Archives for June 2005

Wired magazine this month focuses on the emerging ”cut and paste” culture of sampling, homegrown branding, remixes, and other media mash-ups. Particularly interesting is a short essay by cyberpunk novelist William Gibson where he explores the creative power of combining and reconceiving other people’s work. It’s a practice he traces to William S. Burroughs, Picasso, […]

The Philadelphia Inquirer covers the current financial woes of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts (login required, try BugMeNot to get one). The multi-venue cultural complex in Philadelphia opened in December 2001 to much fanfare (and much financial squabbling). On top of lower ticket sales, sluggish fundraising, and under-budget operating fees (such as the […]

Princeton University explored the intersection of discovery and beauty this semester with its ”Art of Science Competition.” According to the project’s web site: This spring we asked the Princeton University community to submit imagery produced in the course of research or incorporating tools and concepts from science. The response was overwhelming: more than 200 entries […]

I know that corporate governance and financial reporting reform is the ideal way to start the week…so fun, so light, so intriguing. But sarcasm aside, there are good reasons to be at least marginally aware of the seismic shifts in what the federal government requires of public (and soon nonprofit) corporations. First, a bit of […]

ArtsJournal has another wonderful conversation running with its short-term weblog featuring violinist Midori. The artist is exchanging ideas and insights with ArtsJournal editor Doug McLennan as she tours Asia. Her entry today explores some of her frustration and disbelief with the boundaries built between professional classical artists and their audiences. Says she: One of the […]

I’ve been noticing a common thread in many of the conversations I’ve been having and hearing among arts professionals. There’s the tension between what a ‘curator’ presents and what the public wants; between ‘teaching’ an audience that doesn’t yet value our craft and ‘learning’ what they value; between being more engaged with a community but […]

Writing my post earlier this week reminded me of another useful business theory that I hadn’t yet discussed in this weblog. The ”theory of action” proposed by Chris Argyris and Donald Schön way back in 1974 explores the difference between what people say they value and what their actions suggest they value. The two can […]

I don’t intend for my weblog to become a techno/trend rag, but I’ll admit to a strange fascination for how new technologies change our behavior, or expose behaviors that have always been there. One particularly interesting question for me is how we cluster our cultural preferences (and how arts organizations do it for us). The […]

I realize it’s odd for an arts and culture business weblog to talk about pizza delivery, but Super Fast Pizza in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, deserves the nod. The company has radically rethought the pizza delivery process to connect with what customers want (fast, hot, tasty). One if the biggest problems with that connection, they […]

Businessweek has an interesting update/overview on Clear Channel Communications, and the current effort of the media and entertainment mega-company to disassemble itself. The company has proposed spinning off its live entertainment division (which owns theaters, productions, agents, and such) into a separate corporation. Says the article: From the beginning, Wall Street never much liked the […]