Lewis Segal at the LA Times is fed up with ballet, and isn’t afraid to say why in his recent opinion column. Most ballet is every bit as bad as audiences secretly suspect — and it’s not going to improve until companies stop conning or shaming us into accepting damaged goods. In the meantime, guilt-free […]
Archives for 2006
Of death and dying
There have been lots of productive comments to my Wednesday post about euthanizing arts organizations. Nothing like a controversial metaphor to spark a conversation. In my opinion, euthanasia is likely the wrong metaphor and approach to address the issue of sick arts institutions, or a supply-heavy industry facing declining revenue on many fronts. The term […]
Thinning the nonprofit arts herd
Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF) Executive Director Anthony Radich makes some rather bold statements in a weblog conversation by the Hessenius group (scroll about halfway down the page). In his opinion, the volume of arts production has grown beyond sustainability in many communities, and the oversupply is killing vitality and connection between arts and audience. […]
What makes a museum?
NPR had a story last week about museum collections on-line (both professional and avocational). Central to the story was MoOM, the Museum of On-line Museums, which gathers links to favored sites (from the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam to a collection of whistling records). The story explored whether any curated, on-line aggregation of content is worthy of the […]
Act like a business? Why aim so low?
I wrote this opinion piece for the July/August 2006 issue of Inside Arts, the magazine of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters. I reprint it here with my permission.
Off again
A cluttered schedule and myriad deadlines will keep me away from my weblogging this week. See you all again on July 31.
The longer narrative on the ”long tail”
I posted back in 2004 about the idea of ”the long tail,” advanced by Wired magazine’s Chris Anderson. The gist of his theory was that emerging (primarily Internet) distribution models were dramatically altering the revenue potential of non-blockbuster material. In other words, while space-limited retailers like Walmart and Best Buy had to focus on selling […]
Escaping Atlanta
A featured link in ArtsJournal describes the exodus of the Atlanta Opera from its performance home downtown to a new facility in the suburbs next year. Says the article: The move is historic: It marks the first time a major-city opera company will leave its established location within a city and move all its performances […]
The Artful Manager turns three
Hard to believe that it was three years ago today that I launched this weblog with its first missive, and its statement of purpose. I’m astonished at the wealth of new friends and colleagues I’ve connected with, and the spectrum of wonderful thinking and resources I’ve discovered along the way. Thanks to all who make […]
Striving for clarity, watching for jargon
"Have something to say and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret of style." Matthew Arnold British poet and critic, 1822 – 1888 That wonderful quote launches ”When Words Fail,” the most recent of Tony Proscio’s three diatribes against the jargon of public purpose, and the vague and cluttered language […]