When we talk about the arts and DIY, we commonly refer to craft activities or teaching oneself how to play a musical instrument. But what could be more DIY than free-form dancing? The adjective says it all. Free-form, freestyle, or free dance is a series of unstructured, personally directed movements in which creativity and improvisation are at a premium....
ArtReview tells us that the French Culture Pass is being put on simmer:
The French Government has announced a 50 percent cut in their lauded Culture Pass, four years after its nationwide launch for young people aged fifteen to eighteen to take up cultural activities.
The legislation, signed by Prime Minister François Bayrou, the Culture Minister Rachida Dati and other ministers, sees the pass for...
Recently artsjournal.com shared a lengthy piece by composer and musician Jonathan Blumhofer, on the arts in times of political unrest. Although you will see I disagree with its message, it is a thoughtful and considered piece.
After a discussion of the complex, to say the least, relationship between conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler and the Nazis, he writes:
Furtwängler and his Brahms performance...
Patricia Mooradian, President & CEO of The Henry Ford, shares the extraordinary journey and impact of The Jackson House where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stayed and planned the Selma-to-Montgomery marches.
A new report from the National Endowment for the Arts re-affirms what we have learned from many other previous studies—namely, that arts education is closely linked with positive academic outcomes and social and emotional development.
The report appears in the wake of new data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), based on survey questions that researchers from the...
The arts themselves, as I considered the matter, by their ultimately sensual essence, are, in the long run, inimical to those who pursue power for its own sake. Conversely, the artist who traffics in power does so, if not necessarily disastrously, at least at considerable risk.
A Buyer’s Market (1952).
Call it entrumpy—a “gradual decline into disorder” (riffing on “entropy”), attributable to the unpredictability of our unprecedented President. Exploiting his
In this episode, we discuss findings from a UK study about the economic consequences of using arts-based strategies to improve health and well-being. A transcript is available at the Arts Endowment website.
A conversation with Hana S. Sharif, Artistic Director of Arena Stage since August 2023. Sharif discusses her transformative first year at the helm and her inaugural season as Arena’s producing artistic director. She reflects on the vibrant theatrical community in Washington, D.C., and her commitment to amplifying dynamic voices in American theater. With an ambitious 2024/25 season featuring eight new works, including...
It’s been a year since I posted to the Artful Manager, when I reflected on the passing of my dear friend and colleague Diane Ragsdale. Since then, I’ve been focusing my public writing in the ArtsManaged initiative, an effort to create free, online, and evolving resources for Arts Management practitioners. You can subscribe to the weekly newsletter, browse the...
Art that is primarily skill-based -- graphic design, stock music or images, text and marketing, etc -- can be created faster and often better than human artists, and at lower cost. This is particularly true for compound art that requires specialized equipment and/or collaboration of specialists. As for art with high creative quotient, humans will not only be essential, but the automation of skills available to them will likely make them better. Maybe much better. And certainly more prolific.
