Andrew Taylor on the Business of Arts & Culture
www.artsjournal.com/artfulmanager/

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A shot across the bow
  Posted: January 5, 2007
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Artist/director/maven Peter Sellars got right to the point in his conference keynote for the American Symphony Orchestra League, suggesting that the contemporary standard for the American orchestra doesn't serve the art, doesn't serve humanity, and disconnects the two in the process:

If you want to respect your grandparents, take care of your kids. You can't keep your grandparents alive forever, but they're still with you in your own children. In America, we fell in love with an artificial life-support system that wouldn't let certain things die. Telling ourselves it was out of love that we were doing this, we starved the kids.

Any business that still has things on the shelf from 50 years ago as its primary offering...it's a little odd. Everybody's saying everything but the obvious -- it's dead.

Well worth a read or a listen. You can find links to the audio of the keynote (mp3 format) and a printed excerpt (pdf format) on Henry Fogel's weblog.