A young MBA manager shaped the underground festival’s programming and branding

Evidence

Mekas hired John Brockman, a twenty-four-year-old MBA, to manage the program. Indeed, the series was originally called Festival of Expanded Cinema; Brockman changed the title in the ads. He also contributed to the event, contacting Gerd Stern and, through Stern, enlisting USCO, Jackie Cassen and Carolee Schneemann. — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 759

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s two-part structure (subculture → counterculture → market): the moment a business-school manager is hired to rebrand an underground festival, the market form is arriving — parallels Milgrom’s institutional entrepreneurs and the Champagne Fairs’ entry control.