The fun and intrigue of a national election (especially in a swing state like Wisconsin) always bring me to wonder at the glory of statistical evidence, and its practical application to really important decision-making. We all take measures of things when deciding which way to turn, how to vote, how much energy, cash, or staff […]
Archives for 2004
Teaching old books a new trick
Richard Adams in The Guardian has a great piece on a counter-intuitive result of the Internet on a venerable old retail model, actually helping it rather than killing it. Says Adams: It wasn’t meant to be like this. The internet was supposed to bid farewell to the need for buying books in shops. When the […]
The silent (audience) killer
Drive time is one of those quiet variables at work in the heads of our audiences, when considering a night out, a spontaneous group activity, or a season subscription. Who among us hasn’t thought about catching a show, only to consider the hassle of it and visit Blockbuster, instead? Who hasn’t come home after a […]
GETTY: Crafting the audience
In past posts about the June leadership roundtable at the Getty (see bottom of this entry for links in the series) on the nonprofit and forprofit cultural industries, I’ve focused almost entirely on the production side of the discussion (cash and capital and capacity, oh my). Equally compelling is the consumption side, where nonprofit and […]
More on the value of art
Russell Smith has some great musings on the value of art in the Globe and Mail. His thoughts are launched by the recent theft from the Munch Museum in Oslo. ‘The Scream,’ specifically, has no market value (since it can’t really be sold), has no bragging value, since any collector that has it can’t show […]
Roller Coaster Tycoon
A computer game that can simulate decision-making for the arts and cultural manager? Sure. Okay, you’re managing a theme park instead of a performing arts hall, but the experience is eerily similar.
The next best thing to an arts org. simulator
The New York Times Magazine a few weeks back featured a story on military training using the XBox video game player. The idea is to provide cheap and engaging video games that mimic real-life strategy issues or battle environments, so soldiers can learn as they play. ‘Full Spectrum Warrior’ for the XBox is now available […]
GETTY: More capital ideas
NOTE: This entry is part of a continuing series sprouting from a leadership roundtable hosted by the Getty Leadership Institute and National Arts Strategies in June 2004. For links to all posts in the series, see below. In the exploration of the differences between nonprofit and commercial cultural enterprise, we’ve already touched on the challenge […]
New museum model or Trojan horse?
The museum world is casting a wary eye on Clear Channel Communications, according to this LA Times report (username: ajreader@artsjournal.com, password: access). The multi-mega-media company, with efforts in radio, outdoor advertising, concert production and promotion, and other industries is touring its third museum show. It’s a bit of irony that the company’s third touring show […]
GETTY: Some capital ideas
Any extended conversation of nonprofit cultural enterprise will eventually wind its way to a certain business term: undercapitalization. The term and the challenge certainly came up often at the Getty Leadership Institute/National Arts Strategies roundtable I attended back in June. The general gist of the conversation is that the nonprofit arts lack sufficient capital to […]
