Case Study: Assigning Art and Ash Briggs
ADDITIONAL CASES
I CASE 11.2
ASSIGNING ART
It had been a dream come true for Ash Briggs, a struggling artist living in the San Francisco Bay Area. He had made a trip to the corner grocery store late one Friday afternoon to buy some milk, and on impulse, he had also purchased a
California lottery ticket. One week later, he was a millionaire.
Ash did not want to squander his winnings on materialistic, trivial items. Instead he wanted to use his money to support his true passion: art. Ash knew all too well the difficulties of gaining recognition as an artist in this postindustrial, technological society where artistic appreciation is rare and financial support even rarer. He therefore decided to use the money to fund an exhibit of up-and-coming modern artists at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Ash approached the museum directors with his idea, and the directors became excited immediately after he informed them that he would fund the entire exhibit in addition to donating $1 million to the museum. Celeste McKenzie, a museum director, was assigned to work with Ash in planning the exhibit. The exhibit was slated to open one year from the time
Ash met with the directors, and the exhibit pieces would remain on display for two months.
Ash began the project by combing the modern art community for potential artists and pieces. He presented the following list of artists, their pieces, and the price of displaying each piece1 to Celeste.
Artist
Piece
Description of Piece
Colin Zweibell
“Perfection”
A wire mesh sculpture of the human body
$300,000
“Burden”
A wire mesh sculpture of a mule
$250,000
“The Great Equalizer”
A wire mesh sculpture of a gun
$125,000
“Chaos Reigns”
A series of computer-generated drawings
$400,000
“Who Has Control?”
A computer-generated drawing intermeshed with lines of computer code
$500,000
“Domestication”
A pen-and-ink drawing of a house
$400,000
I CASE 11.2
ASSIGNING ART
It had been a dream come true for Ash Briggs, a struggling artist living in the San Francisco Bay Area. He had made a trip to the corner grocery store late one Friday afternoon to buy some milk, and on impulse, he had also purchased a
California lottery ticket. One week later, he was a millionaire.
Ash did not want to squander his winnings on materialistic, trivial items. Instead he wanted to use his money to support his true passion: art. Ash knew all too well the difficulties of gaining recognition as an artist in this postindustrial, technological society where artistic appreciation is rare and financial support even rarer. He therefore decided to use the money to fund an exhibit of up-and-coming modern artists at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Ash approached the museum directors with his idea, and the directors became excited immediately after he informed them that he would fund the entire exhibit in addition to donating $1 million to the museum. Celeste McKenzie, a museum director, was assigned to work with Ash in planning the exhibit. The exhibit was slated to open one year from the time
Ash met with the directors, and the exhibit pieces would remain on display for two months.
Ash began the project by combing the modern art community for potential artists and pieces. He presented the following list of artists, their pieces, and the price of displaying each piece1 to Celeste.
Artist
Piece
Description of Piece
Colin Zweibell
“Perfection”
A wire mesh sculpture of the human body
$300,000
“Burden”
A wire mesh sculpture of a mule
$250,000
“The Great Equalizer”
A wire mesh sculpture of a gun
$125,000
“Chaos Reigns”
A series of computer-generated drawings
$400,000
“Who Has Control?”
A computer-generated drawing intermeshed with lines of computer code
$500,000
“Domestication”
A pen-and-ink drawing of a house
$400,000