ART AND THE GOVERNMENT Twitter, Facebook, and now the Minnesota Orchestra: everyone’s going public these days. State legislators announced a bill last week to save the troubled ensemble and gauge public support for its continuation by making it “a community-owned entity in which any individual or group could buy stock.” MUSICAL CHAIRS Robert Vagt, theRead More
Around the horn: Trayvon edition
ART AND THE GOVERNMENT The National Endowment for the Arts has shared a draft of its strategic plan for FY14-18, and in what I believe may be a first, is inviting public comment on it via SurveyMonkey. Ah, these modern times we live in. Now let’s just hope House Republicans don’t succeed in slashing itsRead 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
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
Around the horn: end of the road edition
It’s a race to the finish here, as grades for my classes are due in just a few short days. In less than a week, I will be officially done with business school! As for the Around the Horn feature, the response to my query last week was limited but uniformly in favor of keepingRead More
Nonprofit compensation follow-up
My post on nonprofit executive compensation from earlier this weekend drew a bunch of great comments, including two from Adam Forest Huttler. He writes: It seems to me the devil is in the proverbial details on this one… Is there a number you have in mind that, once crossed, makes compensation unreasonable? How much doesRead More
Compensation in the nonprofit sector
Last weekend, while hanging out in San Francisco with some friends from my job last summer, we got to discussing the issue of executive compensation, which has been a hot topic lately to say the least. This question divides the people I come into contact with in my various travels perhaps more sharply than anyRead More
Thoughts on Effective Philanthropy: Part III – (Dis-)Economies of Scale in the Arts
Note: This is the third of a multipart series on the arts and philanthropy. I hope these ideas are of interest and welcome suggestions and feedback. To view the rest of this series, click here. When we left off last time, I was advocating for funding agencies to adopt a spirit of experimentation in theirRead More