The Artful Manager

In response to my drone about Wal-Mart pricing yesterday, I was interested to hear of at least one bold experiment in traditional concert pricing. The folks at the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra are radically rethinking the price of their neighborhood concert series for the coming season, hoping to draw a new family crowd. Says this […]

I’ll admit to a strange fascination for how Wal-Mart does business. As one of the world’s largest companies (they added about 50 million square feet of store space around the world last year, opening 50 – 70 new stores a month), the company is a machine of terrifying efficiency. And their sales volume offers them […]

Just as I was getting used to edu-tainment (education that’s entertaining), eater-tainment (restaurants that sell themed experience), and enter-tailing (retailers with an experiential eye), along comes another contender for audience time and attention: agri-tainment. It’s a catch phrase for farms and other agricultural businesses that push tourist or attraction revenue to balance their books. According […]

A strange story out of Lodi, Wisconsin, raises a question of how flexible a nonprofit should be when faced with prospective donor demands. Such is the case of Raymond Brown and the Lodi Valley Historical Society, where $500,000 awaits the organization if they make one minor change…their entire board. From the AP Wire story: When […]

In many arts organizations, stress and exhaustion are worn like badges of honor…public evidence that you’re giving your all to the cause. Of course, the downside is that once you’ve given everything, the cause is out of luck. So, it’s great when individual organizations recognize the value of balancing stressors in the workplace where they […]

Fixed costs can the bane of the nonprofit arts organization’s existence. Overhead expenses like rent or facility heat/light/security chew away at the bottom line, and are often the most difficult to support with contributed income (who wants to donate to keep a light bulb glowing in the basement?). So, I’ve often wondered how lean and […]

Florida’s orchestral buffs are in a bunch about a rumored deal between the ever-under-construction Greater Miami Performing Arts Center and the Cleveland Orchestra. Rumor has it that, because South Florida lacks a resident symphony since theirs went belly up, the new PAC is planning to outsource that job to Cleveland. The deal might include an […]

Mobile communications have a strange way of connecting us and isolating us at the same time. We’re constantly in contact range of friends and co-workers thanks to mobile phones and wireless PDAs and such. And yet by using these devices, we detach from our immediate environment. A next generation of devices and services is working […]