On Saturdays in the fall, I take my 4 year old to Art Explorers, a mom/dad + me art class at Glen Echo Park in Maryland.

Our task on our most recent trip was to build a spider and a ghost out of supplies like pipe cleaners and tissue paper. Models of each hung from a table at the front of the classroom as if to say that, with some imagination and prayer, you too can construct these ephemeral pieces of art in 30 minutes or less.

We go to create together with the comfort of structure sans the struggle of navigating Pinterest options and directions and mise en place prepped supplies. Blue Apron for art, for $5 a week.

We flew through the spider creation process with wet wipes and high fives. We paused when creating the ghost.

What do you want your ghost to look like?

As we got started, one of the teacher’s came over, dismayed at the state of our loose interpretation of the apparition that swayed in the air in front of us.

Not like that!

During the Renaissance, apprentices were taught to mimic the work of master artists. Once you become good at replicating work, you can define your own style.

This makes sense on a technique basis, or when painting a tree maybe. But a ghost?

Best isn’t measured by sameness. The standard images of ghost all came from someone’s imagination.

Better is better than same, but differentiated is better than better. Sometimes before you innovate, you need to replicate, or retrace your steps to the point where something fell apart and taking a different fork in the road. Sometimes, not always.

My frustration with being taught how to make a ghost out of an egg crate and tissue paper was subdued by a tug on my arm. “Let’s go to the carousel!”

Glen Echo was originally built in 1891 as a cultural center for sciences, arts, languages and literature.

After a single failed season of lectures, courses and concerts, Glen Echo was turned into an amusement park. In 1910, Washington Railway and Electric put the park under the management of Leonard Schloss, a man with two decades of experience in entertainment and amusement from work ranging from vaudeville to World Fairs.

He claimed:

[there is] no finer amusement park anywhere - A History of the Glen Echo Amusement Park

To make good on his claim, Schloss set out to add at least one new attraction each year. And he did, adding rides until park grounds reached capacity, then removing old to make way for new.

The park thrived to and through the Great Depression. Attendance grew as people craved escape from the crushing realities of the early 1930s. The park capitalized on the influx of workers in Washington during the Second World War with discounted tickets despite rationing impacting gas, bullet, hot dog and popcorn availability.

From left to right: a 90 foot wooden slide added in the mid 1930s, the Hydraulic Dive added in the early 1900s, and the Flying Scooter added in 1940

Schloss innovated until he retired in 1949, adding exciting new rides to capture and keep the public’s attention.

The 1955 arrival of Disneyland sparked the shift from small town parks to big theme parks. Glen Echo was sold by the successor to the Washington Railway and Electric company because of a monopoly suit. Racial tension for the white only park began with desegregation requests in 1957, picketing in 1960, and, even after desegregation in 1961, park vandalism and tension in 1966 that led to the park being closed for a day.

Glen Echo desegregation picketers, Frank Collins a Non-Violent Action Group (NAG) protester confronted by security guard Frank Collins (source)

Glen Echo never recovered from the disruptions. It closed its doors at the end of the 1968 season and in 1969, rides were sold to private collectors and other amusement parks.

All but one.

The Dentzel Carousel, originally installed in 1921, was recovered from sale by the Save the Carousel Committee for $80,000 in 1971.

During the Golden Age of Carousels, 1890s-1920s, thousands of carousels were rider ready across the United States but if it were to be sold today, the Glen Echo Park carousel would go for $2.5 million plus. It’s one of the last 150 antique carousels and 25 operating Dentzel carousels specifically🎠 with room for over 50 people on its two chariots and 8 different types of animals.

The treasured piece of history had a problem. Hundreds of thousands of carousel riders necessitated frequent repainting, hiding the original intricate details illuminated by thousands of hours of paint work.

From 1983-2003, restoration specialist Rosa Ragan took the carousel back in time, replacing the layers of new paint with the design the menagerie was created with.

This work included removing the newest layers of paint to reveal the original paint and pattern; documenting, cataloging, and photographing each piece as it was being preserved; applying a protective coating onto the original layer of paint; and finally, repainting the piece to match the original color and design. - [Glen Echo] Carousel Preservation

Thanks for your work, Rosa.

As a leader, much of our work can be split into three categories:

Replication: Helping ourselves and others (and eventually automation, probably) paint by numbers based on previous models that we know will work.
Preservation: Continuously restoring and reengineering what previously was to provide the best possible contextual vision for an amorphous but growing organization. Fixing what’s broken/overly reductive.
Growth: Sharing an idea or concept without a clear next step and stepping back to go somewhere new.

Replication and preservation are helpful learning tools. Learn by copycatting, then by deepening understanding through time spent tracing back to the base case and preserving that context for others. Bob Ross before you Rosa Ragan. Rosa Ragan before you Jackson Pollock.

Directions and past experience can be helpful or destructive creative constraints, depending on the mission at hand. If your aim is to make a replica or restore a piece of history, you need a process to follow.

You also need to know when you don’t. VCs, mentors, people with experience from other startups and major publications will tell you this is what a unicorn looks like. Here are the steps to follow. Here are the books to read.

Whether your aim is to run the best business in your category, develop a best in class employee experience, be happier or be the best possible parent of a Gen Z child (or whatever!) you have to be willing to innovate everyday…and be mindful of who you take advice from. I’m not sure our art teacher has ever seen a ghost.

With any task you take on, make a conscious decision to repeat, refresh or change your approach.

If our Saturday morning goal was to learn how to follow directions, we would have made a badass copycat ghost. The Uber of ghosts, probably.

It wasn’t.

Note: The Golden Age of Carousels lives on in the Carousel Capital of the world, Binghamton, NY. Six antique carousels are still in operation for adults and children alike to share and experience a nostalgic spin, and are protected by the National Register of Historic Places.