Archives for 2005

Lots of news sources are following the second fall from grace of mega-patron Alberto Vilar, who was arrested at the airport last Thursday for fraud. Said the New York Times: But it all came crashing down Thursday. That night, Mr. Vilar, 64, flew to Newark Liberty International Airport from Las Vegas, where he spoke at […]

Justin Davidson of Newsday has a two-part exploration of the production and distribution shifts in the American arts system. The first article discusses the advancement of do-it-yourself productions by artists, often called ‘vanity projects,’ which attempt an end-run around the traditional gatekeepers of culture. The second piece wonders, in this increasingly decentralized world, who decides […]

I’ve now posted the Rotary speech I gave yesterday in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. It was an attempt to distill and discuss (in 20 minutes) the challenge of valuing culture in communities to an audience that hadn’t been part of the academic or advocacy conversation. Avid readers will recognize the opening joke, which I also used in […]

I’m on the road today to speak to the Rotary in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. The topic is ‘exploring the true benefit of culture to communities,’ and the purpose is to take my arguments out for a public spin, and to stay connected as a university employee. Should be fun. If the speech works out, I’ll post […]

A great interview on Smart City (a radio program out of Memphis) features Paul Schoemaker, co-author of the book Winning Decisions: Getting It Right the First Time. Schoemaker teaches and consults on issues of decision-making strategy, and on developing organizations that learn. His perspective on why we so often make bad decisions: …people don’t spend […]

Cultural productions of all kinds have a rather brutal financial model: there’s a lot of investment of time, money, and energy up front (what economists call ‘sunk’ costs, because they can’t be recovered once expensed), and a huge risk of not paying back those costs in either earned or contributed revenue once the production is […]

Great stuff from Clara Miller (again) on the particular peculiarities of the nonprofit business model, and the underlying dynamics that make our work so difficult. Her piece in The Nonprofit Quarterly on ”The Looking-Glass World of Nonprofit Money: Managing in For-Profits’ Shadow Universe” will baffle most for-profit managers, and surprise many nonprofit leaders, as well. […]

There were some reactions of shock and awe last week as the Milwaukee Public Museum made public its deep deficit, and the draconian cuts and mission-shifting it was making to get out of the hole. The organization is now planning to cut 45 percent (or more) of its payroll, and transition from a research-focused natural […]

One of the baffling qualities of digital media is its liquidity. Once something is encoded in binary code, we have endlessly interesting access to not just single creative works, but multiple works and even databases, along with the ability to search and see the parts and the whole in wonderful and new ways. A new […]