Around the horn: heat wave edition

First Things First EMCArts’s Director: Activating Innovation position, which we first posted about in March, is open again. Details here. Cool Projects You simply MUST watch the entirety of this video produced by the fine citizens of Grand Rapids. Organized after an article published on Newsweek’s website named Grand Rapids one of “America’s Top 10Read More

Federal arts funding: a trace ingredient in the sausage factory of government spending

In this post from June 2011, Createquity Fellow Aaron Andersen breaks down how the arts fit into the federal budget and puts them in context with tax breaks offered to other special interests, including private industry.

Around the horn: staycation edition

ART AND GOVERNMENT Remember that debate a while back about whether video games qualified as art? Well, the NEA just declared it over by including support for “digital games” in its new Art and Media program. To Scott Walters’s everlasting chagrin, however, the NEA is still providing funding to organizations in New York, LA, andRead More

Arts Centers and Real Estate: Sustainable Business Model?

“Sustainability” and “community development” are ideals that many arts organizations strive to uphold. They want to stand on their own two feet financially, and they also want to play a role in revitalizing communities that have been abandoned by urban sprawl. Some arts centers, such as the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark andRead More

TEDx Talk

“Never Heard of ’Em”: Why Citizen Curators (not Daddy’s Money) Should Decide Who Gets to Be an Artist.

Around the horn: Donald Trump edition

I’m happy to announce that I will be speaking in Chicago this Saturday, May 7 at David Zoltan’s TEDxMichiganAve event (you can buy tickets here). The talk is tentatively titled “Never Heard of ‘Em: Citizen Curators and Who Gets to Be an Artist,” and I will be synthesizing themes from my post on artistic marketplaces,Read More

Around the horn: government shutdown edition

Comings, Goings, and Mergers The nation’s three largest composer-focused arts service organizations have announced a major realignment. The American Music Center and Meet The Composer will merge into a new entity called New Music USA, while AMC’s membership and professional development programs will be transferred to the American Composers Forum. This is the legacy ofRead More

Supply is Not Going to Decrease (So It’s Time to Think About Curating)

A response to NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman’s controversial comments about the arts market.

Around the horn: Japan edition

(OK, here’s the follow-up. Enjoy!) TALKS AND SPEECHES YOU MISSED Marc Vogl and Jeanne Sakamoto of the Hewlett and Irvine Foundations, respectively, hosted a Grantmakers in the Arts webinar on the subject of retaining emerging leaders in the arts field. Here is the full 40-minute presentation, and Marc and Jeanne have also put together aRead More

Around the horn: Libya edition

(Note: this ATH is already quite long, so I’m going to split it up into two parts. Look for the rest of the links in a few days.) A quick note about some upcoming speaking engagements: I’ll be on a panel next month at the annual Emerging Arts Leaders Symposium hosted by American University, speakingRead More