In July, Barry Hessenius posted an Interview with Aaron Dworkin, on Barry's Blog. Mr. Dworkin is founder and President of the Sphinx Organization, "the leading national arts organization that focuses on youth development and diversity in classical music." I was aware of Sphinx's work in identifying and supporting young people of color who aspire to careers in the classical music world. The desire to make our orchestras (in particular) less … [Read more...]
Why We Do It
I love Chicago. I love jazz. I love jazz clubs in Chicago; and one of my favorites is Andy's, a place my wife and I discovered because it has a show that begins before my bedtime. (Being a jazz lover and not being a night owl creates some real challenges for me.) We were recently in the Windy City and had the pleasure of hearing saxophonist Jimmy Ellis's quartet. (Click here for an article about him.) Mr. Ellis is in his 80's and is a legend in … [Read more...]
Not “Or”, “And”, but . . . .
A recent Op-Ed piece by Peter Singer in the New York Times, “Good Charity, Bad Charity”, has been the subject of considerable discussion in the arts world. Singer's premise is that a way to make choices in charitable giving is to evaluate social return on investment. He specifically compares "health and safety" giving to "arts, culture and heritage" contributions and comes to the conclusion that the former yields greater benefits for society. … [Read more...]
Benefits of the Arts Follow-Up
A commenter on Benefits of the Arts asked a great question: observing the similarities between the Rand Corporation’s Gifts of the Muse intrinsic/instrumental categories, wasn't my core/ancillary division simply a re-naming? (And Ian David Moss's later comment was in a similar vein.) Here was my semi-immediate response: While the whole concept is still baking, I’d say no on two grounds. First, the rationale for the core/ancillary distinction is … [Read more...]
Listening to Serve
In AftA Thoughts (2013): II, I suggested a question that can aid the transition to a community-oriented approach to the work of the arts: "How can we help?" In the aftermath of the June's Americans for the Arts conference in Pittsburgh and the One State Together conference in Moline, another "way of thinking" phrase that has potential for guiding us toward greater relevance has been crystallizing in my mind. In my Mainstreaming Engagement … [Read more...]
Benefits of the Arts
One of the best things about blogging (especially in the summer when so many of my colleagues in academia are paying less attention) is the opportunity to experiment with ideas that are, shall we say, not fully baked. Careful (and long-time) readers of this blog may recall that in my post Art for Art's Sake? There's No Such Thing, I expressed some discomfort with the notions of intrinsic and instrumental benefits of the arts. That construct … [Read more...]
Two Tribes
While this post was inspired by the recent Americans for the Arts Conference in Pittsburgh, I'm not labeling it as AftA Thoughts like my other two because it's inspired by 1) a session I did not attend and 2) a post-conference gathering of NASAA's (National Assembly of State Arts Agencies) Community Development Network. In the former, Holly Sidford was interviewed about her research. While hearsay is a notoriously unreliable way to gather … [Read more...]
AftA (2013) Thoughts: II
In AftA Thoughts (2013) : I I began to debrief on my Americans for the Arts 2013 Conference experience. On the second day I had a moment of cognitive dissonance worth exploring. Two back-to-back sessions were inspiring. The Town Hall meeting featuring Bill Strickland of Manchester Bidwell Corporation highlighted wonderful work utilizing the arts to improve communities. A breakout session following gave examples of similar good things being done … [Read more...]
Inside Out in Illinois
Inside Out: Arts and Community, was the biennial One State Together in the Arts conference presented by Arts Alliance Illinois and the Illinois Arts Council Agency. Held June 24-25 in Moline, I was privileged to have been invited to speak and present a mini-workshop. OK. Imagine me at a statewide conference devoted exclusively to the arts and community engagement. Got the picture? Yep. Hog heaven. But as an indication of how much I've been on … [Read more...]
AftA Thoughts (2013): I
The 2013 Americans for the Arts Convention was held in Pittsburgh earlier this month. I went, with my newly minted Twitter account, intent on communicating about what happened as it happened. Then I discovered I have a learning disability. I simply cannot tweet and process what's happening at the same time–not just the same instant, but the same time frame! (For those of you who have already abandoned Twitter, yes I know I'm way late to the … [Read more...]