I’ve been working, talking, and thinking a lot about business models in arts and culture, as have many others in the field. And while many seem to believe we need new, better, or more flexible business models in advancing arts and culture, there doesn’t seem to be a structured and focused way of discussing the […]
Immovable object meets unstoppable force
There’s lots of chatter online about the Philadelphia Orchestra, and its board’s vote to file for protection and restructuring under Chapter 11 bankruptcy (here’s the actual filing). Of particular curiosity to many is how an organization with no debt and over $100 million in endowment goes broke. Their answer is that contractual constraints on their […]
An Ode to Tax Day
There’s a whole lot of screaming going on about taxes, as one would expect as the federal and state deadline looms at midnight tonight. But somewhere in the screaming, we seem to be missing the larger point of a common good. Whether you think government is too big or too small, or whether taxes are […]
The Expressive Energy Grid
I’ll confess to being a metaphor man. I’m always seeking and assessing different ways of describing the world that help me understand and explore it better, and help me describe and discuss that world with students and colleagues. But when it comes to describing the part of that world I serve — the arts and […]
Talking together about talking together
Diane Ragsdale offers some welcome provocation about major professional arts conferences in her Jumper blog. Says she: It seems that technology has made redundant much of the purpose of the annual arts conference and that the yearly gathering of the field (if there is still a reason to have one) needs to be transformed. I’m […]
Three core approaches to philanthropy
Sean Stannard-Stockton over on Stanford Social Innovation Review has a rather useful categorization scheme for types of philanthropy, breaking down the many, many types and motivations into three main groups: Charitable giving seeks to buy nonprofit program execution that will accrue to beneficiaries…. The charitable giver is concerned primarily with the value of the programmatic […]
After you make the thing, you have to mediate it into the world
KCRW’s The Business offers a fascinating interview with visual artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel on his perspective and approach to film. As an internationally renowned visual artist, whose works hang in major museums and draw big-ticket sales figures, Schnabel is in a unique position to draw financing, and to explore the film medium as an […]
Taking online conversations to scale
There are increasing numbers of ways to hold a video/audio conversation online — from one-to-one chats on Skype to multi-party conferences on Oovoo to more produced panel/presentation sessions on Vokle and beyond. The opportunities of these for arts organizations and artists are vast. But they share a common constraint. Despite the distance-bridging opportunities of on-line […]
Sharemilking in the arts
In my daily reading and wandering, I like to follow at least a few threads related to slow food and local food systems, as there seem to be so many productive connections between healthy local food systems and healthy local arts systems. Today I stumbled onto a practice in New Zealand farming that seemed rich […]
A new species of musical device
While I’ll admit to coveting Apple’s new iPad just because it’s cool (if I could think of a more rational excuse to redirect $500 of my income toward one, I would), there’s something quite extraordinary about at least one evolution in the breakthrough device. With the announcement of the iPad 2, Apple also released an […]
