Present Joys

“There’s something about this place that’s addictive as hell.”

Those are the words of Danny Hinty, who’s managed CCAD’s Art Supply Store since 1974. A few weeks ago, I sat down with him to conduct an oral history interview—to try and glean some information about our school’s collective story over the past few decades.

I started looking through old CCAD Archives photography largely with a view to using it as part of an advertising campaign, but I’ve found it so compelling I want to do something more permanent with it. That’s what’s brought me to do these oral history interviews—I want verbal memories to accompany the photographs. Lord willing, I’m going to put all this stuff into a big, unwieldy “CCAD family scrapbook”. This fits in with my thesis project’s theme: a nostalgic celebration of the CCAD family.

Besides Mr. Hinty, I’ve also interviewed:

• Lowell Tolstedt, dean of fine arts 1967–2005
• Gail Storer, school librarian since 1980
• Nanette Hayakawa, administrator since 1979
• Frank Laskowski, alumnus and faculty 1967–2012
• Helen Hoffelt, CCAD kid, alumna, and faculty since 1955
• Stewart McKissick, alumnus and faculty since 1975
• Jeff Fisher, Financial VP since 1982

I have plans to do several additional interviews in the next week or so. It’s been a blast. It’s a little like panning for gold, I imagine. A ton of effort goes into coordinating a meeting, not to mention conducting the interview itself. But every conversation turns up at least one real gem. With every conversation, I’m getting a little better at asking the right questions that elicit meaningful, interesting responses. After each interview, I have my contributors fill out a release form that will allow me to use their words and stories as part of my overall campaign.

What’s next?

I’m still working on those sweaters. Remember those? I’ll fill you in on all the details soon. In the meantime, I’ve been working hard to finish transcribing all the interviews I’ve recorded. I’ve also been laying out the “scrapbook” and investigating methods of printing.

Day 87: mon, 24 mar 2014. I’m jealous of Mr. McKissick’s cool old ash tray.

Monday was boring, but tuesday was great: absolutely bursting at the seams with exciting things. I started out the day with a crit in jewelry (I turned in a terrible project), though I left at 9am for a meeting in the MindMarket. I returned to jewelry an hour later to find the crit still dragging on. At 11am, I headed over to the Hills for friendship lunch. After we ate, Dana, Dorian, Don, and I wandered around looking at fine arts thesis shows. It was lovely—all the more so because temperatures were in the 60s! After lunch, we had a nice time in senior ad—somewhat of a return to our class’ pre-One Show levity. I even wrote a nice tweet about my History of 2-d Design teacher, so you can tell I was in a pleasant mood.

Wednesday was low-key. I was late to Motion Graphics because I had a meeting with Mr. Lutz, but nobody really cared. After class, I went home and kept working frantically on my thesis. While I wait for yarn to arrive, I’m focusing my energy on organizing old photos and setting up interview appointments with some “CCAD silverbacks”.

Thursday, I spent most of jewelry writing a plan for the rest of the semester. It didn’t make much sense to start any new, intensive projects with spring break looming so close. Dempsey drove downtown to join me for lunch, which was nice. After that, Senior Ad basically consisted of presentations that seemed to last forever. The weather was cold again and the weight of my unreasonable goals began distressing me. Not a nice way to begin spring break!

I drove back down to school on friday morning for an oral history interview with Danny Hinty, manager of CCAD’s Art Supply Store since 1974. It was a good start to this new phase of my thesis project. More news as all that develops.