One of the attributes we recognize and admire in great artists, curators, and other professionals is how quickly and decisively they assess the world around them. They see almost immediately whether an action, object, or direction is ‘right’ or ‘aligned’ with some larger vision. Or whether an action, object, or direction is ‘good’ by technical […]
Archives for 2015
The chance and cost of being wrong
I’ve been reading a lot lately about data-informed decision making…more than is likely healthy for me. And so much of what I read begins and ends with the assumption that more data is always better. The texts jump right in to how you collect, analyze, interpret, and report data, as if it’s always a net […]
Structure is everything, and nothing…
As a professor of Arts Management, I spend a disproportionate amount of time thinking about structure and strategy…all the ways that the tools of our work distort and distract the goals of our work. I learn and teach about understanding how the complexities of work life, wealth, power, and politics can be discovered, diagnosed, and […]
The Grand Both/And
For a long while, my teaching in arts management has emphasized “balance”…the nuanced navigation of opposing forces, the careful and reflective response to instability.
The Suspension of Belief
A favorite line from a favorite poem is dogging me these days. It’s from Wallace Stevens’ “Man Carrying Thing“, which begins: The poem must resist the intelligence Almost successfully.
Remember that one time, when I blogged?
It’s been a long, long while since I posted to this blog. For those who were annoyed by that, apologies. For those who didn’t notice, hello.
Arts Entrepreneurship vs. the Sum of Its Parts
As a member of the editorial board for Artivate, a journal on entrepreneurship in the arts, I was asked to write a short reflection on what “arts entrepreneurship” is, exactly, and how we might think about the phrase and the field (or bundle of fields) it represents. Full text is below, and other essays in […]
The Theory of Strategy
Imagine that there was a commonly-held theory of gravity that said objects will fall at an increasing rate, pause halfway, do a little spin, and then continue to fall. Imagine, then, that you never actually observe any object falling in that particular way. A little like that, sure…the falling part. But not exactly like that, […]
Passion and Permission
KCRW’s The Business has a fabulous interview with Ava DuVernay (starts at 07:22), director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., biopic Selma. DuVernay transitioned from film marketing and publicity into film making, originally in small documentaries and indie films, and now a major motion picture.