In checking some broken weblinks from past posts, I stumbled onto the fact that the National Endowment for the Arts has a new website, and a new catchy slogan to go with it. Take a peek at the new site, which features the tagline: A Great Nation Deserves Great Art It’s an interesting return to […]

A recent survey by Encyclopaedia Britannica shows that Americans aren’t the only artistic illiterates (although we still do it with more flair). In the homeland of so much Western culture, the United Kingdom, the basic awareness of artists and art is just as grim. A few excerpts: Nearly half (49%) of those questioned were also […]

The boom of nonprofit arts organizations over the 80s and 90s had much to do with the economy, and with the rise of philanthropy, but also with the massive inflow of educated, passionate individuals into the workforce. As outlined in John Kreidler’s classic article on the dynamics of nonprofit arts in America Leverage Lost, these […]

Last week, I was attending one of my personal favorite conferences, Social Theory, Politics & the Arts, in Columbus, Ohio. It’s a favorite because of the funky mix of presentations you’ll find there (although decidedly less funky this time around)…from tatoo art as social identity to the sociology of public art in Berlin to cultural […]

The Sunday New York Times had this interesting article on the price of recorded music. It tracked the relative price of each new recording medium, from vinyl to eight-track to cassette to CD and now to the on-line world, noting that prices often doubled with the introduction of each new medium. The difference, of course, […]

An apology for missing a day or five in my posts. I’m still unbundling my brain after a really interesting weekend of deep thought (see my last post for details). Stay tuned for a full debriefing. In the meantime, to keep the links going, take a look at this interesting article in the Chicago Tribune, […]

I’ll be the first to admit that it’s easy to take potshots at an industry when you don’t take the next step and suggest alternatives. Weblogs in general, and this one as well, seem to be wonderful platforms for potshots, but often only sketchy at solutions. They are on-line rants, after all, intended to be […]

A recent article in the Washington Post explores the impact of short essays in standardized tests like state proficiency exams, the SAT, and the ACT. While concise writing is certainly an essential skill, the opening paragraph of the article shows the dark side of measures and incentives. Sara Stevens is a very bright high school […]

Hands down, one of the coolest things to happen to copyright in the past decade is the Creative Commons, a quick and simple way for content creators to share their creative works. Based on the premise that not all authors, artists, programmers, and other creative individuals want to lock-down what they create, the Creative Commons […]

So many national conferences of nonprofit cultural professionals are consumed with ‘attracting younger audiences’. From multimedia additions to symphonic performances, to ‘singles night’ activities, to superimposed trendy amenities on the same old visual art exhibitions, these responses so often seem to miss a more basic point. Younger audiences think with different brains, and from a […]