Professional development.
As a person active in the world of visual art, you are often called upon to greet other art world acquaintances from New York City or Europe. This is usually really lovely, but there is often one minor difficulty: many times, they will want to kiss you on the cheeks.
Now, look: I like kissing people on the cheeks. I like kissing people, period. I am a supporter of kissing in all of its many forms, and let it never be said otherwise. But the fact is, greeting people by kissing them on each cheek involves specific maneuvering techniques that one refines over the course of years. Art people from New York and Europe have much more practice in this because they kiss each other on the cheek several times a day. As for myself, I am only in a situation a few times a year that calls for me to greet someone by kissing them on the cheeks. The will is there; the technique is lacking.
For example, I was at the Minneapolis Institute of Art the other day with an artist friend, a very smart, sophisticated native Minnesotan that studied in New York, and a curator he knew walked by. They greeted with the traditional hug and kissing on the cheek. And he admitted to me afterwards that he still feels totally awkward doing this. Not awkward about the kissing, but awkward about the stilted quality of his technique. And I realized, wow, I am not the only one.
It was then we hit upon the idea of offering a workshop for Midwestern art people on how to best kiss people from New York or Europe on the cheek when you meet them. It would cover need-to-know areas such as the best angle of approach, the precise amount of time the kiss should last, which cheek to do first, etc. Over the course of a few hours, with a lunch in the middle, attendees would learn valuable techniques to this art form, first with mannequins, then with live subjects. By the time the workshop is over, attendees would be able to confidently greet art acquaintances by kissing them on the cheek as well as any native of the Upper West Side or Dresden.
All that’s left to do is determine a fair price. Maybe $50? Not including lunch?
