What exactly is a "charrette"?

Also, who are you and what are you doing here?

In 18th-century France, the term “charrette” was used by the École des Beaux-Arts to describe the students’ habit of working right up until their deadlines when a cart—or charrette—was wheeled around to collect their projects for review.

Exposition au Salon de 1787, etching by Pietro Antonio Martini

Now the term is used to describe an intense period of design and problem solving in which people with different specialties define the problem and come to a solution—and that, dear reader, is what this newsletter is all about:

• The arts in all their forms and how they affect us,

• Politics because art does not live in a vacuum,

• History because we can’t see clearly without understanding our past, and

• Public opinion—the good, the bad, and the downright embarrassing.

These are just four tools to help you discern truth from utter malarky. But don’t make the fatal mistake of using any one of them on their own—charrettes only work when the different components work together for a common goal.

As for me, I’ve always had the soul of an artist (but not the patience). I did ballet for over a decade, sang in choirs, did school plays, sewed, painted, read, went to museums, watched weird movies, and drew on walls… much to my parents’ chagrin.

I’m an obsessively deep thinker, and I love drawing connections between the arts, politics, and history. I do social media for a living, so I begrudgingly read over other people’s opinions all day.

I hope you subscribe and join the community.