AJBlogs

Rachel Thompson shares the curricular ties between students and arts institutions

Rachel Thompson, Program Manager at the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise & Public Policy at Vanderbilt, talks about building curricular ties between students and the arts and art institutions.

What Ireland’s Basic Artist Income Experiment tells us about a new Arts Economy

Ireland demonstrated something: economic insecurity doesn't just force workers out, it diminishes the overall creative economy. That matters enormously right now, because we are entering a period when a lot of people across a lot of industries are about to lose their job security.

Born in the DSA*: Bat$#^t Crazy Leadership Does Not Happen By Accident, and It Can Only Be Crushed If We Do It Together

The popular guy in charge of the DSA is a greedy, paranoid sociopath, a malevolent narcissist, and is probably experiencing dementia. It’s a tactic that works for him, even as it destroys the DSA.

AJ Chronicles: The Biggest Fights about Culture

These weekly essays are meant to connect stories from the week to larger trends and ideas across the arts world. This week we collected 118 stories. Here's what I learned:

Amelia Durán shares the key pillars cultural organizations should adopt

Amelia Durán, Executive Director of Garage Cultural, shares the key pillars for cultural organizations focused on community.

You’re Not Still Planning an Arts Season From YOUR Perspective, Are You?

Are you still looking at plays and symphonies and exhibits as your starting point? A reasonable approach in 1976. Big mistake in 2026.

How AI Terminated 1,477 NEH Grants: A Naive Exercise in Casuistry

From 2010 until its sudden termination by DOGE last April, I directed Music Unwound, an NEH-funded national consortium of orchestras and universities.  A letter from Michael McDonald, the acting NEH chairman, informed me that the demise of Music Unwound represented “an urgent priority for the administration.” It was ended “to safeguard

Should there be a tax deduction for donating to the nonprofit arts?

I was at a seminar yesterday given by Professor Philip Hackney of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, given (via web) at the Marxe School at Baruch College, on “Tax Policy Toward Arts Nonprofits: Democracy or Plutocracy?” It’s a good question! I won’t try to summarize what Professor Hackney

Colleges, students, and jobs: nobody knows anything

In my past life I spent some time in university administration, and one of my jobs at this public university was to take proposals for new degree programs that the university had approved of to the state board of higher education, for their necessary approval. In those proposals we had to include

Erika Tazawa talks about the breadth of experience young people need to prepare for society

Erika Tazawa, Director of Choral Activities at the Wayne State University College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts, talks about the breadth of experience that young people need as they enter society.

Like I said on February 27, 2024: War Is Coming. You ready?

Everything that has led up to every “war to end all wars” is happening right now. What are you going to do?

Reading Eleonora Redaelli’s Invisible Cultural Policy in America

This recent book is open access, here. And my full review in the International Review of Public Policy is also open access, here. My review begins: There is an old joke: An American tourist is visiting Oxford for the first time, and on his first morning signs up for a guided walking tour. The

Trump and the Arts — Take Three

Having written a book – The Propaganda of Freedom – exploring the relationship between JFK and the arts, and having finished in manuscript a subsequent study of Leonard Bernstein and cultural leadership, I find myself responding to the Trump-Kennedy Center and kindred developments by looking backward at what might have

I didn’t want to be right: Kennedy Center closing for two years

Is the Kennedy Center really closing because of renovations? Or is it to save face from audience and artist protests?

Not an Arts Impact Statement, But Really Great

In the midst of a lot of other news in his first 8 days in office….funding for child care for all, reactions to tragedy, responding to threats from the federal government, and more, new New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani made ‘arts for all’ a priority.  On Friday, he joined with the producers of the

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