I worked at BAO 6 years ago, it was my first job as a software engineer. I was working on 1m Schmidt telescope and even though we had many problems (due to insufficient funding) we were excited and motivated. Nowadays, BAO is mainly about "art stuff". I'm not against using outdated equipments for artistic use, but it's a research center/observatory and not a museum.
I see the HAYP art organization is mostly made up (at the top, i.e. the curators) of people who were brought up in Western Europe/North America. Whether what they are bringing is really valuable must be difficult to determine.
Entrepreneurial artworld thinking can be more about trendiness and superficial experience of insight/events, a coat of 'cool' paint on reality. It's definitely a very different activity from scientific research.
