The past eighteen months while live performance venues were shut down has said a lot about how arts organizations see themselves. During COVID Lockdown Some went into hibernation, not having the resources or in some cases the imagination to go online, or else determining that the live in-person experience was essential to what they do. Others scrambled to get archived performances online or … [Read more...]
Archives for 2021
#2. Five Observations about COVID and the Arts: The Great Resignation and Beyond
This is the second of five observations about the arts after 18 months of COVID (note I'm not saying "post-"COVID). The first part was on money and the arts. Today I want to focus on a disruption in the labor market and how it will affect the arts. Big Picture Since April, millions and millions of workers have quit their jobs. Record numbers in April, July and August. This after a year when … [Read more...]
Observations on the Arts 18 Months into COVID: Finances
After an 18-month shutdown the arts are opening for live business again. COVID will be a continuing factor, but it's possible to start taking stock of what's changed over a tumultuous period and make some conjectures about going forward. So here's what I'm seeing, based on the thousands of arts stories we sift through in a given week. These observations are also based on dozens of … [Read more...]
ArtsJournal Turned 22 Today: A Chronicle of a Remarkable Cultural Era
Twenty-two years ago today – a Monday just as today is – I added the first stories and launched ArtsJournal. And waited. I emailed everyone I knew and soon there was a trickle of visitors. The idea for the site was simple – not a “news” site in the sense that you would necessarily come here for breaking news about the arts, but a provoker of conversation and a culture of ideas, powered and … [Read more...]
Make Google Pay for Linking to Content? Hmnnn.
Journalism, like the arts, has seen its business models upended. According to the Pew Research Center, advertising revenue in newspapers “fell from $37.8 billion in 2008 to $14.3 billion in 2018, a 62% decline. Newsroom employment at U.S. newspapers dropped by nearly half (47%) between 2008 and 2018, from about 71,000 workers to 38,000.” One could find equally dire equivalents in the arts, … [Read more...]
How Has Technology Changed Orchestras? — My Talk for the League of American Orchestras Conference
I was asked to deliver a "provocation" for this week's League of American Orchestras annual conference with the prompt "How has Technology Changed Orchestras Forever?" Here's a transcript of the talk, and, at the bottom of this page, the video: Hi. I’m not sure how smart it is to attack the premise of the session you’ve been asked to be part of, but I was asked for a provocation, so here … [Read more...]