I’m going to be on Rosetta Thurman‘s show on BlogTalk Radio next Monday, July 12 at noon EDT with Colleen Dilenschneider, a graduate student who is the author of a previously-unknown-to-me arts blog called Know Your Own Bone. I’ve been an admirer of Rosetta’s for some time and I’m excited to finally be sort-of meeting her, and in front of a (virtual) audience no less! Ah, this modern world we live in.
- Speaking of Rosetta, check out her brutally honest and beautifully written assessment of the downsides of living by your personal brand. I recognized several of these from my own stint as a consultant during the second half of last year, though Rosetta has it going on a whole other level. Also, if you’re an aspiring blogger who wants to reach a new audience, you could do worse than to sub for Rosetta during her vacation to Jamaica; details here. (Drew McManus and Andy Horwitz are looking for guest contributors as well, as am I.)
- Musical chairs among arts organization leadership: longtime head of Alliance for the Arts Randy Bourscheidt is retiring; so is longtime head of the Wallace Foundation Christine DeVita; meanwhile, former head of NEFA and LINC Sam Miller is the new head of Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Finally, the American Federation of Musicians (better known as the musicians’ union) has just undergone a reportedly dramatic leadership change, with the reform-minded Ray Hair having been elected to the top spot.
- You might have heard something about the Billionaires’ Pledge drive led by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet; together, the group is seeking to encourage billionaires to give at least half of their wealth to charity, which would raise some $600 billion for philanthropy. Michael Bloomberg and Eli Broad have signed on; Sean Stannard-Stockton provides analysis. (It’s significant for arts folks that Bloomberg is among the early supporters, given his very generous support for the arts over the years.) The original article in Fortune, by the way, contains some great reporting and actually does homework on the secret meeting of billionaires last year that was pooh-poohed at the time by the New York Times‘s philanthropy reporter.
- Laws, lawsuits, and government support for the arts: The South Carolina Arts Commission is out of the woods after the Senate overrode the Governor’s line-item veto of the Commission’s budget. Leonard Jacobs reports on a bill under consideration in Congress that would establish standards for data-sharing in the nonprofit sector. Australia just passed a law giving artists rights to subsidiary income from re-sales of their work. (h/t Brigid Slipka) And Molly Sheridan finds herself in the middle of an intense kerfuffle on intellectual property law.
- New studies, articles, and resources: material on business and the arts via Gary Steuer; a new report out of the Salzburg Global Seminar on the arts and reinvention in recession (via GIA News); the NEA mines the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts for more info on arts engagement through electronic media (this time with video!); an Australian scholar publishes an article arguing in favor of explicitly adding arts and culture to the list of exempt organization types for 501(c)(3) status in the US (currently we get in somehow under the rubric of “education”); the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy is out with an ambitious manifesto advocating the incorporation of positive social outcomes into core long-run corporate strategy; the co-founder of Bridgespan Consulting on scaling impact. A bit old news (sorry), but Lucy Bernholz’s recently published opus on the philanthropy data revolution is here.
- My recent reports on conferences and talks not enough for you? Check out Devon Smith on TCG (and totally second her on the non-availability of free wifi at hotel-based conferences – get with it, guys) and Leonard Jacobs on a forum on arts spaces presented by Alliance for the Arts.
- Cogent commentary and righteous rants: Center for Effective Philanthropy’s Phil Buchanan on why nonprofits shouldn’t be looking to corporate America for answers; The Atlantic Philanthropies’ CEO Gara LaMarche on supporting arts and social justice initiatives in the developing world; Barry Hessenius on why we need to be studying worst practices; Gary Steuer on arts and sports; Judith H. Dobrzynski questioning why people like Wynton Marsalis and Philip Glass need to be receiving cash awards from the NEA; Chris Jones railing against Chase Community Giving and vote spam; Chris Ashworth on how hiring artists for your business can be a competitive advantage (great read); and Kyle Gann coming to terms with the limits of his life’s work (another great read, and don’t miss this follow-up either).
- Helpful primers: NPR on the economics of fine art (via Guy Yedwab); Sean Stannard-Stockton on the basics of evaluation language; and Erin Carey on the history of the New York Philharmonic.
- Teaching artists how to make a business plan, New York style. Just wish it was reaching more of them; 54 artists isn’t even a drop in the bucket in NYC.
- Arena Stage is trying something new: hiring playwrights as full-time, salaried employees with benefits. The three-year initiative is funded by a $1.1 million grant from the Mellon Foundation and will benefit five playwrights chosen by Arena’s “senior leadership.” Fantastic for those five playwrights, but I have tons of questions. What happens to the program when the Mellon grant runs out? What happens to the playwrights when they’re no longer on salary? What are the criteria for selection? What is the impact of this money going to be for the legions of playwrights not chosen to participate? (These are many of the same questions, FYI, I have about the United States Artists program that’s been around for a few years now.)
- I’ll miss Trevor Hunter as a regular presence over at NewMusicBox, especially after he started churning out stuff like this epic history of the avant-garde rock band Zs.
- A cautionary tale for the rest of us: Brooklyn Museum’s widely praised audience development strategies aren’t resulting in, well, more audience members.
- Showing that it helps to have friends in the tech biz, one of composer Evan Ziporyn’s former students went on to start a company that publishes a little product called Rock Band, and now Ziporyn and his fellow Bang on a Can composers have pieces in the game.
- Did you know that Pabst Blue Ribbon Brewing Company was until recently wholly owned by a foundation?