What is a salon?
Over the course of history, the salon has emerged as one of the most critical spaces for authentic and meaningful conversations. While invented in Italy in the 16th century, the salon flourished most strongly in France in the 17th and 18th centuries and spread to places like Spain, Belgium, Sweden, and even Latin America in the 19th century. The salons were typically governed by women. While often marginalized in the public sphere, the private space allowed women the opportunity to sway their political, social, emotional, and intellectual power. The hostesses opened their homes and were in charge of setting the social rules, choosing the guests, determining the subject matter, and facilitating the discussion. These dialogues brought together men and women from a variety of industries (from arts to business), a wide range of political perspectives, and even guests from different classes of society. It is noted that these discussions played a key role in the Enlightenment (and even revolutions) driving much of the political, literary, and artistic thought during that time. The most notable 20th century salon hostess was Gertrude Stein who opened her home to fuel the creativity of artists and literary masters such as Picasso, Matisse, and Hemingway.
The art of the salon has somewhat waned in the 21st century. Our gatherings have become dominated by technological communication, think tanks, large cocktail parties, and “expert” speaker series. While these forums are critical to our learning they can keep us siloed into discussions that make us comfortable; exposing us to speakers we already agree with and audiences that share our beliefs. In addition, the gatherings are often so large they allow us to maintain a superficial distance. It is time to reinvigorate the salon. Welcome to the movement…