A great piece by Malcolm Gladwell on the astoundingly successful Saddleback Church suggests that connection and commitment are not products of individual affiliation to a large organization, but of interaction with a small group. Says Gladwell: Membership in a small group is a better predictor of whether people volunteer or give money than how often […]
Archives for January 2006
Mergers and inquisitions
There were some rich and juicy comments to my post of last week on ”Ecological mission vs. insular alliance.” Thanks to all who contributed (and can still contribute) to the conversation. From the comments, and from other e-mail I received, it seemed that many interpreted my suggestion for ”softer boundaries” between arts organizations within a […]
Behind the scenes
I just posted a reprint (with permission, of course) of a Q & A on my weblog work written by a current student at the Drexel University arts administration program. I figured some would be interested in the ‘behind the scenes’ view of how this weblog started and why I do it. If you’re not […]
Interview for Artsline
A Q&A I did for Artsline, the newsletter of the graduate Arts Administration program at Drexel University. Reprinted with permission.
Curating your own life soundtrack
Jeffrey Zaslow has a cute piece in the Wall Street Journal about creating a more intentional soundtrack to his daily activities through his iPod. Like a good journalist, he asks some experts on the subject of soundtracks for advice and insight — a film director, a television series creator, a major studio executive. The process […]
Ecological mission vs. insular alliance
There’s a common theme that pops up in almost every conversation I have with funders, practitioners, and academics about the future of cultural enterprise. Here’s the motif: our mission statements and aspirations are ecological in scope, but our alliances and energies are locked to the particular channel we’ve chosen to serve. For example, a symphony’s […]
Critical uncertainties
I’m finally back from a week in New York, attending more conferences, meetings, and receptions than I would care to count. Lots to spin out and explore in the coming blogs about all I discovered and discussed along the way. A large bulk of my visit (two full days) was spent at the Music & […]
Face-time in NYC
Posts were a bit thin this week as I traveled to Manhattan (where I am right now) to engage the arts world in real time (or to put in some “face time,” as the corporate world might say). Many really cool discussions going on here, on music and media, and on the challenges and opportunities […]
500 Posts
Today appears to be my 500th post to The Artful Manager, which is a bit of a shock. I hope a reasonable percentage of those 500 have been useful and engaging. And I hope there are many more to come. As a group celebration of the milestone, let’s all browse the archives!
Finding new ways to find things
There’s a wonderful but still experimental image search engine called retrievr (read about it here, try it here) worth some attention. The search engine allows visitors to draw a rudimentary sketch, and to quickly find images from the flickr photo sharing web site that match. It’s not an exact science, which is what makes it […]