Grantmaker-Spotting in the Windy City

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 willRead More

The marketing arms race

(cross-posted from the Arts Marketing Blog Salon on ArtsBlog) In my last post, I talked about one reason that arts marketers are becoming increasingly important to the cultural ecosystem. Here, I’m going to talk about another – though I’m warning you, this one is going to be a bit of a downer. ArtsJournal’s Doug McLennan has writtenRead More

Around the horn: March to Restore Sanity edition

Ron Ragin’s guest stint over at the Center for Effective Philanthropy blog, covered in last time’s round-up, continues with a meditation on general operating support in uncertain times and, my favorite from this series, lessons learned from grantee interactions. In the latter, Ron tackles the subject that no one in philanthropy likes to talk about:Read More

Arts participation and the bottom of the pyramid

(Originally posted at ArtsBlog for the Arts Marketing Blog Salon, a weeklong conversation taking place between October 5-12.) I have to admit it’s a little strange to be part of this excellent blog team on the subject of arts marketing. I’ve never pretended to be any kind of expert on the practice of marketing; though I’ve done aRead More

Two webcasts to follow

One of the happiest developments of the past year or so has been that, thanks to live streaming technology and a growing culture of sharing ideas, many of the conferences that one formerly had to attend in person to experience are now available for free to anyone with a computer and a broadband connection. TwoRead More

Upcoming Creative Conversations

For those of you in or visiting New York City, I’m presenting at two events on consecutive Tuesday evenings at 6:30pm, both sponsored or co-sponsored by Emerging Leaders of New York Arts (ELNYA), the local Americans for the Arts-affiliated emerging leader network here. This Tuesday, I’ll be on what looks like a pretty awesome panelRead More

Creative Placemaking (and Panelmaking) with the NEA

(Originally posted at the Fractured Atlas blog.) Two weeks ago, I traveled down to DC to take in the “Creative Placemaking” discussion organized by the NEA and hosted by the Canadian Embassy. (Two of the panelists, Tim Jones of Artscape and Richard Florida of all things Richard Florida, are current residents of our neighbor nation to the north.)Read More

New Blogs!

Some blogroll updates first: Do the Math has a new URL and feed. It’s no longer a band blog, but purely the work of Bad Plus pianist Ethan Iverson. Brigid Slipka’s blog is now at brigidslipka.com. The feed should be unchanged. The Future of Music Coalition blog’s feed has changed. The Idea Feed’s, uh, feedRead More

New article at NewMusicBox.org

Yesterday, the good folks at NewMusicBox (the web magazine of the American Music Center) published a rather massive article of mine called “Composing a Life, Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Dollar.” It’s my plea to composers and the new music community (which is the world I come from) to getRead More

Around the horn: [in the general vicinity of] Ground Zero Mosque edition

I will be attending and blogging the NEA’s “Creative Placemaking” panel discussion this Tuesday from 3-4:15pm Eastern time. The panel features Richard Florida, Tim Jones, Rick Lowe, and Ann Markusen, and will be moderated by CEOs for Cities’s Carol Coletta. There will also be a webcast. I’m looking forward to finally meeting Florida and ColettaRead More