Here we’re going to try to give you a better idea where Marion’s Ledge is coming from and what it is, as well as provide a chronicle of where we are in our efforts and what we’re currently trying to do. We would appreciate your comments and input and we hope you’ll stay tuned... now, on with the story:
Marion’s Ledge is a vision that began with Hank Hauffe in September of ‘03 when he resigned from the MFAH (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston) and took time (and a trip to Europe) to make what was indeed a successful “vision quest”, that is, a search for a better reason to get up in the morning than what he’d had so far. More recently Hailey Hinson fell in love with the concept and in the summer of ‘06 made it her mission to get this project off the dime... and thanks to her it’s finally gotten out of my notebook and massaged into forms like Mission Statements and Articles of Incorporation in an effort to make it in to a reality.
We thought our first task would be for me to somehow get my mish-mash of notes into a coherent Mission Statement so that I could at least tell someone what Marion’s Ledge is about without stammering or taking the whole afternoon. We are currently on our second re-write (that is, it was composed, we thought fairly well, and now been pretty completely rewritten once and then tweeked a fair bit more) and we are perhaps about 94.6% happy with it.
With the Mission we also did Articles and whatnot (Hailey’s been working on this) in an effort to lay the groundwork to begin recruiting a Board and then the quick and efficient job of fund-raising (Right! :o ).
Well, after talking to a few people, I’m not sure how good I’m going to be at asking someone to be on a Board and go out and get us $4 million dollars. I certainly don’t want to try to cajole someone into it.
I realize that no one has to do it on their own of course, but even asking someone to seriously join in such an effort is asking a lot.
What I really want is to present the vision so clearly and persuasively that he or she believes it
SHould exist and they
WAnt to participate and help as they can. Whether that can really happen or not, we decided that rather than trying to form a Board first off, we would focus on efforts to draw the vision as fully and vividly as we possibly can. This is a critical task anyway that will hopefully be a resource and pay dividends in many ways we don’t even foresee.
We have a number of ideas in process to fulfill this goal:
- • first is the Mission Statement and the accompaning Questions (the Mission Pages) that we hope will express, clarify and elaborate on our vision ~
- • a micro story or narrative “visit” to the future Marion’s Ledge ~
Hailey did an amazing version of this that you’ll find elsewhere on this site and we hope to expand the characters some in the future to give a pair of people together - one who’s been there before and knows something about what it’s about, and the other new to Marion’s Ledge so experiencing a fresh discovery.
- • Activity vignettes ~
This is just little 2 to 3 line “moments” in Marion’s Ledge. Almost a Marion’s Ledge haiku. Just glimpses into what it might be like.
- • logo ~
I’m looking for someone who can draw & is willing to help me get my idea on paper so we can see if it has some potential.
- • Image of Engagement ~
This would take a bit to explain but it’s kind of a mural and Hailey has been working some on this. It could be GReat! I'm sure it could have a variety of valuable uses including our web masthead and perhaps even using as the basis for a billboard.
- • A drawing or “artist’s conception” of what the interior of the place will look like ~
Looking for someone with architectural drawing skills to help with this.
- • the downtown approach ~
We have some pictures that we need to format to help someone appreciate the location we have in mind.
- • this website ~
Needs a lot of work but at least it’s UP.
- • a Keynote presentation ~
This may have it’s roots in the website but it really needs to be done so we have it for people when we get around to meetings. - • A commercial as if the place already exists ~
Don’t have a clear concept for this yet but it seems like a fun idea with a proven format for getting across an idea briefly.
We’re always reviewing details and names and wording etc. and just in the last few days we’ve been reconsidering some names and tweeking the Mission yet a bit more. We had the large space referred to as the “Workspace/Venue” and we just decided to change that to the “Production Space” since that seems to more concisely encompass both producing/working and where a production might be presented. I’d long thought about that & the only thing holding me back is that there is a portion of the Community House where Saturday Morning Cartoons might happen, or meetings might be staged, or music played, or talks/presentations given... whatever so long as it’s not too big and you want a more exposed and involved “Living Room” setting than what that larger space provides, and we’ve been calling that the "Production Space". Now I need to come up with a new name for that area and so far I’m dry, but it’ll happen (maybe “Happening Space”?... like something Happens there, or "Little Production Space (the LPS)? ... ... ... you know, “happen” is a funny word).
That’s it for now. Thanks for checking on us & if you have any thoughts we’d love to hear from you.
-hank:)
