Jennifer Kelly

Feb 01 2021

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Sally Berger

Curating a lifetime of art

For as long as Sally Berger can remember she has always had an eye for art.

As a young woman growing up in New York City in the 1980s she loved going to art house cinemas, visiting galleries in Soho and seeing works in the downtown theater scene.

Keen to pursue her passion, in 1982 she decided to apply to Fordham University at the Lincoln Center campus to study video art, media theory and documentary. While at Fordham she was introduced to Barbara London, who was head of the video program at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMa), a relationship that would propel her career for the next three decades.

In her final year at college she got an opportunity to work with the video program within the department of film at The Modern Museum of Art, where she helped maintain the video study center book and video collection and artist files.

During this time she also became the executive director for the Flaherty Seminar, a media arts organization that brings together diverse, curious minds to foster an in-depth discourse on film and the creative process.

After spending eight years with the video program at the museum, in 1994 she became an assistant curator, where she helped organize and mount over 25 media and film exhibitions. Around the same time, she also decided to continue her education and completed a Masters of Art in cinema studies at New York University.

With two degrees in hand and more than a decade of experience with The Modern Museum of Art, her role and responsibilities continued to grow. By 1998, she initiated an annual exhibition collaboration with the Flaherty Seminars and by 2001 helped co-found the Documentary Fortnight.

After spending 30 years with the museum, in 2016 she was unexpectedly fired by the museum’s chief film department curator. While the reasons why she was fired remain unclear, several media outlets reported at the time that it was likely because of her decision to cancel the New York debut of Under the Sun, a controversial North Korean documentary film directed by Russian filmmaker Vitayl Mansky.

Whatever the case, in 2016 Berger became a research fellow for the Centre for Culture, Media and History at New York University and in January 2018 she became an assistant professor at Harvard College.

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Jan 25 2021

“Creativity takes courage.” – Henri Matisse

“Pushing the boundaries of creativity“

Whether you’re a struggling writer, a starving musician or an aspiring artist, getting recognized for the work you produce is difficult even at the best of times.

For others, like French painter Henri Matisse, his work was not only recognized for its visual appeal, but he is commonly regarded as one of the artists who helped revolutionize and define visual arts throughout the opening decades of the twentieth century.

Known for his expressive use of colour and drawing, which can be seen in his work spanning nearly five decades, he is widely recognized as a leading figure in modern art alongside other famous artists like Pablo Picasso.

Born in 1869 in northern France, Matisse grew up in a middle-class family before going to law school in Paris. Two years into law school his studies were sidelined when he was diagnosed with appendicitis. While he was recovering, his mother bought him art supplies to help him pass the time, a decision that would change the course of his life forever.

While recovering from appendicitis, he soon discovered a burning passion to paint and decided upon his return to Paris that he would study art at the Académie Julian. While he initially painted still lifes and landscapes in a traditional style, in 1896 he was introduced to impressionism and to the work of Vincent van Gogh.

Struck by Van Gogh’s use of vibrant colours, Matisse immediately abandoned his earth-coloured palette for bright colours and later that year exhibited five paintings at Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, two of which were purchased by the state.

With his new-found success, he grew in confidence both as an artist and a man, and over the next two years his colours became lighter in hue while at the same time more intense. Around the same time he also married a young woman from Toulouse named Amélie Parayre. Together they left Paris for a year and visited London where he studied the paintings of J.M.W. Turner before travelling to Corsica, where he received a lasting impression of Mediterranean sunlight and colour.

As his career progressed his fondness for bright and expressive colour became more pronounced and he quickly became one of the leaders of the Fauvism style, which emphasized strong color over the representational or realistic values retained by impressionism.

While the undisciplined nature of Fauvism didn’t last very long and was soon replaced by expressionism and cubism, it didn’t affect Matisse’s career.

His paintings, and soon his sculptures, began making appearances at art exhibits across the world including in New York and London.

By middle age and with growing affluence and an established international reputation, the disruptions of World War I isolated him from the centres of avant-gardism. As a result, he began to spend his winters on the French Riviera, and by the early 1920s he was mostly a resident of Nice.

During this time his pictures became less daring and less economical. Like many of the painters and composers during these years, such as Pablo Picasso and Igor Stravinsky, Matisse relaxed into a modernized sort of classicism.

In the following two decades between the first and second world war, Matisse created costumes for a ballet production, returned to creating sculptures and continued to paint. He also found the time to travel to many far off places, such as Tahiti and San Francisco.

During his final years of his life he led a rather solitary existence after his wife ended their 41-year marriage in 1939 and the Nazi’s invaded France. Despite the occupation, Matisse was still able to exhibit his artwork after signing an oath assuring his “Aryan” status.

By 1941, Matisse’s health took a turn for the worse when he was diagnosed with abdominal cancer. Despite a successful surgery, he suffered serious complications that left him wheel and bedbound.

During this time he continued to pursue his passion for art and developed a new art form called paper mache using glue and scissors until his death in 1954.

Jan 18 2021

“The more we see, the more we are capable of seeing.” – Maria Mitchell

A woman’s pursuit to reach for the stars

For centuries the night sky has captured humanity’s collective curiosity, however, despite its pursuit to understand the universe and what lay beyond our imagination, the field of astronomy has largely the purview of men.

That began to change in the mid 19th century, thanks to Maria Mitchell, an American astronomer, librarian, educator and perhaps most importantly, a trailblazer for women’s rights. Born in 1818, in the small seaside town of Nantucket, Massachusetts, Mitchell was one of 10 children in her family. As a Quaker family, her mother and father strongly valued education and believed that girls were entitled to the same education as boys.

While this attitude was rare at the time, her father made sure Mitchell and all of her siblings were taught about nature and astronomy, while her mother’s employment at two libraries ensured they had more than enough books to support their education. At a young age, Mitchell showed an early interest in astronomy and advanced mathematics. To encourage her to pursue her passion, her father taught her to operate a number of astronomical instruments including chronometers, sextants and simple refracting telescopes. Mitchell also regularly helped her father observe the night sky for local seamen.

After attending an all-girls school until she was 16, Mitchell went on to open her own school, where she developed experimental teaching methods to help her students succeed. During her time at the school she made the decision to allow nonwhite children to attend her school, a move that was extremely controversial at the time because the local public school in her community was still segregated.

Following her career as a school educator and administrator, Mitchell began working as the first librarian of the Nantucket Atheneum in 1836 and held the position for 20 years.The institution’s limited operating hours enabled her to assist her father with a series of astronomical observations and geographical calculations for the U.S. Coast Survey and to continue her own education.

During this time, Mitchell and her father worked in a small observatory constructed on the roof of a bank building with a four-inch equatorial telescope provided by the U.S. government. In addition to looking for nebulae and double stars, the pair produced latitudes and longitudes by calculating the altitudes of stars and the moon.

After years of observations, on October 1, 1847 she made a career-changing discovery when she discovered Comet 1847 VI, which would later be called “Miss Mitchell’s Comet.” She discovered the comet after she began to notice an unknown object flying through the sky in an area where she previously had seen any other activity.

Excited by her potential discovery, but aware of society’s views about women, Mitchell published a notice of her discovery in Silliman’s Journal in January 1848 under her father’s name. The following month, she submitted more details about her calculation of the comet’s orbit and made sure to use her name as the original discoverer.

Fast forward two years later and in 1848, Mitchell was awarded a gold medal prize for her discovery by King Christian VIII of Denmark. Soon after her discovery and award, Mitchell became a celebrity with hundreds of newspaper articles written about her in the subsequent decade.A year later, in 1849, Mitchell accepted a computing position with the U.S. Coast Survey and was appointed professor of astronomy at Vassar College.

During her professorship, Mitchell also edited the astronomical column of Scientific American and became the first woman elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She also joined the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1850 and befriended many of its members, including the director of the Smithsonian Institution, Joseph Henry.

While Mitchell passed away in 1889, her discovery and subsequent work as a female astronomer firmly cemented her place in American history, and helped inspire generations of women to pursue a career in science for centuries to come.

“We especially need imagination in science. It is not all mathematics, nor all logic, but it is somewhat beauty and poetry.”

Jan 11 2021

“Do not wait on a leader…look in the mirror, it’s you.” – Katherine Miracle

The truth about leadership and love

Far too many of us know what it’s like to work in a toxic workplace or have a bad boss, fortunately, it doesn’t have to be that way.

Few people know this better than Katherine Miracle, who has made a career out of motivating leaders to rethink how they can create a positive workplace environment to help their team – and their business – reach its full potential.

Over the past two decades, Miracle has used her life experience to refine her message and, in the process, has become an entrepreneur, author of four books, a university instructor, business coach and a highly sought-after public speaker.

In her first book, Discovering Your Dawn, she shares a personal tragedy that occurred while she attended college. The book unveils the mistakes she made during the tragedy and reflects upon her own suffering in an effort to help others. Published in 2009, it is a highly-relatable narrative that motivates readers to overcome their difficulties in order to help others avoid a personal crisis as she did.

The publication of her first book not only resonated with people but also helped propel Miracle’s public speaking career. Within a few months of publishing it, she quickly found herself visiting college campuses across the United States to talk to students about leadership and love. During her motivational and inspirational seminar, she shared her experience of losing close friends, tumultuous relationships, and how such jarring tales impacted her educational experience.

Following the success of her first book, she decided to use her experience as a marketing and public relations expert to publish three more books to help individuals and businesses reach their full potential. In her second book Marketing That Drives Revenue, its purpose was to help professionals, entrepreneurs, and leaders increase their revenue.

In Miracle’s third book, Your Strategic Personal Brand… The Truth and the Lies book gave readers the tools to use their own strategic personal branding to find their passion and purpose. With the help of this book, she built a national training program called Brand + Team = Revenue, which has helped over 100,000 professionals build their brand, team, and revenue.

In her fourth book Inquisitive Culture, which was published in 2020, she dives into the secret weapon to not only survive but to change a toxic workplace into a culture of success and respect.

Beyond putting pen to paper, she is also the founder and CEO of Miracle Resources, which is a full-service marketing, public relations and training firm. Her company has helped increase revenue for more than 1,000 brands and provides training and success coaching for businesses and non-profit organizations.

In fact, her company has helped raise over $30 million for 10 non-profits and secured $4 million in free publicity for corporations and nonprofits.

Miracle’s work as an entrepreneur has been honoured as a distinguished marketing executive by Sales & Marketing Executive International and she has also won the Elite Women Award from International Business Women.

When she isn’t busy helping businesses and individuals succeed, Miracle teaches communication at Kent State University and the University of Akron.

“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”

Jan 04 2021

“Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better.” – Jim Rohn

From rags to riches and the pursuit of the American dream

Born in 1930 and raised on a farm in the mid-western state of Idaho, Emanuel James Rohn, also known as Jim, understood from an early age the value of hard work.

Blessed with a strong work ethic, Rohn excelled in school as a young boy graduating third in his class out of 140 students, however, despite his early academic success, college proved to be more challenging, and he dropped out after only a year-and-a-half.

With only a high school diploma in hand, Rohn struggled as a young man to make ends meet, before eventually landing a job as a stock clerk with Sears where he managed to earn $57 a week.

While the job offered a steady income, he quickly realized that his weekly paycheck wouldn’t be enough if he wanted to pursue his goals and ambitions.

As luck would have it, Rohn was invited by a friend to attend a lecture by John Earl Shroff, who was the vice-president of a nutritional supplement company called AbudaVita.

Unsure what to expect, Rohn was struck by Shroff’s wealth, business accomplishments and his charisma, however it was Shroff’s philosophical outlook on life and a personal challenge to the audience to become millionaires that left a lasting impression.

Leaving the lecture inspired and determined to make the most of his life, Rohn vowed to follow Shroff’s philosophy and set off on a journey of personal development that would ultimately transform his life.

In the following weeks, Rohn quit his job with Sears and joined Shroff with AbudaVita in 1955. Two years later Rohn resigned and joined Nutri-Bio, another direct selling company where Shoaff started to mentor him. Following his mentorship, Rohn built one of the largest organizations in the company and by 1960 when Nutri-Bio expanded into Canada, Shoaff and the other owners selected Rohn, who was only 30 years old at the time, to be the vice president for the organization.

By 1961 Rohn had done the impossible, and in six short years had become a millionaire, which he credited in large part to his mentor Shroff, who helped him realize his own potential through personal development.

Despite his success as a young man, Nutri-Bio soon went out of business and Rohn was once again unsure about his future. As fate would have it, a friend invited him one day to share his “rag-to-riches” story to a local Rotary Club.

His talk went so well that he was soon asked to speak at other events and luncheons and by 1963 he held his first public seminar at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Following this pivotal event, he began holding seminars across the United States sharing his story and his life philosophy.

During these events he became known for his rag-to-riches story and emphasized the power of self-improvement to get ahead in life. He also stressed the importance of investing in yourself to reap the maximum benefits in life.

For the next four decades he continued to share his story and host seminars and personal development workshops to inspire people to reach their full potential and even helped mentor Tony Robbins in the 1970s, who would eventually become one of the most well-known and sought-after inspirational speakers in the world.

Throughout his career Rohn published 17 books and was the recipient of the 1985 National Speakers Association CAPE Award for excellence in speaking. Rohn passed away on December 5, 2009.

Other Jim Rohn Quotes:

“I used to say, ‘I sure hope things will change.’ Then I learned that the only way things are going to change for me is when I change.”

“One of the best places to start to turn your life around is by doing whatever appears on your mental ‘I should’ list.”

“Human beings have the remarkable ability to turn nothing into something. They can turn weeds into gardens and pennies into fortunes.”

“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”