Profile of Julia Russotti

Julia is like the “den mother” of the art department at Ghost Ship, with “all her little boy scouts.” Essentially, she’s the woman behind the show. The mother hen that makes sure the art department, with its many artists and projects, has what they need to do what they do. Before the event she’ll talk with artists about what they want to do, help find the materials to do so, and take care of everything so that they can focus on their art.

She started out 5 years ago by helping with art projects for the event. Then she took on the receipts. Then any other helpful tasks she could. Until bit by bit she became the “den mother” she is today, facilitating operations. Providing food for the artists, organizing volunteers, and now the receipts have become taking care of the books (a mathematical job she’s good at, finds fun, and actually pays the bills). Just sitting with her for ten minutes, about 20 different people came up to ask about something.

“Being behind the scenes is my favorite place to be. I do not want anybody looking at me for any amount of time. But, especially something like this, you get the opportunity to see other people experience your work without your own presence. So it’s a genuine experience. You get to see how people genuinely feel about what you’ve put together. It’s great to watch that. And I don’t ever want them to talk to me,” she says with her own very genuine and particular laugh.

As the woman behind the scenes, it’s these systems behind how things work that appeals to her.

“I”m interested in what makes things work and why and what little things we can do to make everyone’s experience more pleasant.”

Administrative work and the book keeping (for this event and outside of it) feeds the geeky side of her, but also lets her make money in a more regular way. So with her understanding of art projects, she’s evolved into a sort of producer. She’s savvy about both finance and operations, and has gotten to the point of starting a business representing artists. She’s the knowledgeable liaison who can professionally communicate with clients to promote and employ artists, who often can’t.

While at Ghost Ship, she also organizes the many volunteers that come and help build the art. An aspect she gets really excited about because of how it incorporates people into the creative process and the artist community. People never involved in something like this could have a new experience, learn a new skill, and come to the event with their friends pointing out the project they contributed to. “Now they can go back to work and have something else to talk about besides traffic.”

The “den mother” is also an actual mother, and has her son Sebastian with her at the warehouse. When she started with Ghost Ship five years ago he was only three, but now he’s an eight year old boy riding his bike all over the warehouse and getting anyone with a free moment to “check out something cool.”

“I get to do what I love to do and he gets to be a part of that. A big part of what my partner and I do is create a life where we can be doing it all the time. He’s always been a part of everything that we do, so it was really natural to include him with this. The space is really big and he’s pretty savvy at being at the shop. He’s trained. He’s a shop kid. And I think having kids around is good. People don’t have them a lot in our group, or people don’t bring them to this environment, but I love it because it brings a level playing field to the experience. People will behave more because there’s a kid around and it helps us keep that child like nature. Plus, he’s got ideas.” 

— Originally published in 2014 on the now defunct 1690Post.com

http://1690post.com/ghost-ship-asylum-art-lead-julia-russotti/