University of Santa Clara - Redwood Yearbook (Santa Clara, CA)

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The Graham Nash Opening seen a Diane Arbus show at the Boston Museum while Graham was on tour. They liked the gray walls with the photographs so much that we called Boston to find out exactly what paint they used. While all the hanging and painting was going on, I was at my desk writing press releases and making telephone calls. The first step in my publicity work was to design a publicity campaign. Once I decided what information was going to be released and when, I had to determine who it would go to. Making up the publicity mailing list was a frustrating task. It seemed as if there was always someone I had left out. It taught me to be informed and flexible. I was given a lot of freedom to do my own publicity but with this license came the responsibility of handling the press coverage so that it would be suitable for the gallery and Graham Nash as well. I was constantly faced with the problem of promoting Nash as a collector of fine art photography while playing down his public image as a rock star of Crosby, Stills Nash. At times this was a difficult task; I had to refuse a television appearance and a radio interview for Graham, both excellent coverage, to 18

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The Graham Nash Opening In this first of two articles about the show, Virginia Sargent takes us behind the scenes for a look at what it takes to put on a major art exhibit. »( p hotographs hook me by the eyes, said Graham Nash, whose photography collec- tion hung on the walls of de I Saisset Art Gallery this year. I did not realize the full power photography had until I worked with Graham Nash and his collection last summer. I have not only grown to appreciate the creative genius behind photography but I also learned more about myself in the process. My involvement with this exhibition began when I first met Graham in May. He introduced himself and his curator, Graham Howe, to me, noting that ' there are two ' Grahams ' so it will be pCasy for you to remember. As if I would forget! 1 thought to myself. Remembering names was not the problem. Not being an avid reader of Rolling Stone Magazine, Graham only looked vaguely familiar to me, though I have to admit Deja vu was the first album 1 1 ever spent hard earned babysitting money on. This made it easier for me to work with Graham because I rarely thought of him as a rock star. Lydia Modi Vitale, director of de Saisset Art Gallery, first met Graham in February 1978, through two mutual friends: San Francisco art dealer Si Lowinski and photographer, Hella Ham- mid. After the initial contact was made, another meeting was set up for the beginning of April. In the meantime, Lydia had a stroke, leaving her son. Marc Vitale, to carry on the task of negotiating for the exhibition. By June the contract was signed and the Gallery began its preparations for the October opening. I began working a week after school closed. I was given a desk in the back corner of the basement storage area. Surrounded by piles of cardboard cartons and broken frames, always spied upon by smiling plaster figurines, my office ' s only redeeming quality was that I had a telephone--my lifeline to the media world. Given the title of Publicity Coordi- nator it was my job to handle all aspects of publicity: scheduling and writing press releases, designing the press packet, contacting television, radio, newspaper and magazine media people, placing advertisements, compiling a press mail- ing list and hosting a press meeting with Graham Nash. The gallery was headed by acting director. Marc Vitale. Cheryl Raasch Mitchell was Assistant to the Director; James Zingheim, the Preparator, and summer student staff included Tim Beaton, Cathy Bundon, Tom Cosgrove and Theresa Pugh. Marc attended to the administrative and legal details, generating volumes of paper, and as his many letters and memos stacked up, we kept threatening to buy stock in a paper company for him. Cheryl took up where Marc left off. Besides being second in command, she was in charge of researching Nash ' s immense collection, writing the script for the videotape interview with Nash, arranging all the details for the taping as well as conducting the interview herself. She also held the publicity coordinator ' s hand when things got discouraging. James supervised Tom and Tim as they painted all the galleries, repaired exhibi- tion walls and hung lights. Meanwhile, Cathy singlehandedly typed the stacks of Marc ' s memos in addition to the work Cheryl and I gave her and Theresa catalogued the photographic notebooks to the Nash collection. Their persistence was invaluable. Preparation for the exhibition began by getting the gallery itself ready for the photographs. Just after all the galleries had been repainted white, it was decided that they would have to be painted over in gray. Graharrt and his wife, Susan, had 17

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maintain his integrity as a collector. The photographs themselves were at the gallery by mid-July. It was a thrill to see the originals after working with press pictures and catalog cards with postage stamp size reproductions of the photo- graphs. Particularly exciting was being able to handle Sir John Herschel ' s Feathers, circa 1845, one of the first (continued on next page 7 was constantly faced with the problem of promoting Nash as the collector of fine art photography while playing down his public image as rock star ... 19