Michael Kaiser wants us to focus on the reason why we do it (the art, silly!), but I’m more struck by his succinct diagnosis of why arts institutions are in scary times: The development of new technology has given our audience members new forms of entertainment and new ways to spend their discretionary time and [...]
This article is a much shorter version of this. If you want the full force of my verbosity, read that one. In Arts, Inc., Bill Ivey, former Chair of the NEA, makes the case that our artistic heritage is a set of public assets that should benefit all, but instead are often squandered by existing cultural institutions. [...]
This is a long piece. If you’d like the very short version, you can find it here. In Arts, Inc., Bill Ivey, former Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts from 1998-2001 and Director of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University (more expansive bio here) makes the case [...]
“Sustainability” and “community development” are ideals that many arts organizations strive to uphold. They want to stand on their own two feet financially, and they also want to play a role in revitalizing communities that have been abandoned by urban sprawl. Some arts centers, such as the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark and [...]
This week, I spent three-plus days in Chicago to catch the annual Grantmakers in the Arts Conference. Some of you might remember that I blogged last year’s conference in Brooklyn for GIA; it was an incredible (and exhausting) experience during which I churned out more words in a shorter period of time than I probably will [...]
My first post from the AFTA Convention a couple of weeks ago provoked several comments about microphilanthropy, based on Craig Dreeszen’s observation that “support for individual entrepreneurs” is a growing trend in creative economy efforts internationally. I’ve been interested in microphilanthropy for some time, but I recently came to the realization that I’ve never posted [...]
So, yesterday we took a look at the $800 million Ortiz Foundation for the Arts (OFA), a hypothetical new organization focusing on promoting cultural vitality in New York City. After some discussion, we settled on a mission statement as follows: The Ortiz Foundation for the Arts (OFA) works to foster the visual, musical, theatrical, and [...]
I’ve been following the story of GiveWell pretty closely for about a year now, and continue to find the organization a seemingly inexhaustible source of entertainment and life lessons all wrapped up into one. In case you’re joining us late, GiveWell was started in 2007 by a couple of young hedge fund refugees who were [...]
As the twenty or so regular readers of this blog will note, I debuted Createquity last October with a rather brash six-episode litany of “Thoughts on Effective Philanthropy” in the realm of the arts. I say brash because, at the time, I had no experience running a philanthropic program; all I had were my outsider [...]
Note: This is the second of a multipart series on the arts and philanthropy. I hope these ideas are of interest and welcome suggestions and feedback. To view the rest of this series, click here. When we left off last week, I noted that it’s hard to measure the effectiveness of the arts when we [...]
Great thinking, Ian! As you observe, measuring success must reflect the nature of the Creative Placemaking project...
Yes! We are on the same wavelength! Nice one.
The LHC is also featured in Liz Lerman’s latest stage work, The Matter of Origins. The piece was a really...
Great article and more fuel for the fire beneath the long long simmering, never quite finished arts stew: how to align the...
As a former director of museums and board member of several arts groups and now consultant – my perspective is less...