4. Art Expo

External Environment

The economy is diversified, with quickly changing markets. The work environment is organized by projects. People work based on independent contracts and form crossdisciplinary relationships, teaming up for specific projects. Consequently income, activity, and schedules are irratic.

Neighborhood centers grow and diversify including downtown with mix of commercial and residential. Small town and rural locations are popular options for homes and businesses.

New Media has become ubiquitous: small, wireless, inexpensive and commonplace.

People seek cultural experiences in which new connections among people are formed. Meaning is made through progressive cyclical shifting from experiencing form to engaging in discourse. People value new policy. People associate in everchanging and overlapping networks of contacts centered on projects, events, and activities.

Structuring

The building is art, both functional and meaningful The organization of the space is dramatic. The idea of the place is like an exposition center, a circus, or a country church.

The borders are variable and hard between space that is open to the public, and space that is privately used by the organization.

The dominant priority in the design is the minimazation of permanence to serve the maximization of movement choices.

Sustaining

UICA engages with the market through the creation of new knowledge, innovative organizational constructs and new relationships of idea and form.

The NEA selects outstanding organizations and artists doing exemplary work for awards. It no longer gives regular grants in program areas. UICA is nominated often for these awards.

Funding consists mostly of underwriting and collaborations with business. A combined Capital and Endowment campaign was used in fundraising for the building. The Capital portion (1/3 of the total campaign) generated the minimal funds needed to secure the building from the elements and fund the construction of initial minimal organizational spaces. The Endowment (2/3 of the total campaign) guaranteed the survival of the organization, it's mission, and provided a base for the ongoing evolution of the building.

Corporate support is based on inclusion in participating in the community based creation of culture, which generates new knowledge products and methods of presentation.

Revenues from programs and commercial enterprise are not critical to survival of the organization. Program and commercial ventures are managed to offset each other in support of level of activity the organization decides is necessary.

Experiencing

UICA is a lure.

Project initiatives are determined by board and staff. Projects are created by collaborative community teams led by artists, and implemented by both the team and the organization.

Programs are organized in batches of events when UICA is involved in project creation and presentation. Other times the place is publicly inactive. Publicity is treated as an important part of all projects and is, creative, timely and engaging.

Staff is valued for their artistic abilities both intellectual and practical, and the ability to work with diverse people in both ideas and forms.

Volunteer and committee participation is managed depending on the project. People schedules are irratic so they sometimes have large chunks of time to devote to a project. Other times they are totally consumed by work.

Movements

The vitality of the institutional structure depends on the success of endowment campaign because it substantiates the organization through securing the perpetual continuance of movement.

A major signpost to watch out for is the predominance of theory over practice dictated by those in power. Indicators include: 1. the organization loosing touch with the community (no discourse) 2. loss of interest by business in the practical possiblilitie of UICA projects 3. inactivity in working with material, and 4. very infrequent programs.

Within the terrain of the 4 scenarios, this is the easiest location to move to any other location from.

The form of the building embodies commitment to freedom of mobility through material impermanance. The implicit challenge is staying vital without the support of form, and managing toward permanence. The form nullifies ideas and actions that emerge within the contexts of constraint, structure, or necessity.

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