AJBlogs

In this episode, we discuss digital creators and how data can help illuminate a field marked by hybridity and rapidly evolving practice. A transcript is available on the NEA website.

Jeremy Denk Allen Guelzo Excerpts from my most recent “More than Music” show on

The comedian’s late-career epiphany and the nonprofit arts sector begs the question: what happens when you eliminate “hope?” ...

(January 24, 1970, Richard Nixon in Philadelphia to present the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Eugene Ormandy: AP photo). A few days ago I wrote about a post by Thomas Wolf on public arts support in the US – I focused on what he said about the income tax deduction for charitable donations as an “indirect” arts policy. Not to get all obsessive about...

I’m probably not the only one who did a doubletake upon seeing this alarming red alert atop the J. Paul

(“Vanessa Bell in a Deckchair” by Roger Fry) From Robert Skidelsky, John Maynard Keynes 1883-1946, Economist, Philosopher, Statesman: The autumn of 1925 found Keynes, as usual, complaining of overwork (‘too much to do, no leisure, no peace, too much to think about…’). A substantial commitment was organising the London Artists’ Association, in homage to both art and friendship. The idea was to...

Thomas Wolf has posted a short piece on the history of the National Endowment for the Arts, whether it is likely to survive the coming second Trump administration, and the tax deduction for charitable contributions. I’m going to focus on that last bit… People who itemize their income tax deductions can claim contributions to registered charities. Wolf writes: The U.S. government does play...

Inspired by Spotify Wrapped, check out this podcast based on all the Row X posts to date.

The January 2024 “Healing, Bridging, Thriving” summit at the NEA celebrated an ethos of cross-sectoral partnerships involving the arts in federal government. Memorable outcomes were an interagency working group led by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the NEA, an impassioned speech by the Surgeon General, and an artists-in-residence pilot program at the Environmental Protection Agency.  In addition, in...

Teddy died last Sunday after a short, swift illness, probably cancer. He was eleven years old. My seminal Teddy memory:

Pre-internet, the lines were pretty clear about the binary relationship between artist and audience. Artists created and audience consumed. In today’s digital world, the landscape is fluid—we create and express our identities by what we choose to share online. Sharing, or curating what we encounter both online and in the real world, is perceived as a creative act. In the online world, art doesn’t become activated until people decide to “do” something measurable with it.

When Philippe de Montebello announced his intention to retire after three decades as the director of the Metropolitan Museum of

What can we learn about arts marketing from how people consume information about elections? Lead with vibes.

I’m proud of my two published books (Miles Ornette Cecil – Jazz Beyond Jazz and Future Jazz) and my unpublished ones, too; the two iterations of the encyclopedia of jazz and blues; I edited, and my collaborations with some musicians creating their own books — but right now I’m crazy enthusiastic about The Jazz Omnibus: 21st-Century Photos and Writings...

I was so pleased to get back to Call Time after some time off (for both work and pleasure) and to get to come back to it with the amazing Jack Viertel. As some of you might know, Jack was one of my original guests on Call Time when it was in its infancy as […]