Dispatch from the Bay Area, Part I: Navigating the Velocity of Change

(Note: over the years, I’ve gotten out of the habit of reporting live from the conferences I attend. Several factors contributed to this development, including the proliferation of other blogs in the arts management/policy space that cover the same events, the advent of Twitter and live streaming, my own life getting busier, and frankly becauseRead More

Cool jobs of the month

Program Officer, Kresge Foundation The Kresge Foundation’s Arts and Culture program has an immediate opening for a program officer to assist in the design and implementation of the program’s national efforts to elevate the effective use of arts and culture in transforming and revitalizing communities. The program will focus on the themes of strengthening creativeRead More

Around the horn: grantmakers edition

Back recently from the Grantmakers in the Arts Conference in San Francisco. More on that soon! In the meantime: ART AND THE GOVERNMENT – FEDERAL Republican House members are back on the warpath to eliminating public broadcasting money (along with other government programs). The first 1:36 of this interview with Grammy-winning jazz musician Esperanza Spalding has the makings ofRead More

An Ecosystem-Based Approach to Arts Research

(Cross-posted from the Fractured Atlas blog. Part of an occasional series on Fractured Atlas’s research philosophy and practices. For more articles, click here.) As those of you who have been following Fractured Atlas closely may know, we’ve been working on some innovative technological solutions for aggregating and analyzing data about the cultural sector for theRead More

NAMP Blog Salon posts

Last week, I participated in the National Arts Marketing Project Blog Salon over at Americans for the Arts. My two entries focused on applying research and feedback-gathering principles to a marketing context. Not the typical Createquity fare, but if you find such things of interest, here’s some more information below. Is Your Arts Programming Usable?Read More

Around the horn: Occupy Wall Street edition

ART AND THE GOVERNMENT – DOMESTIC Welcome Dan Lurie, the NEA’s new Senior Advisor and Director of Strategic Partnerships. Nice to see the National Conference of State Legislatures recognizing the value of arts and culture, especially with state arts agencies under such budget pressure this year and state houses having become quite an ideological battleground over theRead More

Consulting giant KPMG doesn’t think much of the arts

As in many places around the world, particularly developed nations fighting recession, the arts in Canada’s largest city are feeling the pinch. While the details are being sorted out, the latest news from Toronto is that city-run venues may see their funding cut sharply, with grants to arts organizations increased (just about the opposite approach, interestingly enough,Read More

Cool jobs of the month

Two stellar entry-level opportunities this month: Research Analyst, GiveWell We’re looking primarily for Research Analysts – people who will provide support to the goal of finding the best giving opportunities. Research Analyst duties mostly consist of: Reviewing independent research on the best ways to help people and on other issues relevant to giving Reviewing particularlyRead More

Around the horn: Rick Perry edition

TOP NEWS The National Endowment for the Arts has spearheaded the formation of a new coalition of private funders to support its creative placemaking agenda. Called ArtPlace, the collaboration features Carol Coletta as its fearless leader, and has the backing of such significant national funders as the Ford, Knight, Kresge, Rockefeller, and Mellon Foundations. GrantsRead More

Around the horn: Rock me like a hurricane edition

First, two personal items of note: I’m honored to be listed once again as one of the top 25 (really, 40ish) arts leaders on Barry Hessenius’s annual list of such things; and the video of my talk at TEDxMichiganAve given many months ago is now available for viewing. CLOSURES, OPENINGS, MERGERS, AND PAY CUTS Gentrification claims anotherRead More