Great (albeit harsh) thoughts from Adrian Ellis on the present and future state of museums in this economy. He posits that business of museums internationally has been shaped and hewn in service to the ultra-rich, leaving the institutions particularly vulnerable to the whims and toils of that constituency. Says Adrian: These institutions have been significant […]
Is a conservatory a professional school?
The Chicago Tribune tells us that, in this time of economic uncertainty and job-market transformation, there’s one area of higher education that’s booming more than others: Applications are soaring at music schools across the country, often mirroring the overall rise in college enrollment but in many cases surpassing the interest in other disciplines. Never mind […]
Somewhere between profit and nonprofit
Blogger Joe Patti brought to my attention a new corporate form, born last year in Vermont, that seeks to increase the organizational options for socially focused enterprise. The Low-Profit Limilted Liability Company (aka, the L3C) works to balance the nimbleness and clarity of a small business with the alternate income and capital opportunities of a […]
The impact of social media on social interaction
Interesting notes from social media researcher danah boyd (she seems to prefer lower case letters) from her presentation to Microsoft researchers last month. While many businesses in the arts and elsewhere are seeking tactics and strategies for using social media, Ms. Boyd is exploring the intersection of these technologies with the core dynamics of human […]
Art as collateral
The Met Opera’s recent admission that their famed Chagall murals are now providing collateral against existing debt raises anew a fundamental business question: is art an asset for a cultural institution? An asset, as you likely know, is any item of economic value owned by an individual or corporation, especially one that could be converted […]
Stimulus for the brain and the bottom line
Two arts resource initiatives worth noting this morning. One seeks to restore and sustain the arts workforce (at least among former NEA grantees). The other seeks to support and engage brain cells for the bumpy road ahead. First, the stimulus money flowing to and through the National Endowment for the Arts now has an application […]
One remarkable ”Sistema”…
If you don’t yet know about El Sistema, Venezuela’s extraordinary and wide-reaching music program, you really need to take a moment to learn. The 30-plus-year effort to engage young people — especially those at risk — in choral or instrumental performance opportunities has truly transformed the country, its youth, and the role of music in […]
What can we learn from the ‘netbook’?
While this is NOT a blog about technology (even though I tend to obsess on the subject), there seem to be kernals of learning in the emerging story of the netbook — those mini-laptop Internet appliances that are storming the market. Wired has a good story on where they came from and how they’re setting […]
The dark side of participation
Arts advocates and funders have been avoiding the word ‘attendance’ for the past few years, and encouraging the word ‘participation’ as the better descriptor for the culturally engaged. Attendance is passive and unidirectional, the thinking goes. Participation describes a wider range of involvement with and in the arts. But advocates for that particular word might […]
Shrubs and social systems
If you’re a systems wonk, or a lover of ecosystem/social system metaphors, give a listen to this recent lecture by Dr. Brian Walker on resilience and complex systems. He’s the co-author of the book I’m reading at the moment, Resilience Thinking (which I blogged about last month). And he offers some intriguing insights on what […]
