Staff Q&A: Marketing Project Manager Adin Sadic

I spent over six years with SMG; for me, this was a very valuable professional experience. I worked with great professionals and served as a liaison for the marketing department and the creative director to collaborate across this large organization with multiple cross-functional teams and departments, with the purpose to get consumer-facing items, primarily packaging designs, through the approval process. This was a very dynamic place, and it still is, with many brands, acquisitions, and multiple product lines living under the umbrella of this global corporation.

With Scotts, my work had elements of everything that I enjoy doing—it was creative, I worked closely with marketing and brand managers, with printers—where I was learning more about current printing techniques and substrates. My job description gave me an opportunity to collaborate with a variety of professionals. On one end of the spectrum, there were marketing people, creative people, and artists that are always on the “optimistic” side, pushing the envelope, and willing to test something new. On the other side, I would need to present that new idea or packaging design to scientists, regulators, legal specialists, and others in a highly regulated industry. I feel like my journalism and communications training and degree helped me be more efficient in my role, provide concise and precise reports, and be a reliable “bridge” of communication.

I feel that regardless of the type of industry you are in, there are skills that are transferable and applicable in any type of professional environment. At the end of the day, the reality boils down to the very basics of delivering something through a complex and collaborative process. Most current research on desirable skills employers are looking for are emphasizing the importance of communication skills in general—those are “character based traits” primarily, like honesty and ethical behavior, transparency, and interpersonal skills. Another thing is aligning with values of the organization we are working for.

I really enjoyed teaching college courses and working with students. I also feel that the nature and the scope of subjects I was teaching gave me an opportunity to do it in a “workshop” manner; to engage in a lively discourse and talk about real issues with my students. I was ready for change and I wanted to do something that I am ultimately passionate about—and that would be art. I was looking for a new opportunity with a high level of creative engagement and I felt like all of the stars aligned when I read the job description for this position.

I’ve always had a desire to study art, and though the circumstances and the environment I lived in changed that plan for me and put me on a different educational and professional path, it never got out of my system. I still love to paint, draw, and sculpt whenever I can. My degree is in journalism and communications, but I learned to appreciate contemporary art and its provoking nature, especially artists with certain levels of social engagement who raise their voices against any selfish, rigid, dogmatic, closed idea or ideology.

That is primarily the reason why I was so excited to join this institution. I see contemporary art as a way to engage with a rapidly changing world—with issues that are affecting us as humanity and are shaping our reality. I also see this opportunity as an honor and privilege, to be a part of this amazing institution. I also see it as a great responsibility to bring the best and do the best, and work with these amazing professionals, all exceptionally knowledgeable and passionate in their field—to bring quality programs to this vibrant community at The Ohio State University and to this city we call our home!

I was always a fan of the Wex, and my wife and I have been members for years. I have also brought my 12 year-old daughter to the Wex quite a few times. One specific exhibition I mentioned in my interview for this position, To Begin, Again: A Prehistory of the Wex, particularly resonated with me on a deep level. It brought back memories of the environment that I am originally from, and it reminded me of my first true exposure to international contemporary art.

I am originally from the former Yugoslavia—specifically from Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is still politically and socially a very turbulent region, and the society was engulfed in a violent and destructive conflict that ended formally in December of 1995—oddly enough, right here in Dayton, Ohio, at the “green table”.

After four years of siege and brutal destruction, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, became a prominent location for contemporary artists and put itself on a cultural map of the world with a collection called Ars Aevi. This was a collaboration that started during the siege, and became a collection presented to the public in the years that followed the peace accord. Many prominent contemporary artists stood in solidarity with Sarajevo, which was exposed to brutal and barbaric destruction for four years. In those early post war years, especially 1997 and 1998, I remember visiting this exhibition and wandering around many pieces, around the city, now heavily scarred from the years of siege.

Some of the pieces presented in our “Prehistory” exhibition had very similar social, political, and historical “stamps,” and touched some topics that I found very compatible with the Ars Aevi collection.

I love it, and I don’t think I can say enough how excited I am to be a part of this great institution and to work with these amazing people. The impression from being inside is overwhelming at first, because this is an institution that carries so much programming. The Wex is a vibrant place—it’s fascinating to see all the moving parts and the complexity of what it takes to put all of this incredible content together. It is hard to see that from the outside.

My last residence in Bosnia and Herzegovina was in the city of Mostar, and my last work experience there was for a diplomatic mission, OSCE, which stands for Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. I was a communications officer for the Regional office of the mission that is attempting to help bring back basic elements of civil society, human rights, and democratization to counter-terrorism, reinforce rule and institutions of law, improve education standards and policing, and improve media standards.

Mostar is the city that you may see in travel guides as one of the “must-see” spots if you happened to be in this part of Europe. But, under the surface, this charming place is the town where strong ethnic division lines were established during the most recent armed conflict, and they still exist. You can still see physical scars of that conflict—more than 70 percent of the city’s buildings were heavily damaged or destroyed. This is where it gets tricky talking about this region; it feels impossible to avoid talking about the early 1990s and the politics of ethno-nationalist tendencies that are still dominant in this part of the world.

As a graduate student, I did my research on the role of media in contributing to this conflict and focused on post-conflict media regulations in broadcasting. I feel like my native Bosnia and

Herzegovina as a society never healed from the disastrous effects of nationalism and xenophobia. The misuse of media and propaganda are greatly responsible for what happened there in the 1990s and for the continuation of those tendencies over the last three decades.

I believe it’s much easier to find an “oasis” environment here—to find yourself surrounded by people that share the same set of values, principles, and perspectives. I feel like no society is immune to the retrograde tendencies that the Balkans became a synonym for, and even the verb “to balkanize” was introduced to the dictionary. I see that this term which means, “to divide, to create aggressive and unfriendly tendencies, to be hostile and uncooperative,” is used more often to portray our political reality, and that is concerning. To me, this is all just a reminder of how fragile society is and how much we have to invest in protecting what we call core societal values.

It is really hard to pick, as I consider myself a constant and humble student of painting; I did some master studies and copied the painting style of Courbet, Cezanne, Vermeer, and Van Gogh. I am endlessly inspired by Anselm Kiefer, and I also like quite a few contemporary realist painters. I am forever fascinated by David Lynch’s cinematography and his storytelling. It’s interesting that he was also a painter first who migrated to the language of cinematography. I also really love the music and poetry of Leonard Cohen. There are a few artists from my origins that I love—they help me to keep in touch with my own roots. They encapsulate certain values, sounds, colors, stories, context, and nuances of the world I am originally from. One is Arsen Dedić, a singer-songwriter. When my parents visited, I asked them to bring me Arsen’s records and a few books by Miroslav Krleža and Danilo Kiš—some of the finest Yugoslavian authors.

I like to take painting or bronze classes at the Cultural Arts Center. I call it my “happy place”—and I am a “returning” student at the CAC. I think “lost wax” is one of those more demanding, maybe even intimidating techniques, and I think I got lucky discovering it. Lost wax teaches you expressiveness, but it is also a craft and science of pouring molten metal into a cast. It teaches you how to engineer your piece properly. Once you finish the sculpting in wax and you pour it, it comes out the way you intended—you have to think about how the molten bronze will flow and fill in all details of your piece. You also have to think about how to make the investment strong and capable of withstanding 1800-degree Fahrenheit hot, molten metal.

The technique is called “lost wax” because the wax becomes “lost” in the kiln, where it gets vaporized as the piece is “baked” for approximately 24 hours. There are several stress-inducing steps in the process of making bronze sculptures because anything can go wrong, and you have to respect the craft and the science of it.

The most rewarding moment is the moment of truth, when the poured bronze cools down enough to break the mold and release the sculpture. This is a magical moment, and I hope I will have an opportunity to go back to the studio sometime soon and pour a couple of pieces I currently have in wax.

I am also proud of creating a series of portraits on windows. I have approximately 12 completed. I began this project mid-pandemic, and it was my response to the isolation. I started by wondering how great it would be to have good company during that time—and who would be the best company. I started painting portraits of people that I learned from and influenced how I think today.