Is local non-profit theater over? In crisis? In decline? About to pivot? On the verge of a massive shift? Funding is down down down. Ticket sales too. Was the pandemic the cause? Or did it hasten changes already in the works pre-pandemic? What are the remedies? My feed is full of dire threats and serious recommendations. I’ve been collecting these and am sharing some … [Read more...] about Now What? Celebrate Relevance.
Communicating about Arts
Civics is How We Take Care of the Space Between People
The most important thing I learned in a glorious Humana Festival weekend of theater — six new American plays and a lot of theater geeks—was not in a play at all. Anne Bogart gave a talk at the Festival. I recommend it to you. If you too are a contemporary American theater geek, you probably already know her name. As a mere lover of new plays, she was new to me when I … [Read more...] about Civics is How We Take Care of the Space Between People
What We Liked in 2017
When Doug McLennan asked me to write a description for my blog that ArtsJournal would begin hosting in 2017, I thought about the topics which move me to spend time writing—the things that I feel sufficient passion to write about without compensation. There’s no employer, no client, no contract, and no deadline. Looking at the writing I’d been doing for my own blog at … [Read more...] about What We Liked in 2017
How to Talk about Saving the NEA
Update: It's the 2018 2020 redux. The President's budget proposes to eliminate the NEA, National Endowment for the Humanities, Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Arts advocates and administrators have responded with pleas that federal arts funding is important and can’t be lost without ‘devastating’ consequences for arts … [Read more...] about How to Talk about Saving the NEA
Don’t Make People Think About Guns, If You Want to Fund the Arts
Excellent news this week as Congress said ‘NO’ to the President’s request to eliminate funding for the arts. How did that happen? With a lot of heavy lifting. Every time we fight this fight (and it happens every few years) we have to call on advocates from every congressional district to lobby their elected officials. We have to ask our business leaders and celebrities to … [Read more...] about Don’t Make People Think About Guns, If You Want to Fund the Arts