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On artists making a living and artistic directors that could make a difference but don’t

November 14, 2011 By 53 Comments
Ethan Lipton

Saturday night I went to Joe’s Pub to see playwright-lounge lizard Ethan Lipton & His Orchestra perform  his new work, No Place To Go, about a playwright-lounge lizard that must decide whether to relocate or stay in the ‘the city’ when the company that has provided him with a steady ‘day-job’ (part-time no-benefits employment) for a decade decides to relocate to Mars.  It’s funny, satirical, and poignant. As you might have inferred, the piece is inspired by events in Lipton’s life. Some of my friends who are actors, … [Read more...]

11/14/11 10:13 PM | filed under: Artistic Standards & Quality, Asymmetric power dynamics, ethics, leadership |

So I’m at this meeting and, you’ll never believe it, there are NO press.

November 5, 2011 By 10 Comments
Mead Center from Sixth Street

So, I’m attending a meeting at Arena Stage in Washington DC today. The attendees are staff members at Arena Stage, about 18 nonprofit and commercial theater producers, and a handful of artists (playwrights, composers). The purpose is to discuss issues of common concern around developing and producing new work. I am here primarily to help document the meeting. There are no press at the meeting. A few months ago I attended a meeting of about 25 or 30 performing arts presenting curators and nonprofit theater artistic directors. The purpose … [Read more...]

11/5/11 1:58 PM | filed under: arts conferences |

It’s been a great year. Thanks!

November 2, 2011 By 1 Comment
hand turkey

I may be unable to post much the next few weeks as I'm on planes and trains, buried in research materials, visiting friends and family that I too rarely get to see these days, and sprinting to the finish line on a few projects. But I want to take the opportunity to thank Doug Mclennan for the opportunity to launch Jumper on ArtsJournal.com (a gift for which I will be forever grateful) and to thank everyone that has taken the time these past twelve months to read posts, post comments, send emails, Tweet, ReTweet, republish, or otherwise … [Read more...]

11/2/11 9:30 AM | filed under: Uncategorized |

The times may be a-changin’ but (no surprise) arts philanthropy ain’t

October 24, 2011 By 14 Comments
bullballerina

The Philanthropy News Digest recently sent me a bulletin with the headline, “Arts Funding Does Not Reflect Nation's Diversity, Report Finds” which linked me to an AP Newsbreak article with the headline “Report finds arts funding serves wealthy audience, is out of touch with diversity”. My initial thought was, “Seriously? We need a report to tell us this?” The report, Fusing Arts, Culture, and Social Change: High Impact Strategies for Philanthropy, was produced by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy and written by … [Read more...]

10/24/11 10:43 AM | filed under: Asymmetric power dynamics, Democratization of Culture, engagement, ethics, nonprofit model, subsidization of the arts |

Digitisation in the arts: Is there a do-over if we get it wrong?

October 17, 2011 By 10 Comments
shutterstock_26267014 leap over gap

I've recently come across four articles/papers that have me grappling with the promise and the potential threats of digitisation in the arts and culture sector. At the end of September I read an article in “Inside Higher Ed” discussing some truly exciting advances in the 'digital humanities', a branch of the field that uses “technology-heavy approaches” to study and provide new ways of understanding and experiencing history, language, art and culture. The National Endowment for the Humanities recently hosted a conference with the 60 … [Read more...]

10/17/11 12:50 PM | filed under: Innovation |

What are we incubating and to what end?

October 2, 2011 By 9 Comments
starry night egg

A couple weeks back Thomas Cott published an issue of “You’ve Cott Mail” centered loosely on the theme of innovation and business incubators in the arts world, in which he linked to a post by one of my favorite bloggers/researchers/thinkers, Devon Smith. Devon contrasted the concept of ‘incubator’ in the tech world and the arts world. After reading her post I was curious to read up on technology and business incubators and ask myself what, exactly, arts incubators are incubating and to what end? Devon makes the point that in the … [Read more...]

10/2/11 8:53 PM | filed under: Artistic Standards & Quality, Innovation, Supply/Demand |

50+ years of backing away from the hazardous ledge of imagination

September 19, 2011 By 16 Comments
salary_ledge

Last week the NEA announced a round of 34 grants totaling $11.5 million as part of a new program, ArtPlace, which aims to integrate artists and arts groups into local efforts in transportation, housing, community development and job creation as an important tool of economic recovery. ArtPlace is a joint-initiative of the NEA and a consortium of foundations, corporations and federal agencies. Luis A. Ubiñas, president of the Ford Foundation and chairman of the ArtPlace Presidents’ Council, is quoted saying: “The arts are inherently … [Read more...]

09/19/11 12:32 PM | filed under: Economic Impact Studies, subsidization of the arts |

Works-in-process in an everyone-is-a-critic-now world.

September 11, 2011 By 14 Comments
under_construction

If inviting general audiences into the artistic process now means potentially inviting them to share their feedback with the world does this change how we think about presenting works-in-development for public audiences? Perhaps I have a skewed perception, but it strikes me that over the past couple decades (at least in the US) arts organizations have increasingly presented half- or nearly-baked works to the public and (in many cases) charged them money for the privilege of seeing this work. For a variety of reasons, we have invited patrons … [Read more...]

09/11/11 10:06 PM | filed under: Artistic Standards & Quality, Democratization of Culture, engagement |

But What Does Barry’s List Mean?

September 6, 2011 By 6 Comments
the politics of culture

So Barry’s Blog posted its annual Top 25 Most Powerful and Influential Leaders in the Nonprofit Arts list last week. In years’ past I would see this list and bemoan the fact that it seemed to be dominated by funders. I never said anything because I thought it would probably come across as sour grapes since I was, at the time, a funder (but not one that made the list).  As it turns out, this year I squeaked onto the list … barely. And so (with this new found and, no doubt, short-lived position of influence) I have decided to raise the … [Read more...]

09/6/11 10:47 AM | filed under: Asymmetric power dynamics, leadership |

The lesson in my new tree for arts policy makers

August 28, 2011 By 7 Comments
DSC01879

About my tree: Last month my husband and I hired a small family-owned landscaping business to help us renovate the small gardens in the front and back of our house. They planted three new trees, two of which are young (thin) but already quite tall. They planted the trees with support poles on either side to ensure they grow straight (see pic). As I have never had a garden I asked how many weeks the poles would need to stay. The answer: three years. About the production houses in the Netherlands: For years the Netherlands has had a … [Read more...]

08/28/11 5:05 PM | filed under: Artistic Standards & Quality, Innovation, subsidization of the arts |

How to avoid a strip-mall future for the arts sector: Lessons from the boutique label, Pi

August 22, 2011 By 9 Comments
shutterstock_53960845 strip mall

This past week I came across a New York Times article featured on ArtsJournal examining the remarkable success of the indie Jazz label, Pi. The article demonstrates that Pi is bucking trends in the music industry. It is managing to not just keep its head above water at a time when many music labels are struggling, but it is having tremendous impact despite being a relatively small Jazz label focused on the leading edge of its artform. Here are a few keys to Pi’s success (which I gleaned from the article): (1)   Unlike many labels … [Read more...]

08/22/11 7:10 PM | filed under: Artistic Standards & Quality, Innovation, Supply/Demand, Undercapitalization |

No algorithms needed for this show recommender system

August 14, 2011 By 7 Comments
low-tech-lower-res

I’m back from my honeymoon and a brief hiatus from Jumper. Despite a volatile stock market, downgrading of the US credit rating, questions about the fate of the Euro, and arts budgets hither and yon that are already slashed or soon to be so, the 2011-2012 arts season begins (although sadly with the loss of some very good organizations). I’ll be honest, since moving to the Netherlands I have not seen nearly as much work as I would have liked. This is primarily due to other commitments (family, Dutch lessons, work) and logistics (I have a … [Read more...]

08/14/11 9:22 PM | filed under: engagement |

Arts Orgs: Places 2Meet or Not2Meet?

July 10, 2011 By 10 Comments
Seats2Meet - Utrecht

I’m getting married in a couple weeks and then headed on my honeymoon so this will be my last post until mid-August. Enjoy these summer days! So, I recently learned about an innovation in meeting spaces that was founded in the Netherlands and has begun to spread across Europe. It’s called Seats2Meet. The concept is a communal space where independent contractors or those simply in need of a temporary workspace can come to plug-in, meet-up, and network. I visited a new location at Utrecht Central Station, near my home. The day I … [Read more...]

07/10/11 10:10 PM | filed under: community |

On toilet-scrubbing Boomers & succession planning

June 27, 2011 By 4 Comments
shutterstock_66416425 toilet brush

In last week's post, I asked whether the nonprofit art sector in the US constitutes ‘good work’ from the perspective of the artists and staffers working therein. The paragraph on ‘scrubbing toilets’ sparked quite a bit of attention and stimulated several comments on succession planning. While succession planning (or the lack of it) in the nonprofit arts sector was not the solution (problem) I was aiming at in my first post, it’s a compelling topic, so I thought I’d share a few thoughts. In 2005, Jerry Yoshitomi and I … [Read more...]

06/27/11 2:55 PM | filed under: succession planning |

It may be excellent work … but is it good?

June 20, 2011 By 16 Comments
shutterstock_76916140 right wrong

A few years back I heard Howard Gardner speak in a lecture series at MOMA in NYC called The True, the Beautiful and the Good, Reconsiderations in a Postmodern, Digital Era. I attended the lecture on ‘the Good’ in which Gardner described ‘good work’ (in the sense of one’s vocation/job) as work that is excellent, engaging, and ethical (for more on this idea, check out Gardner's Goodwork Toolkit). As soon as I heard the description my mind began working on a question: By-and-large, are nonprofit arts organizations doing ‘good’ (i.e., … [Read more...]

06/20/11 2:10 PM | filed under: Asymmetric power dynamics, engagement, ethics |
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