That’s the title of a talk I presented via the University of Chicago’s Cultural Policy Center on November 14, 2012. It’s long, but I think it’s one of the more significant things I’ve done recently and hope you’ll check it out if you have some time. The actual lecture portion of the talk occupies the first [...]
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 [...]
I really didn’t know what to expect when I came to business school in the fall of 2007. I had lived my whole post-college life in the nonprofit sector, and most of that time was spent hanging around musicians. I was brought up by two ex-hippies who, shall we say, did not exactly fit in [...]
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 [...]
Thank you. I agree, the CultureBlocks site is inspiring in a number of ways — presentation as well as what...
Of course, I look at this and immediately think of how it relates to building adjunct networks in higher (and other...
Yahoo!!!! Count me in out here in ABQ!
Are you trying to pinpoint the origin of stagnate work? Seems like you are on quest for answers for lost or wasted...
Thanks very much for info about this NCES report. I’ll take a look and go from there. I’m wondering if any of...