For What It's Worth

A couple of weeks ago, in a post on quantification in the arts, I wrote: Is the need for quantitative evidence being unfairly demanded from the arts sector? Here’s a thought: what if advocates for the arts in the public and nonprofit sectors have themselves chosen to emphasize quantitative evidence, in part because the rhetorical case for arts support is so very challenging? Presenting numbers, after all, has the virtue of being just so easy, even if in fact they are numbers that don’t mean anything (I’m looking at you, ‘economic impact’ … [Read more...]

We have links to two stories today, Elisabeth Vincentelli asking that people try a little harder to look decent when they attend the theatre, much as they might be comfortable in their cargo pants and their Black Sabbath 1982 Mob Rules tour official t-shirt, and Alexis Kleinman in rebuttal - with the arts already having problems of being exclusive, why exacerbate by imposing a dress code? I side with Ms Vincentelli, for three reasons. First, putting on long pants and a shirt that involves buttons, for men (I'll confine myself to men to … [Read more...]

In yesterday's post, I wrote (as an aside): I see a lot of advocacy that follows the '1. the cultural sector is bigger than you thought it was, 2. ???, 3. deserves more public funding' model. Conveniently, this morning we get this story from The Scotsman on the Edinburgh Festival: Flagship events like the Edinburgh International Festival, the Fringe, the Tattoo and the Hogmanay festivities are now attracting a record 4.5 million people each year – up by more than 250,000 in that period. They are also now supporting 6,021 jobs – up by … [Read more...]

The NEA has posted a very interesting interview between their Sunil Iyengar and the critic Leon Wieseltier. It raises interesting questions about the role of measurement in arts policy, and so here is something of an annotation of part of the interview (and do read the whole thing). IYENGAR: To measure the value of arts and culture in society: is this a fool’s errand, then, or do you think there are probably legitimate ways within the social sciences? WIESELTIER: I think the question of what the value of art is in society is not a … [Read more...]

Suppose I suggested that we can think about how the plot of a work of fiction is progressing according to whether the emotional valence is rising or falling. I then asked you to think of what shape the overall plot could take, in terms of rising or falling emotional valence. You might suggest the following possibilities: Rising throughout Falling throughout Rising then falling Falling then rising Rising then falling then rising Falling then rising then falling. Artsjournal.com links to this story from the MIT technology … [Read more...]

Midsomer Murders is a long-running English detective series produced by ITV, based upon the characters created by Caroline Graham. Chief Inspector Barnaby and his team solve crimes in this (fictional) county of small villages and lovely rural landscapes. In Midsomer people ride their bicycles past thatched-roofed houses to attend fetes, go to Church of England Sunday services, and relax in the evenings at the local pub - it's all very peaceful, except of course for all the murders, difficult though not impossible to solve. In 2011 the show's … [Read more...]

The Guardian reports that next week Professor Michael Waterson will release a UK government commissioned report on the regulation of ticket resale. I'm glad to hear it, because it might shed some light on an issue which the press seems to find simple - touts are ripping off consumers and there ought to be a law! - but which I find very complex. Here are three questions I hope it answers. I don't have the answers - these are real questions! First, what is the presenting problem for public policy? If it is that sometimes resellers use … [Read more...]

At flux[x] Tom Whitwell has a very interesting read on pricing, and the psychology behind how we make choices when confronted with varying sets of prices. I highly recommend it. He uses examples ranging from newspaper paywalls, Netflix and phone packages, wine, and experimental evidence regarding beer. In short: "Prices are a shortcut to our most sensitive emotional responses." Sometimes, yes. But. I think it is important for arts administration practitioners and students to be careful not to see all pricing strategies as ways to mine the … [Read more...]

At the Chronicle of Higher Education, Erik Gilbert writes that academics should calm down about college campuses being moved by legislation to allow the concealed carry of firearms. He concludes: People who are terrified by the prospect of a few students who have gone though background checks bringing concealed weapons to class are being just as irrational in their risk assessment as people who won’t leave the house unarmed. Speaking of flawed risk assessment, suggestions that Texas faculty avoid teaching controversial topics are predicated … [Read more...]

The estate of Harper Lee has decided to end its relationship with Hachette publishers, which was licensed through HarperCollins to produce a mass-market paperback edition of To Kill A Mockingbird. HarperCollins will continue to produce a trade paperback version. See these reports from The New Republic and The Guardian. Since the author only died this year, under current law the novel would not enter the public domain until 2086, though the duration of copyright tends to get longer rather than shorter with each revision, and so even that date … [Read more...]