I know nonprofit arts organizations are supposed to use their powers for good, rather than for misdirection and tomfoolery. But, from time to time, it’s really useful to know what motivates people to spend time, money, and attention on anything — as consumers, as donors, or as volunteers. So, a keen eye on an industry […]

I’ve been referring lots of friends and colleagues to the fabulous keynote by Russell Willis Taylor at this past summer’s League of American Orchestra’s conference. Now, I’m pleased to discover that talk in video form online (you can download the text and slides from the presentation from the National Arts Strategies website). In the rather […]

As a director of the MBA degree program in Arts Administration here at UW-Madison, I get lots of questions about when and why a master’s degree might advance a professional career in cultural management. To make it more of a public conversation than a one-on-one, I’ll be hosting a video webchat on that very subject […]

The fantastic Diane Ragsdale is now blogging on ArtsJournal. And she’s offering a fabulous voice and perspective to essential issues in arts and culture. Her most recent post explores the intent and impact of dynamic pricing for the nonprofit arts, and questions whether a tool designed to maximize yield is essentially inconsistent with the nonprofit […]

In so many of our public conversations about any public enterprise — education, justice, arts and culture — we’re talking more and more about transparency and accountability. Public money is scarce, the argument goes, and successful outcomes for these public enterprises should guide any allocation of that public money. Fair enough. But the tools we […]

I’m in Oklahoma City this week, attending the 2010 Creativity World Forum, an international gathering exploring the nature and nurture of creativity in culture, commerce, education, and community. Speakers include creative education advocate Sir Ken Robinson, Whole New Mind author Daniel Pink, New York Times technology columnist David Pogue, and a cast of characters from […]

Name the publication year of the following excerpt from Time magazine: ”As a group, the symphony orchestras of the U.S. are unsurpassed in quality by those of any other nation in the world. Yet today they are in trouble — loud, unavoidable, cymbal-crashing financial trouble.” That’s right, 1969. Or, did you guess a slightly more […]

Big Think shares some interesting and useful thoughts from behavioral neurobiologist Antonio Damasio on how our brains build stories — particularly the stories of our own lives. He suggests that the on-going linear narrative, where our brains connect sequences of events, can be altered and even overwritten by particularly significant experiences. Says he: There are […]

There’s a magical truth about many arts and culture projects that makes seemingly impossible decisions a whole lot easier. That truth is this: If you’ve spent time, money, and energy on something, and can’t get any of those things back, it’s a ‘sunk cost‘. And sunk costs are best ignored in determining what comes next. […]

Last night Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle celebrated the 2010 recipients of the Governor’s Awards in Support of the Arts. It was another great batch of recipients (full disclosure, I’m on the Advisory Committee for the sponsoring organization, the Wisconsin Foundation for the Arts). Links to videos about each recipient are included below. A particular favorite, […]