Nato Thompson, Class of 1990

CURRENT LOCATION:

North Adams, Massachusetts

FAMILY LIFE:

Not married.

EDUCATION:

OK. Just thought I would send some words to my old high school. I recently visited the astoundingly oppressive Santa Clarita Valley where strip malls are apparently still in fashion and progress apparently decided through number of culs-de-sac. It made me fairly nostalgic and I thought I would update this web page on my thoroughly strange life. You might remember me because not only was I the student body president, but more importantly, I was the student body president who was kicked out for selling acid. To be quite honest, to this day I am convinced it was a dopey plan by the petty faculty at Saugus to get the trouble-maker out of office. I never really enjoyed the antics of that ridiculous faculty and still to this day think that high school is purely a holding tank for kids so parents can slave away at work. My fond memories of high school derive principally from skipping class and getting drunk up at the water pipe.

Once I graduated, I wanted to get the hell out of SCV. I spent a year working on crappy B-movies with my dad, and then fled to the Bay area. I went to junior college for two years and then went to UC Berkeley. I loved it there so much that I actually attempted to never leave. I stayed at UCB for four more years. In that period, I joined various Marxist political groups and eventually joined more desirously beautiful anarchist folks. After that period, some pals and I opened up a political art social space, where we had art shows and political organizing events. I enjoyed it for a while, but began to suffer from the agony of bad pay. I decided to go to graduate school at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Arts Administration. I thought I would actually open an art space after that but quickly got into writing for art magazines and curating art exhibitions. That actually turned out very well. Maybe my days at organizing punk bands at Saugus helped. (although bear in mind that one time in the hazy days of 1990, the principal, Mr. Von Buelow, brought me in his office and demanded to know why the lead singer of Guillotine had been gesticulating toward his penis while he was singing during lunch in the quad? That is also when we had our first school sponsored slam dance. Is that too funny? God, why didn't I get that conversation on tape!)

EMPLOYMENT:

After graduating, I got a job at a contemporary art museum in Massachusetts as Assistant Curator. I have since put together two big-ass shows with the last one being a survey of political art of the 1990s. The show had a book I put together published by MIT Press. I am now Associate Curator here and I love it. I still do a lot of political work (not so long ago I was arrested by MTV for trying to liberate the actors of the real world from their unreality).
Visit Mass MoCA.org

FINAL NOTE:

Saugus High School is simply lame. I believe in public education but not quite convinced that the point of me being at Saugus was in fact education. I really learned a lot, but more on a sociological basis. That is to say, I learned how absolutely crazy institutions can be and how they flagrantly instill the racist, classist values that I can't stand in the world. Let me guess, Saugus High School is still racist and still alienates its Hispanic population, still puts them in slow kid classes and still supports racist 'gang' rules like no sports clothing. Let me guess, many of the teachers (particularly those involved with student government, sports, and administration) have an almost clinical fascination with bad '80s John Hughes high school films and strangely adore the popular crowd more than any one else does. Let me guess: the honors classes still consist of kids that have known each other since grade school and share more in economic income than any rudimentary cognitive acceleration. Oh, I could go on and on, but high school really was a joke. I think we all know that, but I can't be sure of that either.

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Last Updated: October, 2004

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