In late April, NAS attended the Open Education Global Conference 2015 in Banff, Canada. We were fully prepared to “wonk” out – and weren’t disappointed. If you’re wondering “what is open education?” – you're not alone! The Open Education Consortium (a conference organizer) offers a definition: Open education encompasses resources, tools and practices that employ a framework of open sharing to improve educational access and effectiveness worldwide. Put another way, open education is the application of open source principles that may be more … [Read more...]
Placemaking: It’s About Addressing the Disconnect
This week continues our conversation on creative placemaking where we asked our Creative Community Fellows to talk about creative placemaking and what their role is as community-engaged artists. We discovered that for many of our Fellows, the work they do is about addressing the disconnect that exists not only within the communities in which they are currently working but across sectors and social boundaries. We found that many Fellows see their work as a means to bridge these divides. In their conversation, Rachel Reynolds Luster and Laurelin … [Read more...]
Making the Argument for Leadership Development
Linda Wood, Senior Director of the Haas Leadership Initiative at the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, recently wrote an interesting post on The CEP Blog of the Center for Effective Philanthropy, "The Leadership Development Disconnect." Working both in the field of leadership development and on program evaluation, I was encouraged to see these important issues highlighted. Much of my experience is consistent with the author’s. In the post, Wood states: "…not enough funders are investing in strengthening the leadership of their grantees. And … [Read more...]
Evaluating to Increase Impact
Evaluation appeals to my intense curiosity to figure out how and why things work and don’t work. Many high performing organizations that I have come to know generally use a combination of formal and informal evaluation to build learning loops towards increasing strategic success. That is, they hire experts to increase internal knowledge and staff capabilities and to work with them on particularly complex inquiries, where it is critical to understand the elements on which a program will fail or succeed. And, they look to their staffs to … [Read more...]
What is the role of arts organizations in society & their place in the community?
Editor’s Note: This is one of a series of posts from guest bloggers discussing topics from this week’s Salzburg Global Forum for Young Cultural Leaders. Leaders from around the world are coming together to discuss issues that are critically important to the cultural sector − how do we create and articulate our value, what is global and what is local today and what is the role of arts organizations in society. Art plays many roles in society and, at different times, can speak to issues in areas such as religion, science, politics, … [Read more...]
Disrupting College
Clay Christensen and his team at Innosight Institute apply Christensen's model of disruptive innovation to higher education. It is a compelling presentation of the systematic barriers that keep the higher education sector from meeting its mission, the role that online learning technology and new providers are playing in changing the sector, and the way the business models of established institutions stop them from responding effectively. So why do we care in the arts and culture sector? I see powerful similarities between the structural issues … [Read more...]
Advocating for Arts in the Classroom
Mark Bauerlein has made a truly splendid argument for the real and important intrinsic value of the arts in our education system. Advocating for Arts in the Classroom : Education Next. … [Read more...]
Acting with Power Journal
An interesting integration of theatre and business school theory in a class led by Deborah Gruenfeld at Stanford University. This journal tracks and shares the progress of the class from week to week. Acting with Power Journal. … [Read more...]
Monitor: The net generation, unplugged | The Economist
An interesting article challenging the oft-received wisdom that millenials/gen y need to learn in a fundamentally different manner than their predecessors: "...there may be 'as much variation within the digital native generation as between the generations.' ” Monitor: The net generation, unplugged | The Economist. … [Read more...]
Mission Unaccomplished – Sara Robinson + Teo Greenstreet (2007)
This is not a new article, but Alan Brown reminded me of its value recently. Worth a read as we think about the purpose of the arts in society. Mission Unaccomplished - Sara Robinson + Teo Greenstreet (2007). … [Read more...]