I’m just back from two conferences in Philly: first a presentation at the Wallace Foundation’s grantee conference for its audience participation funding; then the annual conference of the Association of Arts Administration Educators of which I’m president. Lots of extraordinary people doing extraordinary things. I’ll spin out some of it over the coming weeks. In […]
Duck and cover…but don’t change
Cultural leaders in Orlando offered an odd response to the current economic crisis with their latest decision about the proposed $425 million Dr. P. Phillips Orlando Performing Arts Center. With a tough economy and missed targets on their fundraising, they’ve decided that architects should continue with detailed construction blueprints on the facility, while they wait […]
In Philly
I’m in Philadelphia through Sunday for two conferences back-to-back: First up is a session for the annual arts-participation grantee convening of The Wallace Foundation, where I’m co-presenting on the strategy of social media with Museum 2.0 blogger Nina Simon. The main event (at least for me, since I’m president) is the annual conference of the […]
The iLibrary of iCongress
As essential printed content is increasingly available on-line through Google Books, Open Library, and other digitization projects, the Library of Congress has announced initiatives to upload more of other forms of media as well. Macworld and others report on the library’s plans to post film, video, image, and audio materials on iTunes, Flickr, and YouTube, […]
What if I WANT to be a passive audience?
As arts organizations around the world retool their experiences to foster engagement, connection, participation, and audience interaction, the parody newspaper The Onion reminds us that these may not be universally welcomed innovations. The mock report describes the horror of theater attendees as performers break traditional boundaries, leave the stage, and attempt to connect with them […]
Benchmarking engagement
A key challenge to any community-wide audience-building initiative is the lack of effective metrics. If you don’t have a benchmark when you begin, it’s hard to know if all of your messaging, discounts, web sites, and innovative practices have had any positive effect on the thing you intended to improve. The Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance […]
Remix, remash, remarkable
If you’re wondering whether YouTube and its brethren are artistic tools in addition to being distribution tools, take a look at the work of Kutiman, born Ophir Kutiel. His on-line video project, ThruYou, clips and cuts existing YouTube videos into entirely new works of art. Says Merlin Mann to those in the music industry preparing […]
Capacities for imaginative learning
I’m a fan of core principles, or at least statements of core principles, because they offer such a productive launch point for a focused conversation. If you tell me what you believe to be at the center of things, we can explore together where we disagree on the basis of our thinking, rather than the […]
Is Obama combining arts policy and disability policy?
Neighbor blogger Judith H. Dobrzynski flagged (for me anyway) the first indication that the Obama administration has selected an arts policy liaison to join his staff, in the form of Chicago lawyer Kareem Dale. I hadn’t seen last week’s short and cryptic article in the New York Times that conveyed the decision. Said the Times: […]
Making molehills out of cliffs
Great (albeit harsh) thoughts from Adrian Ellis on the present and future state of museums in this economy. He posits that business of museums internationally has been shaped and hewn in service to the ultra-rich, leaving the institutions particularly vulnerable to the whims and toils of that constituency. Says Adrian: These institutions have been significant […]
