There was a strange consensus among the many arts professionals and keynote speakers at my recent alumni/student conference in Madison. The consensus surrounded this point: the nonprofit arts industry is overbuilt. Speakers pointed to the massive growth in the nonprofit arts over the past 30 years…due in part perhaps to the leveraging power of matching […]

The MBA degree program I direct recently held an alumni/student conference focusing on how we ‘value’ culture in the public realm…or how we attach value to creative expression and experience when confronted with the question: ‘why should you be supported as an industry, as an organization, as an endeavor, when there are so many other […]

I’m still recovering from our fabulous alumni/student conference here in Madison. There’s lots to talk about emerging from the event — from the extended discussions of ‘valuing culture’ to the common theme that the nonprofit arts are ‘overbuilt.’ But those will have to settle in my brain a bit before I explain…perhaps tomorrow. In the […]

I’ll be consumed today and this weekend with an alumni/student conference at the Center I direct. Called ‘What’s it Worth?’ the event will work to ‘honestly explore the value of arts and culture to people, places, and the public purpose.’ I’m hoping that ‘honestly’ will be the key word, since so many public discussions of […]

Berklee College of Music in Boston has set up a fabulous web site and public resource in BerkleeShares, a collection of free music lessons in MP3 audio, Quicktime video, or PDF printed form. Given its contemporary slant, Berklee’s lessons are connected to jazz, pop, and rock in performance, including lessons in music production and technology. […]

Chris Anderson of Wired magazine has a great piece on the new economics of entertainment, called ‘The Long Tail.’ In it, he explores the release of creative product from physical and local distribution models (movie theaters, record stores, and such), that tended to promote hits and blockbusters over breadth of content. Says Anderson: Hit-driven economics […]

This past Sunday New York Times Magazine was all about the perceived struggle between market mentality and bold art-making or meaningful cultural experience. Weaving through the mournful essay by James Traub about museum flash versus museum substance, and again through A.O. Scott’s essay about Miramax and its rogue leader Harvey Weinstein, and especially through the […]

One of my favorite public deceptions between businesses and consumers is any sign, placard, or web text that begins with the phrase: ‘To serve you better…’ Almost every time, the phrase is followed by an action that doesn’t serve you better, at all, and in fact serves the organization that made the sign: To serve […]

Anthony Tommasini offered a paragraph in last Sunday’s New York Times that’s well worth a moment’s pause. Embedded within an article he wrote about the backstory on pianist Leon Fleisher’s recording, Two Hands, the paragraph said: The success of the CD, which quickly hit the top 10 of Billboard’s classical chart, should offer the reeling […]

For those interested in the innards of major social trends, MIT’s Technology Review has a few great links. First up is this nice info-graphic animation about what’s inside an iPod. Basically little hard drives with a few microprocessors, the iPod and its digital brethren are fascinating extensions of the personal computer and the Walkman, with […]