What do you think we should do for the Hussein Cultural Center?

That's a question I got from someone shyly saying something or another thru my mobile phone a couple days ago. I asked, "who are you again, and what do you do?" She was calling from a consulting firm who work on organizational restructuring. I asked another question, "who have you done such work for?". The shy answer in my ear, "NGOs". And again, I asked, "do you have experience in working with culture and art spaces?" A barely audible "no". You can imagine my next barrage of words....and the abrupt way in which that call ended, as the wimpering voice turned to fearful, wishing she never clicked dial-a-blunt, as I gruffly said, "well that's the damn problem, isn't it!"

A couple of hours later that day I got an email from the boss of the consulting firm that included:

..... In the process of our engagement we are getting input from the many stakeholders that use/will use/could use/ would like to use/ do not use the center. In short we are engaging the stakeholders. The reasoning is that the center does not have an identity and we are trying to get input so as to reflect on a possible identity from which to start developing the strategic effort that will lead to a restructured center......

My lengthy email resonse was devoid of niceties and got straight to the point:

......In a nutshell, and from my warped corner of the world, the HCC should hire a curator type person to run it. Someone who can program 365 days of space, activities and events into this building. Forget identity. We can never impose cultural or artistic identity on a building. That will come organically and as a result of usage, from the people who work it, use it, hang out in it and form the content that they create and share within it’s walls. In terms of function, it should have some basics:
- a small, useful library with multimedia resources from all around the world
- a comprehensive culture and art library of everything that is art from Jordan (there’s a difference between Jordanian and from Jordan) - this should not become a house of folklore. It should be about live culture – traditional or contemporary.
- free wireless internet access, everywhere
music
- a good, low cost but high standard coffee shop (because F&B is a fact of life and encourages a footprint)
- workshop spaces to lend and/or rent out on short term basis
- an annual (or at least quarterly) calendar of events that includes events, activities, training, workshops, seminars, and simply fun stuff to do, etc
- office space for only a skeleton staff who do hands on work within the function of the program curated – everyone else needs to move out.
- real art on the walls and installations where possible
designated smoking areas – or remove the no smoking signs and just smoke everywhere since no one respects signage
- a regular, comprehensive and widely circulated newsletter in both print and email to share what’s on - outreach
relationships with other cultural/art spaces and schools to collaborate with and engage with their communities – outreach
- a website communicating everything in a timely accurate way - outreach
- clean bathrooms – always
- a couple of screens in the public halls that are constantly displaying artistic works and when relevant are screening what’s going on in the theatre
- a retail store that sells mainly local cultural/art products (every music CD, short/long film, book, photo, pottery, etc) publishers and producers should know that they can sell and benefit from placing their products in this store. If they’re not making things to sell, they will start. This store needs to be run by someone with taste, with the authority to go out and find material. What doesn’t move off the shelf, should never be allowed back in.
- Instead of creatives sitting at Starbucks for 8 hours daily, holding creative meetings and the sort, they should be at the HCC, in the hallways casually or within a space formally. The HCC should be a creative hangout. I know this is dangerous in this city where people are used to idling around uselessly under the pretext that they are ‘artists’, but with the right person managing the HCC and empowered to do so assertively, the right community can and will no doubt be nurtured within those walls.
- Color scheme that is powerful (I know it’s recently been painted, but the choice of colors is wrong – any serious expert will attest to that)
- And all this should extend from the main HCC building to the middle courtyard, outside, space, etc. - having the Music Conservatory there is a good move, but so much more needs to go in and converge.

I also suggested that the firm engage useful 'groups' of people in such a dialog - as I felt the content of the one-on-one with a non-expert interviewer would be lost in translation.

The response I got back included a screen cocophony of "80-20" something or another, which I read over a few times and truly could not understand. So I concluded that nothing was really being said, but the collection of phrases were intended to impress.

So I simply replied:

Since HCC is a public sector space that aims to engage the general public, how transparent is your work process able to be? Are you willing to put up a blog that enables you to communicate intent to the interested/target community and also collect a wider/diverse “racing-through” of input?

Hopefully for your approach, the interviewer has some kind of culture curating background knows the local, regional, international space and understands culture creation and consumption trends, and has enough awareness and asks the right questions; and that the appropriate interviewees are short-listed.

Hopefully you are also willing to not insist on imposing an ‘identity’ on a building and can appreciate that identity is organic and can only evolve thru function, product and usage – and is created over time as a result of what people do. If only it came in a business plan and a sticky slogan – we would’ve gotten it right in many sectors a long time ago. But alas, we still fumble with various iterations of buzz word combos and text book strategies that are void of a pulse.

Never-the-less, one of the most hopeful human constants is our inherent need for inquiry and dialog – because to know is to keep asking....