The Artful Manager

If you're curious about the prospects of the Low-Profit Limited Liability Company (L3C) business entity for arts and cultural enterprise, and you're in or near New York on November 16, then get thee to Columbia University between 2:00 and 6:00 pm. I'll be moderating an afternoon symposium on that very topic featuring many of the experts on the form and its potential. … [Read more...]

During the public forum I helped coordinate last week with my American University colleagues and the National Endowment for the Arts (archived video available here), panelist Shahin Shikhaliyev said something that grabbed my attention and wouldn't let go. … [Read more...]

UPDATE: Video from this event is available online! Enjoy. The National Endowment for the Arts releases its new report and research strategic plan today in a document called "How Art Works." Join my American University colleagues and I, along with some fantastic presenters and panelists, for a live public forum in-person and via video stream on the document and its implications for the wider arts world. Hashtag along with us on Twitter with the tag #HowArtWorks. We'll do our best to bring online comments and questions into the room. See … [Read more...]

For many reasons, the questions of 'audience engagement' have been simmering in my head in recent weeks. For one, I'm working on a project on that very topic, as an advising consultant to AMS Planning & Research for TCG's Audience (R)Evolution initiative. For another, I'm prepping for this Thursday's 'How Art Works' public forum with the National Endowment for the Arts and their new systems map, which explores how individual and social impacts flow from the arts experience. … [Read more...]

If you have an interest in getting money given to you by strangers, you might be equally interested to know that September 15 is Free Money Day (via GOOD). So, on Saturday of this week, you will find individuals standing on street corners not ASKING for change, but giving it out. And if you're so inclined, you can just as easily be a distributor of money as a recipient (you need to give away your own money). … [Read more...]

On Thursday, September 20, from 2:00- 5:30 pm Eastern Time, I'm thrilled to be coordinating a public forum at American University alongside my brilliant Arts Management colleagues. The subject is the tiny question of "How Art Works" to impact the lives of individuals, communities, and society. … [Read more...]

Nobel prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman knows a bit about happiness. And his research suggests that we're easily confused about what will make us happy. Kahneman calls this the 'focusing illusion,' which leads us to overemphasize a whole series of factors that might make us happy, while ignoring the factors that really matter … [Read more...]

As a counterpoint and antidote to my post yesterday on the dark and difficult side of creative placemaking, I felt compelled to share the bold and brighter side. From the astounding mind, mission, and vision of Robert E. Gard in 1969 … [Read more...]

KCRW's 'The Business' offers a fascinating conversation (beginning at 22:44) on the more complex and nuanced aspects of 'creative placemaking,' challenging the assumption that it's always good for everyone. The place, in this case, is Rabun County, Georgia, where the movie Deliverance was filmed 40 years ago. … [Read more...]

Part of 'basic training' in any business school is understanding opportunity cost, the measure of lost opportunities (or opportunities forgone) when you choose one strategy or path or project over others. Calculating your opportunity cost is essentially an exercise in pre-emptive regret -- if I spend my money, or time, or attention on this particular thing, will I eventually wish I would have spent it another way? … [Read more...]