National Arts Strategies has long been in the business of building capacity for arts organizations and cultural leaders. In the olden days, as the National Arts Stabilization Fund, the organization did so through rigorous financial goal-setting and incentives for entire communities of organizations. In its past decade, the organization has emphasized professional education through immersive […]
On profits, proliferation, and piracy
It’s a reasonable assumption that theft equals loss of income. After all, if somebody has stolen the thing you’re selling, why would they turn around a buy it? But there’s an increasingly contentious debate on that assumption, and its impact on physical products, digital content, and even scholarly work. Recent studies on Japanese anime DVDs, […]
The art of the (digital) interface
I’ve already admitted my fascination with data visualization in many prior blogs. The idea that we can find both insight and beauty in the way we present complex information seems to feed both sides of my ‘arts administration’ self. So this talk by interface and data visualization designer Aaron Koblin is a particularly abundant smorgasbord. […]
Parsing capital
One of the oddities of nonprofit accounting practice is the way it bundles all kinds of money into a single blob. Earned income, annual contributed income, and incoming capital money all show up in the Income Statement in a way that can cloud analysis of financial health, and distract us from a frank assessment of […]
Panera’s social venture
The Christian Science Monitor has an interesting story on Panera Bread’s initiative to create ‘pay what you can’ versions of their cafés that earn money and give back at the same time. The three ‘Panera Cares’ locations are a tiny fraction of the chain’s 1500 outlets, but they’re an intriguing experiment in community-focused pricing. When […]
Blogs upon blogs about business models
If you’re hankering for more insights and reflections on evolving business models for the arts, Americans for the Arts is hosting a blog-a-palooza on the subject this week. Their Private Sector blog features guest experts expounding on the benefits and limits of the nonprofit corporate form, and the alternatives that are brewing across the arts […]
The cloud knows what you like, and where you are
Google’s announcement of its Music Beta service adds yet another opportunity to push our social and cultural lives into the cloud. The system allows you to upload your music collection, liberating your hard drive or phone memory space currently cluttered by MP3 audio files, and making your music available anywhere through multiple devices. Google’s service […]
Wisconsin, unplugged
The State of Wisconsin’s Joint Finance Committee was likely the last best hope to defend funding and independent agency status for the Wisconsin Arts Board, which faces a 73 percent budget cut under Governor Walker’s budget proposal, and loss of independent agency status with a proposed move into the Tourism Board. But the committee voted […]
Open Source Ticketing, 1.0
Cool things are evolving at Fractured Atlas, as they announce version 1.0 of their open source ticketing and patron management software for independent artists and small arts organizations, ATHENA. The initiative is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and The Kresge Foundation, and informed by a community-driven design process. As one […]
Me on TV…okay, BigTen TV, but still
The University of Wisconsin-Madison produces a half-hour interview show on the BigTen Network exploring connections between academics and the larger world (and yes, Virginia, there are connections). They interviewed me last month and recently posted the program online. If reading my blather isn’t sufficient, you can now watch me blather about art and business, and […]
