I’m writing in a different part of the blogosphere this week, as part of a group discussion hosted by Barry Hessenius. The topic at hand is the impact and response to the current stress on philanthropic dollars, in the wake of Katrina, Rita, and Pakistan, and on the heels of a down economy that had […]
Archives for 2005
Flat or spiky?…it matters to place-based culture
There are interesting conversations bubbling about the contrary positions of New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and Rise of the Creative Class author Richard Florida (Wired magazine’s Chris Anderson weighs in on the debate, as well). Friedman’s book, The World is Flat, suggests that technology, transportation, and travel are increasingly ”flattening” the world, diminishing the […]
Filling in what we lack vs. building on what we have
Tom Borrup discusses asset-based community development and works to connect that way of thinking to the arts and culture world. In a nutshell, an asset-based approach seeks to discover and connect what a community has to work with — people, money, facilities, social networks, etc. — rather than working to import or create what it […]
My keynote on measuring value
I finally got around to reconstructing my speech to the New Jersey Theatre Alliance conference on September 23. It’s available in web and PDF format in the Thoughtbucket section of this weblog. Comments, criticisms, and large wads of unmarked cash are welcome. If you’re an impatient sort, here’s the gist of it: ….such is the […]
Measuring Value
A keynote speech to the New Jersey Theatre Alliance ”Arts Alive” conference. September 23, 2005.
Seeing the connections
A fascinating project from graduate students at Stanford, MIT, and CalTech, and a senior research scientist at Yahoo! (described here and available in greater detail here) seeks to make visual the interconnections of 10,000 music artists as perceived by their audience. Based on user ratings and preferences from 150,000 Yahoo! Music LAUNCHcast members, the project […]
On the power of design and art
Great thoughts and comments in Carol Coletta’s ”Smart City” radio program, as she interviews Jennie Winhall of the UK’s Design Council and Williams College economist Stephen Sheppard (you can hear the program here). Winhall works for a special division of the Design Council called RED, which strives to apply design and process analysis to complex […]
With Broadway in Vegas, the house may win again
Regional and metropolitan performing arts centers and touring houses may have yet one more thing to worry about in their eroding business models — the aggressive entry of Las Vegas into their world. The New York Times covered the trend yesterday (login required, try BugMeNot if you don’t have an Times account). But the issue […]
A portrait of the visual arts
RAND has a new report out on the structure and dynamics of the visual arts — a sister work to their 2001 exploration of the performing arts and their 2002 treatise on the media arts. All three are available for purchase or free download from the RAND web site. Like the previous works, A Portrait […]
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t
The issue of ticket pricing is never far from the surface when we talk of the plight of professional nonprofit culture. One camp claims that prices are too high (also see Drew McManus’ discussion here)…driving away all but the most committed attendees. Another camp claims that prices are too low (an old article, I know), […]
