Archives for 2009

The for-profit world used to complain that the nonprofit world (especially in the arts) needed to behave more like businesses. Now that nonprofits are suffering the same wrenching impacts as every other industry, the complaint is that we were behaving too much like businesses. The current such complaint relates to nonprofit use of debt. One […]

News from New England’s largest public charity suggests that the winds might be changing in how much, how often, and how critically organized philanthropy distributes their money. The Boston Foundation announced a new strategy for giving that involves giving larger grants to fewer organizations, over longer periods, and with fewer strings attached. Says foundation president […]

As I’ve mentioned, we’ve had choreographer and creative muse Elizabeth Streb in Madison for the past several days, for a series of public and university discussions about her work and its implications for creative entrepreneurs. I’ve long admired her ability to bring reflection, creative thought, and artistic intent to every aspect of her work — […]

Having great fun and deep conversations this week with Elizabeth Streb, who’s a guest speaker to my class and other public events in Madison. More thoughts to come to this blog, after I successfully get her on the plane home. In the meanwhile, I thought I’d share some of her ‘new rules of conduct’ she’s […]

If you happen to be in or near Madison, Wisconsin, this week, you should attend the public talk and discussion by Elizabeth Streb at Overture Center, Wednesday, September 23, 7:00 pm. I’ll be there (I’m one of the hosts, after all), and eager to hear more about her extraordinary and innovative work in rethinking the […]

Programmer and essayist Paul Graham offers a thoughtful rebuttal to any current publishers who think they are content providers. Says Graham: They’re not. Almost every form of publishing has been organized as if the medium was what they were selling, and the content was irrelevant. Book publishers, for example, set prices based on the cost […]

For the many of you out there that have expressed interest and excitement about the new UW-Madison course ‘Arts Enterprise: Art as Business as Art,’ we’ve now posted our very first podcast related to the course. In the eight-minute conversation, co-teacher Stephanie Jutt and I discuss the origins of the course, and its various goals […]

As I’ve worked and talked with arts professionals, funders, artists, and boards over the years, I’ve been continually struck by a nagging question: Why isn’t this work more fun? After all, many of these people are doing the very thing they longed to do — connecting audiences to art, creating or enabling new work, performing […]

Classes begin this week in the Wisconsin School of Business MBA program, and I’ve got a fresh batch of brilliant students straining at the gate. As such, I’ll be focusing on the tidal wave of planning, prep, logistics, and advising that accompanies the start of each school year, rather than posting to my blog. I’ll […]

Madison, Wisconsin, had a great public conversation with the Kennedy Center’s Michael Kaiser yesterday, who is less than halfway through his 50-state ‘Arts in Crisis’ tour to discuss arts leadership in tough times. I was fortunate to be the on-stage interviewer and facilitator, among the several hundred arts leaders from around the state gathered in […]