Regional and metropolitan performing arts centers and touring houses may have yet one more thing to worry about in their eroding business models — the aggressive entry of Las Vegas into their world. The New York Times covered the trend yesterday (login required, try BugMeNot if you don’t have an Times account). But the issue […]
A portrait of the visual arts
RAND has a new report out on the structure and dynamics of the visual arts — a sister work to their 2001 exploration of the performing arts and their 2002 treatise on the media arts. All three are available for purchase or free download from the RAND web site. Like the previous works, A Portrait […]
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t
The issue of ticket pricing is never far from the surface when we talk of the plight of professional nonprofit culture. One camp claims that prices are too high (also see Drew McManus’ discussion here)…driving away all but the most committed attendees. Another camp claims that prices are too low (an old article, I know), […]
Alternate measures
I’m still reconstructing my keynote from the Arts Alive conference in New Jersey. I was inspired to rewrite the whole darn thing just hours before, so I have to rework my original draft. My thanks to the organizers for inviting me. And stay tuned for a posted version of my comments. In the meanwhile, I […]
Remembering how to tell good stories
The opening keynote of the New Jersey conference I’m attending was Andy Goodman, a communications consultant to nonprofit organizations with a previous life as a television scriptwriter and radio syndicator. Goodman reminded us of the power and humanity of storytelling when communicating a nonprofit’s message, and he showed painfully familiar examples of how far many […]
Exit 9, if you must know
I’m in New Brunswick, New Jersey, today and tomorrow for the New Jersey Theatre Alliance conference: Arts Alive! Staying ahead of the curve. I speak at the end of the event tomorrow afternoon, so today I’ll just be lurking and listening. In fact, I’m off to do so right now. More details tomorrow.
Sneaky, sneaky
My weblog neighbor, Drew McManus, has been slogging through orchestra web sites for his second annual Orchestra Website Review, which this year ranks 80 websites of professional orchestras based on his detailed criteria. This year, he decided to teach an important lesson to symphony marketing departments about the on-line world, specifically, the importance of grabbing […]
Now the entrepreneur comes in ”mini”
Trendwatching.com has a feature on the emergence of the ”minipreneur,” defined as: …a vast army of consumers turning entrepreneurs; including small and micro businesses, freelancers, side-businesses, weekend entrepreneurs, web-driven entrepreneurs, part-timers, free agents, cottage businesses, seniorpreneurs, co-creators, mompreneurs, pro-ams, solopreneurs, eBay traders, advertising-sponsored bloggers and so on. Evidence includes the 724,000 Americans who claim eBay […]
Exploring the ”common” wealth
The folks over at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst have an interesting forum topic coming this academic year: The Forum on Social Wealth (thanks to OnTheCommons.org for the link). The program overview states the problem rather well: Our common wealth is endangered. The natural wealth of our ecosystem, the social wealth of our families […]
The problem is postponed, but the debate continues
September 6 was supposed to be the day the U.S. Senate voted on permanently repealing the estate tax — that percentage the federal government takes when folks pass away and pass along more than $1.5 million in assets to their young’ens. The permanent repeal seemed on track until the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, which many […]
