The Phoenix in Baltimore

A while back, the Washington Post had a nice series of articles on DC’s neighbor to the north. Baltimore tends to be associated in the popular imagination with the kind of frightening crime depicted on TV shows like The Wire (frankly, it doesn’t exactly give one confidence when cabbies have signs saying “DRIVER CARRIES NO MORERead More

Interview with Helena Fruscio, Director, Berkshire Creative

Note to readers: today, I’m introducing a new interview series on Createquity. Every so often, I’m going to conduct some email correspondence with interesting folks who you (probably) haven’t heard of about issues pertaining to this blog, and share the results with everyone here. Since this is a new feature, please do let me knowRead More

Around the horn: hello NYC edition

Posting has been light around here lately because I am in the midst of another move. I am coming to the end of my official residence in Rhode Island, where I have been plying my trade and generally causing trouble for the last year or so. I’m moving back to New York to join theRead More

Popularity Contest Philanthropy

Recently, JP Morgan Chase & Company gave away $5 million to two hundred charities, including some arts organizations, through its Summer 2010 Chase Community Giving campaign. Pepsi has been sending $1.3 million to nonprofit organizations each month this year as part of its Pepsi Refresh campaign, money that would have otherwise gone to Super BowlRead More

Interview with National Arts Strategies

While at the Americans for the Arts Half Century Summit in Baltimore last month, Dallas Shelby from National Arts Strategies caught up with me and interviewed me for a video series NAS is doing of “conversations with leaders from inside and outside the field, [which] are meant to inspire and challenge you to take aRead More

We’re all in the same ocean, but not the same boat

Crossposted from the Creative Rights & Artists discussion over at ArtsJournal last week. The prompt for this post was a challenge from ArtsJournal honcho Doug McLennan to nominate “the biggest policy threat or potentially transformative initiative currently facing our culture.” […] Thanks to all for the stimulating conversation. I think for me, the most excitingRead More

Around the horn: Heat wave edition

As we’ve mentioned here a few times recently, nonprofit organizations are now required to file a 990-N “postcard” form with the IRS every year. The National Center for Charitable Statistics has helpfully compiled a “doomsday list” of nonprofits who have failed to meet the requirement even after multiple warnings and thus risk losing their tax-exemptRead More

ArtsJournal Conversation on Creative Rights & Artists

This week, the venerable ArtsJournal is hosting (with Fractured Atlas, Future of Music Coalition, and the National Alliance for Media Arts + Culture) a discussion about artists’ creative rights and arts policy / advocacy more generally. I’m one of 22 featured bloggers, along with my Fractured Atlas colleague Justin Karr and some other great voicesRead More

Eighth Blackbird Gets It Right

Earlier this year, I wrote some critical words about Chicago-based chamber music ensemble eighth blackbird’s composer competition that offered only a $1000 prize despite an abnormally high $50 entry fee for composers. While steep entry fees for artistic competitions are problematic no matter who is charging them, it struck many in the composition community asRead More

Look mom, I’m on the radio

Here’s the audio from my appearance on Rosetta Thurman’s “All Nonprofits Considered” talk show with Colleen Dilenschneider earlier today. It was a lot of fun and we covered considerable ground: the justifications for subsidizing the arts, what counts as “art,” audience demographic trends, how arts organizations are faring in the recession, leadership development and transitionRead More