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Dallas Shelby

About Dallas Shelby

Dallas Shelby is NAS Director, Communications and Editor-in-Chief of Field Notes. He has a background in independent film and is very interested in the ProAm Revolution, community engagement, co-creation, education (particularly the Edupunk movement) and anything DIY. Dallas dreams of one day running a creative hub — an organization that offers access to art and ideas, one that gives the community a vehicle for its own creative expression.

Raising the Tide of Value

Posted May 10th, 2013 by 4 comments

Editor’s note: Over the next two weeks, we’ll feature posts around the final convening of our Chief Executive Program, The Summit at Sundance. We invite you to participate in an online discussion of four major issues facing the cultural field. In this post, Dallas Shelby introduces the last of the problem statements. Why do the arts matter? Why does creativity matter? Why do you matter? What value do we create? We should all be able to answer these questions, and the easier it we can make it to do so the better off we will be.  We may … [Read more...]

Topic: Events NAS Experience The Summit at Sundance | Themes: , , ,

Placemaking: Leverage, Alignment and Moving Mountains

Posted April 21st, 2013 by 1 comment
Irrigate!

Leverage. “Give me a place to stand and I shall move mountains with it.” This was Archimedes’ take on it back in the 3rd century B.C. Given that arts and culture organizations are in the business of moving mountains, leverage and a place to stand (alignment) are the keys to their success. In physics a lever amplifies an input force to provide a greater output force. That lever pivots on a fulcrum and where you place that fulcrum makes all the difference. As does finding the right lever, ideally one that produces no friction. To … [Read more...]

Topic: Stories from the field | Themes: , ,

Training ourselves to see the invisible gorilla

Posted February 14th, 2013 by 2 comments
Trafton Drew & Jeremy Wolfe

Earlier this week, NPR ran a story about some interesting research into the concept of inattential blindness that I think is incredibly instructive for arts leaders. The study went like this: an image of a man in a gorilla suit was superimposed upon a series of slides that radiologists typically use to look for cancer (see the image to the left). A group of radiologists were then asked to review the slides for cancerous nodules. The result? 83% did not see the gorilla.   “When you ask someone to perform a challenging task, without … [Read more...]

Topic: Reading List | Themes: , ,

What’s your mandate?

Posted January 20th, 2013 by 3 comments
What is your mandate?

My fellow cultural leaders, I am here today humbled by the task before me, grateful for the trust bestowed by ArtsJournal and mindful of the sacrifices borne by my predecessors. We live in a time of unprecedented challenge. And, as we navigate the rough seas of uncertainty, we must set our course toward a guiding light:  the will of the people – our mandate. (Applause.) There have been many conversations here in the U.S. in recent weeks about mandates. What is President Obama’s mandate? What is Congress’ mandate? It’s a feature … [Read more...]

Topic: Conversation | Themes: , , , ,

Stories from the Field: The Walters Art Museum

Posted December 16th, 2012 by Leave a comment
Art Bytes

For centuries, museums have been places folks go to see important stuff. (Museums are full of stuff.) That stuff has always been carefully chosen by experts – folks with information – in the museum. (Museums are also full of experts.) Digital technology has made information readily available to folks outside of museums. Now, not only can folks see stuff online, but they also consider themselves experts. What’s a museum to do? I went to Baltimore to talk with Dr. Gary Vikan, director of the Walters Art Museum and the museum’s … [Read more...]

Topic: Stories from the field | Themes: , , ,

The Competing Values Framework

Posted December 9th, 2012 by 1 comment
Competing Values Framework

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: We’re looking for new ways of doing things. We are a highly collaborative organization. Our work is dictated by process. Our staff is goal-oriented. We’ve all likely made at least one of these statements, each of which are indicative of an implicit value contained within our organizations’ cultures. The issue, however, is that some of these values are in opposition to each other. So, while we may have said these things, hopefully it was not in the same breath. Welcome to the world of the … [Read more...]

Topic: Conversation | Themes: , ,

Salzburg Global Forum: Some Final Thoughts

Posted November 18th, 2012 by , , and Leave a comment
Salzburg Global Forum for Young Cultural Leaders

We introduced Field Notes as a means of amplifying meaningful conversation. Over the last couple of weeks we put that to the test with content from the Salzburg Global Forum for Young Cultural Leaders, a program that was essentially 5 days of non-stop (and I mean that in the best possible sense) conversation among 64 people from 35 different countries. On an individual basis, I learned something from each conversation, each interview, each post. On a collective basis, what I learned was not something new but it was still incredibly valuable … [Read more...]

Topic: Creating & Communicating Value Events Role of Arts in Civil Society What is Global and Local? Young Cultural Leaders Forum | Themes: , , ,

The Role of Arts Organizations in Society

Posted October 30th, 2012 by Leave a comment
society_feature

Watch the following video of Fellows of the Salzburg Global Forum for Young Cultural Leaders talking about the day’s discussion of the role of arts organizations in society and their place in the community.     Add your voice to the discussion. Use the comments below to weigh in with your thoughts on the role of arts organizations.   … [Read more...]

Topic: Role of Arts in Civil Society Young Cultural Leaders Forum | Themes: , , , ,

What is Global & What is Local?

Posted October 29th, 2012 by Leave a comment
Glocal_feature

Watch the following video of Fellows of the Salzburg Global Forum for Young Cultural Leaders talking about the day's discussion around the topics of globalism and localism.     Add your voice to the discussion. Use the comments below to weigh in with your thoughts on how we in the arts create and articulate value. … [Read more...]

Topic: What is Global and Local? Young Cultural Leaders Forum | Themes: , ,

The Creation & Communication of Value

Posted October 28th, 2012 by 1 comment
Salzburg Global Forum for Young Cultural Leaders

Watch the following video of Fellows of the Salzburg Global Forum for Young Cultural Leaders talking about the day's discussion around the topic of value in the arts and culture field.     Add your voice to the discussion. Use the comments below to weigh in with your thoughts on how we in the arts create and articulate value. … [Read more...]

Topic: Creating & Communicating Value Young Cultural Leaders Forum | Themes: , ,
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