Creative Providence

On Friday, I attended the unveiling of Creative Providence, a cultural planning effort conducted primarily by Dreeszen & Associates over the past two years. A nice-sized crowd came out for the catered event at the Hotel Providence to see the Mayor of Providence, David Cicilline, Craig Dreeszen, Robert Leaver of New Commons, and Lynne McCormackRead More

New Haven arts policy study

I’ve mentioned previously in this space that I was working on a policy memo for the Arts Council of Greater New Haven as part of my independent study this spring on public policy and the arts. Today, I turned in the final version. I won’t bore you with the details, but here are the highlightsRead More

Around the horn: Solstice edition

I briefly caught a performance of Henry Brant’s Orbits for organ, soprano, and 80 trombones at the Guggenheim on the way back from Seattle yesterday. Totally wild stuff. I only really dug isolated moments of it, but those moments were killer. Saw blogmaster Alex Ross in the audience as well, scribbling notes as he isRead More

AFTA Convention Wrap Day 4

My final day in Seattle began with a “peer group” session called Meet the NEA that was really another panel. I wasn’t able to catch the entirety of it, but the panelists did say that the agency would take a “hard look” at the policy around individual artists (it should be noted that the EndowmentRead More

AFTA Convention Wrap Day 3

Whew! Extremely full day yesterday. Started with waking up far too early to catch Peter Senge’s keynote address. Senge is the founding chair of the Society for Organizational Learning and focused his talk at the mile-high level, really probing into why the work we do is important. The speech received mixed reviews from the peopleRead More

AFTA Convention Wrap Day 2

Wow, you guys are eager beavers all of the sudden in the comments! I think I approved more this week than I did the entire summer last year. Glad to see that the content is engaging you. The first official day of the AFTA Convention was great – the discussions have mapped extraordinarily well toRead More

AFTA Convention Wrap Day 1

It’s late, so I’ll be brief. Seattle is very, very pretty. Went to the Creative Economy: By Design advance workshop today to learn about creative community building with Meri Jenkins, Tom Borrup, Craig Dreeszen, and Maren Brown. Here were the major notes and takeaways for me: Some startling statistics: in Massachusetts, attendance at arts &Read More

Around the horn: convention edition

Later today, I’ll be off to Seattle for the Americans for the Arts Convention, and will be live-blogging and -tweeting my experiences there as time and internet access allow. W00t! Recession blues roundup: JazzTimes is no more (at least for now); The Ford and Robert Wood Johnson Foundations are offering buyouts to 33% and 40%Read More

On the Arts and Sustainability

As I get ready for the 2009 Americans for the Arts Annual Convention, Renewable Resources: Arts in Sustainable Communities, and prepare a panel session on the creative economy for the 2009 Net Impact North America Conference, Advancing Sustainable Global Enterprise: Changemakers, Innovators, and Problem Solvers, I’ve been doing some thinking on what “sustainability” means forRead More

Around the horn: June swoon edition

I am a ramblin’ man lately: in NYC yesterday, spent last night in New Haven, Boston today, Providence at this moment, Willimantic, CT tomorrow, back in New Haven for a couple of days, NYC at the end of the week — and then it’s off to Seattle for the Americans for the Arts Annual Convention!Read More