So what is it that I’m going to focus on today? Well it seems to me that to think about collaboration and working with others that that initial connection has to be made. I am also thinking about power dynamics within collaborative environments. The LCTC worked in part because LTC had resource and there was an expectation of working together as a condition of the grant. So I wonder, would folks have worked with us if we did not have the opportunity control the funds? My feeling is that the collaboration may still have worked. We had begun to meet because we individually needed support in our work and found that working together helped that. We shared similar goals and missions. That idea of negotiation and compromise that Daniel was talking about seems to be a good way to talk about tension and conflict. What do you need to have in place for good negotiation to happen? Daniel and I had started to talk about power dynamics. What else is required? Perhaps literature on dispute and conflict negotiation as well as mediation might help here.
Again ideas of autonomy and control arise. Those with little autonomy and no authority may find themselves in positions that constrain their ability to act. When I think about the 119 Gallery and the issues we have attempted to resolve in trying to make different parts of the mission work, it seems to me that we have spent a lot of time on communication. I know that I often play the role of “mediator” or “negotiator”, but also the tensions that arise are often about conflicts in procedure or systems. These are easily resolved by looking for a common solution. However, there have been times when the priorities for each program feel at odds with the others. Here I am thinking about the art work that was damaged. It took a lot of discussion on this one, with several solutions happening including a change in the performance programming. I know seems as though these two area work much more smoothly together.