Welcome to my website!
Dear Visitors,
Thank you for coming to my new website. I wanted a place to present my life’s work in one place, and this site chronicles my time in the late 1960s Slovenian Art Collective OHO, through Pomegranate Center’s founding, to my current art, writings and installations. Please take the time to look around and explore.
Today also marks an event I have been looking forward to for some months now: my talk at Town Hall, Seattle, titled “The Case for Everyday Democracy”. I will discuss my book of the same title, and introduce practical guidance for turning any meeting, (especially public meetings), into productive, meaningful, and even joyful events that strengthen our everyday democracy.
Below is an excerpt from the book.
Square One: Wide Collaboration
The very word “collaboration” has a shadow meaning: collaborating with the enemy, for example. Submission, weakness, something for those who can’t make it by themselves, therefore un-American. Or perhaps something that is nice to have, but not necessary in the long run.
Our practice has proven the opposite: Collaboration is square one for the future. The complexities of our world require all of us to learn to combine our insights and to consult rather than convince each other.
Broad collaboration reaches across our differences, professions, and sectors: private, public, and not-for-profit. Collaboration is second nature for actors and dancers and jazz musicians. Perhaps we can learn something from them.
Community collaboration is about discovery. It is gutsy work where we must always adjust to the ideas and impulses of others. It requires us to be willing to change, and this takes courage. It is not for those promoting themselves, their organizations, or fixed ideas. Collaboration thrives in the process of gradual discovery in which ideas from multiple sources join to create a solution more potent than any single point of view. When ideas resonate, the result is always "multiple victories", a piece of work that meets any separate goals. Then each participant can say, "I did this".
Please continue to check back in with the site and this blog. We will update it from time to time with videos and articles.
As I step back from Pomegranate Center and watch our CEO, Katya, our staff, Valentina and Catherine, and our board continue this work, I’m allowing my thoughts to turn to wider arenas. I hope this will be a space to share my musings and new artworks with you.
For now, thanks for stopping by.
Milenko