa Barbara, and the Santa Barbara Advisory Board for KCRW.
Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 2015 by artists, family, and friends to celebrate the legacy of esteemed art patron and private art dealer Carolyn Glasoe Bailey. Currently based in Ojai, California, the organization is committed to supporting the arts and sciences, and educating the public about the importance of continuing support for the arts and sciences. Current initiatives include unrestricted cash grants for artists, funding for education initiatives, as well as The Ojai Institute, a residency program in Ojai, consisting of a series of exhibition projects, education and public programs, and a podcast conversation series.
1. The Foundation provides direct support to artists and is focused on increasing awareness for, and support of, the arts. How do you best accomplish this in our current context?
We do indeed provide direct support to artists and increasing awareness for, and support of, the arts, but we do it in a small focused and intimate way. A donor recently asked me about what makes us truly special and I coalesced around the idea of what is our unique chemistry or alchemy, if you will. It’s the bringing together of one artist with the unique space and place that is Ojai, California, and it’s intensely rich artistic and spiritual history. This is at the heart of what we do, provide a nurturing and responsive experience for an artist. What happens next are the connections, and engagement points, the exhibitions, talks, dinners, parties, performances, and local student engagements.
That said, what we are grappling with is exactly that, how do we still do what we do when we can no longer bring the artist to Ojai, no longer engage away (person to person) to our hearts content? What we have come up with continues to evolve, but for the time being it’s a new website Ojai Institute Online (www.theojaiinstitute.org). The original idea was to launch the site to support our annual spring fundraiser at the end of May, at its most basic form this was to be an e-commerce site. We never ask artists for works to be donated 100%, we always give at least 50% of the proceeds and sometimes more to the artists. We do want to get money into artists hands whenever we can.
After stay at home orders were put in place, it became clear that we could not do our fundraiser as intended. We quickly shifted gears and launched on March 26th, utilizing the site to promote our most recent artist in residence, Cole M James, under the concept of extending her current exhibition online with installation images, individual artworks for sale, and short videos of her speaking about her works.
Since then we have launched a spotlight section to highlight the works of individual artists we have worked with in the past as well as some of our local artist friends of the Ojai Institute. We are now planning to offer the platform to regional non-profits, an arts journal, a regional art center, and a school, to help support their efforts. This is where the awareness part comes in as we seek to reveal the value of the arts in our local community and our everyday lives.
We are also actively looking at how to redesign our storefront space in Ojai to offer in person viewing experiences from the outside looking in. Our first effort is to install the second iteration of a 10-year project with Kelly Akashi that will be visible from the street through the main window of our space until we are able to reopen.
And in a more general sense, my experience has been to keep doing what you’re doing, you just most likely have to rethink how you are doing it. For example, I was struggling with how to translate our in-person fundraising event to a virtual event, and what I arrived at was that the timeframe needed to change to fit the media. So now for us instead of one big in person event three hours in one evening, it’s looking like smaller scattered virtual presentations and gatherings over a month. But we’re still doing the same thing, raising funds for and advocating for artists.
2. We are seeing all programming go virtual, and as a result, the opportunity to communicate value to mass audiences. In your view, how could these “quarantine audiences” best be converted into long-term audiences, members, and supporters?
I am responding to these questions after the excellent zoom conversation you led with Arts Funders Forum, Remake the Model. I think my biggest takeaway was in regards to how these new “virtual” engagement efforts have leveled the playing field amongst all arts institutions. It doesn’t matter how big or small.
Audience conversion in my perspective is always about the quality of engagement, I don’t think this is new to our current conversation. I do not see these quarantine audiences as disappearing after we’re all no longer grounded at home. In fact, I think the greater the quality of engagement at this time will pay off in dividends. What people don’t want is constant broadcasting, and this has been true since the beginning of nonprofits having social media accounts. This may actually be a major boon for all in person engagement. It will take some time but I think we’ve been given a big gift in disguise.
3. Is there an opportunity for increased support of local arts ecosystems?
I don’t think there could be a better time to “act locally and think globally” than now. And I keep seeing more examples day to day of regional foundations, businesses, nonprofits and artists banding together to help each other. We are also thinking this way, how can we leverage our new digital platform to not only give money to artists, but to raise funds to support a regional art journal (Lum Art Zine) for Ventura & Santa Barbara Counties, and other non profits. One of our artists (Manjari Sharma) selected a Mumbai, India based non-profit to support the Yash Charitable Trust. I couldn’t think of a better example of how a small regional fundraising effort can have a global impact in this “digital world”. This is a time of great equalizing, let’s help each other out. And let’s put helping artists at the heart of why we’re doing what we’re doing.
4. This crisis could change the landscape of cultural patronage. In your view, how does it most urgently need to evolve?
When it comes to cultural patronage for arts institutions, I think the most urgent need for evolution is at the board level, and this was true way before the crisis hit. I have just seen it exacerbated. Having worked closely with boards for most of my career, I continue to see the importance of education around the role of what being a board member means. For some it's instinctual but for many, if not most, it is a very confusing role. I see so many of my colleagues who work for and run institutions doing incredible things being constantly thwarted by well meaning (and sometimes not) board members. These colleagues are professionals who have training and experience and know what they are doing and how best to do it. I want to see a pledge amongst institutions to not invite board members until they’ve passed a basic educational program about roles and responsibilities. Maybe now is the time for this?
What this crisis is showing us is that not even the alignment of the most well endowed foundations can solve a systemic financial problem of the arts in our country. At this point, the scale of support needed to right this ship is only possible at the Federal level. There really needs to be a big change in how the arts are supported in this country.
5. How do you think this crisis might change society’s view of the arts as a whole?
After your excellent zoom event, I think what resonated most to me was this idea of revealing the work of artists, arts institutions, and the arts to affect change in society. I personally spend a lot of time talking about intersectionality and institutional prejudice, but what I’ve come to think more about is that, however one talks about it, it's actually critical to point to it and say “look!” And this has much broader applications. I’ve heard from museum educators that the quality of an art viewing experience/impact is often greater when a visitor is prompted to actually “look!” at the art. I think this time is actually making a lot of people look. Slow down and look. Look at art and recreate it with their kids, look at artists in their studios, look at art institutions struggling with virtual programming and keeping their figurative doors open. Again, I am an optimist and see this all as a boon (if in disguise).
Frederick Janka is Executive Director of the Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation, and has over 15 years of experience as an administrator and curator in contemporary art museums and galleries in the United States and Mexico. Frederick received his Bachelor of Arts in Visual and Critical Studies from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago. He is currently a member of the Arts Advisory Committee for the City of Santa Barbara, and the Santa Barbara Advisory Board for KCRW.